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NYT Syndicate
Malcolm Young, the guitarist and songwriter who was a founder of the Australian rock band AC/DC, died on Saturday. He was 64.
His family confirmed the death in a statement, adding that Young had dementia for several years. It was not immediately clear where he died.
Young and his brother Angus created AC/DC and played their debut show at a Sydney, Australia, club on New Year's Eve in 1973.
The group, known for its power-chord riffs, earsplitting vocals and raucous energy found enduring popularity and great commercial success, despite waiting until 2012 to release its music catalogue to iTunes.
"You need to entertain" during a live performance, Malcolm Young said in an interview posted on YouTube, so the audience always knows that"something's going to happen on that stage tonight."
The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
"AC/DC's music and approach had a worn-in, scruffy vibe that stood in stark contrast to the pretentiousness suffusing much rock music at the time," the Hall of Fame website said.
AC/DC has sold more than 72 million albums in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. In 2016, the band was still packing arenas full of fans for the 'Rock or Bust' world tour, and belting out hits like Hells Bells and Highway to Hell. Angus Young was the only original member of AC/DC still performing that year.
Malcolm Young's last performance with the band was in 2010 in Bilbao, Spain. At the time he was having cognitive problems but decided to keep performing during the tour, oftentimes having to relearn guitar parts that he had written, Rolling Stone reported. Young's nephew, Stevie Young, replaced his uncle in 2014.
In the 1980s, Malcolm Young struggled with alcoholism, and his nephew stepped in to substitute for him while he addressed his drinking problem."I wasn't brain dead, but I was just physically and mentally screwed by the alcohol," Young said in an interview posted on YouTube.
The band won its first Grammy in 2010, when it won for best hard rock performance for the song War Machine. Its influential album 'Back In Black' was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013.
Malcolm Young was born on January 6, 1953, in Glasgow, Scotland. His parents later emigrated to Sydney, Australia.
His survivors include his wife, O'Linda; two children, Cara and Ross; Angus Young, and a sister; and three grandchildren, according to a statement on the band's website. Young's brother George, one of the band's producers and songwriters, died last month.
