According to drum legend Chris Slade, AC/DC was actually Malcolm Young’s band as he was making some of the most important decisions.
Although not a member of the band’s classic lineup, Slade plays a very important role in the band’s history. The only album he recorded with AC/DC was the “Razor’s Edge” from 1990 but he was also present in the lineup back in 2015 and 2016 when the band played with Axl Rose as the frontman.
One of the things he took from his time in AC/DC is that rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young was the main guy here. In fact, while speaking to Igor Miranda in a recent interview, he outright called him a genius.
“I’ll tell you who was a genius — Malcolm Young,” Chris Slade commented. “He was the best rhythm player I have ever heard, or probably will ever hear, in my life.”
“He was always on time. He was always driving forward. He was a rhythm section on his own, without bass and drums. Obviously, he’s sadly missed.”
Although Angus Young and Brian Johnson take the spotlight at every live show and in pretty much every song, Slade is adamant that AC/DC was Malcolm’s band.
“And it was his band,” the drum legend continued. “It wasn’t Angus or Brian. It was Malcolm’s band. And he did everything — made decisions about visual direction, and songs, and lyrics, I’m sure.”
“Although they co-wrote, Angus and Mal. And they [were] so well, those two guitars together. It’s so hard to do that and do it as well as they did it.”
“So Malcolm, I consider a genius,” he added. “A real genius. Like, in other words, unique in his field of rhythm guitarists, and probably songwriters, too. Because they wrote some great songs.”
Going more into his stint as a drummer for AC/DC, Chris was asked about the “Razor’s Edge” album and what really makes it stand out in the band’s discography. He replied:
“Well, I’m told by many, many people, and I agree, ‘Thunderstruck’ being on that album was tremendous. Because it’s an amazing song. It’s got everything. It’s got a chant, it’s got a hook, it’s got everything going about it. A great, great guitar line running through it. It’s just tremendous.”
“If you are gonna write an iconic song, you start there. Because it’s such a great song.”
“I didn’t recognize it as such when we did it, because it wasn’t finished yet,” Chris admitted. “The band had played it all together in the same room. Even Brian was in there singing.”
And we must have done it dozens of times during the day, or over three days, maybe, until they decided which take was the best.”
“And that’s the way they worked. They listened to every take that the band did and said, ‘No, we don’t like that one. We like that one.'”
“I didn’t see it myself, I don’t think they saw it themselves. But when it came out, it was just massive. Of course, we all know that now. But it wasn’t obvious to me when we recorded it.”
