Legendary rock band AC/DC 'to retire'

The highway to hell could be coming to an end for veteran hard rock and blues pioneers AC/DC.

By Dave Lancaster |

15:30 15 April 2014

A Perth radio station is said to be sitting on an exclusive that longstanding rock and rollers AC/DC are set to retire. 

 

6PR Radio was contacted by a source on "very good authority that one of the band members is quite ill and has returned to Australia with his family. AC/DC members have previously made a pact that no band members will be replaced should someone need to leave the band".

 

AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson was quoted earlier in the year telling a Florida radio station: "We’ve been denying anything, ‘cause we weren’t sure. One of our boys was pretty ill, so we didn’t like to say anything, and we’re very private about things like this, so we didn’t wanna say anything.

 

"And he’s a very proud man. But I think we’ll be going into the studio in May in Vancouver. Which means, we should be getting ready.

 

"It’s been 40 years of the band’s existence, so I think we’re gonna try to do 40 gigs, 40 shows, to thank the fans for their undying loyalty.

 

"I mean, honestly, our fans are just the best in the world, and we appreciate every one of them. So, like I said, we’ll have to go out, even though we’re getting a bit long in the tooth."

 

So it could be that the boys are recording a final hurrah before retiring from the road. 

 

The band remains one of the world's most popular: their 1980 album Back in Black (their seventh) sold 22 million copies in the US alone. Well into this millennium they raked in the second highest grossing tour in history when the Black Ice album tour between 2008 and 2010 brought in $441.6m (£264.1m).

 

For those possibly about to retire, we salute you.