Malcolm Young

Malcolm Mitchell Young (born January 6, 1953 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a founding member and rhythm guitarist for the Australian hard rock band AC/DC.

Malcolm John Young (born October 26, 1976 in Brighton, England) plays keyboards in Lucky Soul, produces electronic music as Citizen 020 and previously played guitar in Lenny, Foil.

Before AC/DC

Influenced by 1950s rock and roll, and blues based rock guitarists of the 1960s and 1970s, he is regarded as a leading rock exponent of rhythm guitar. His economic playing, his ‘groove’ and his riff-based compositions have been highly influential on subsequent hard rock and heavy metal music acts.

Malcolm Young picked up the guitar while he was still in school. He graduated quickly from acoustic to electric and picked up tips from his older brother George whenever The Easybeats returned from a tour. Malcolm left school as soon as he could and found gainful employment. He worked as a machine maintenance engineer for a bra company. Malcolm and Angus founded AC/DC in 1973. Malcolm was 20 and Angus was 18.

Malcolm married O’Linda early on in his carreer and lives most of the year in the U.K. returning to his East Balmain, Sydney home “Oncaparinga” nearly every Christmas. He is a devoted father of a daughter and son.


Equipment

Malcolm plays a Gretsch Jet Firebird guitar with the neck and middle pickups removed and socks placed in the pickup cavities to stop them from feeding back. His Gretsch was originally red, but when he took the middle and neck pickups out he stripped the paint. The guitar has had three or four different bridges on it. To this day he still plays it. For amplification he uses a Marshall stack.