 those kind of you know that kind of stuff that that no one could do aha cool stuff yeah all right here it is a flashback episode number three of let there be talk and today we continue the ac dc theme going back to october 22nd 2020 many years ago i sat down with the very very low key and amazing bass player mr cliff williams who recently retired from ac dc he will not be touring anymore but i uh wanted to say thank you to cliff williams you know i think most people were more concerned who the new bass player was and not concerned with cliff williams being gone which i thought was an absolute travesty i think that most people don't know who cliff williams is that listened to shook me all night long or whatever but to me cliff williams was the heart and soul of the rhythm back there with fill rod and a huge huge factor in ac dc success being a team player which is very hard to find somebody that looks great kept himself fit no drama no drug overdoses nothing just sat back there laid down the four string groove uh ever since 1970 he joined right after the let there be rock record he played on some of the most iconic ac dc records ever including power age which most people consider ac dc's best record that was his first record that he recorded joining the band i saw cliff williams 1978 and i loved him ever since his look and vibe is insane the way him and malcom would walk up to the mic perfectly in sync lay down those background vocals he sat back there with those amps on 110db and those cannons blasting over his head and you know i gotta say it right now i salute you mr cliff williams you are one of the greats one of the most underrated soldiers of rock and uh i thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of one of the greatest bands of all time and enjoy your retirement that is something 99.9 percent of musicians do not do they do not retire so mad respect to you wherever you're at enjoy your life man and i hope i get to uh run into you one day and meet you in person again so here it is sit back everybody and enjoy uh flashback left there be talk number three and everybody show your love for the great cliff williams have a great weekend everybody subscribe to the podcast on youtube and leave a review on itunes and come see me this weekend at uh the comedy fort in fort collins colorado or next weekend at acme comedy co and minneapolis or the following weekend in st louis i'm out there i'm touring i love all you guys candles are lit all right here it is thursday october 22nd and i'm continuing on with my ac dc week that is right it is another fantastic member of the band mr cliff williams i've been wanting to talk to this man for many many years and i will tell you something right now when you look at a fantastic rock and roll band there is one thing that takes that band to the next level and that is definitely chemistry and by the time cliff williams gets into ac dc for the let the be rock tour the chemistry that starts to happen between these five men is so monumental and unbelievable and carried on to all the way to right now all these years later that has been the uh the secret of ac dc chemistry and of course incredible songs a kickass logo an insane live show it's it's numerous things but the first thing the first thing the nucleus of a crushing rock band is chemistry everyone i've ever interviewed on here always says the same thing such and such came in the group such and such happened and then boom chemistry magic and you cannot explain the magic around ac dc i was talking to my buddy billy row today and you just cannot explain it it was just meant to be and it will probably a hundred percent never happen again in this way and one of the key ingredients is the rhythm section of ac dc Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams and Malcolm the three back there just laying down the foundation for bond or brian and angus to just completely ignite it is it is an honor to have this man on and you know how i love to have the members of the bands on the show that don't get interviewed that often i find these people completely interesting and and just as important as the star front man or the star lead player i've had numerous drummers on over the years and numerous bass players and i love getting into their heads and finding out what that was all about you know how they got into it before i bring cliff on i want to say this and it is very very important for me to say i want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone the thousands of people that reached out to me on instagram email uh twitter everything and said that this was a fantastic brian johnson and in angus young interview you know the internet can be a brutal brutal place it is a cesspool of garbage out there a lot of times and it is a real strange world of trolling and i was talking to my buddy j over at columbia records and we were both very very uh happy to see that there was nothing nothing but positive comments on the youtube episode it's it's very rare to see that and it felt it felt so good because let me tell you not only did i want the band to enjoy the interview and myself but i wanted all the super fans out there like myself to be like shit this is great i didn't want to let you guys down the fans and i'm not trying to be corny i'm just saying i know what this band means to you because that's what it means to me and i didn't want to let anyone down like oh man well you're fucking the interview man what the fuck so i just want to say thank you to all of you all of the new uh fans that are listening to this and all of the old school del razors that have been with me for the last nine years and uh thank you thank you so much real quick power up comes out november 13th on columbia records and i cannot wait for you guys to hear this it is an unreal record i've set up before and i'll say it again also real quick i'm doing some stand-up comedy this weekend if you are in san diego and if you are new here i am a comedian for the last 10 years i've done almost 5 000 shows and since covid hit i have not worked in seven months except for maybe about five or six shows so i am finally slowly trying to get back into the grind and i will be out in san diego this weekend with my good friend ian edwards and we are at the grand comedy club two shows each night seven p.m and nine p.m and go to grand comedy club dot com and get your tickets escondido california which is in the san diego area looking forward to seeing you guys out there also if you are a musician or an athlete or just a couch potato and you've got some joint ache some aches and pains maybe a little anxiety from the covid all of that stuff my sponsor today is cbd lime and i've been using this stuff for about a year and it helps me with everything my neck aches my uh my knee aches my anxiety my lack of uh able to sleep all of that stuff cbd lime 100 pure clean cbd none of that truck stop garbage this is family owned super clean amazing cbd use the code dean at checkout it's cbdlion.com use the code dean at checkout all your favorite cbd items like tinctures hemp flower topical lotions that's what i use the gummies they even have stuff for your pet if you got the lunatic pet that's always barking or maybe you got a pet that has some old arthritis or whatever get them some cbdlion use the code dean it's going to get you 20% off do not sleep they even got bath bombs all right here we go man this is this was a an honor to talk to him mr quiff williams it was just what we cover it all man this guy has been playing the four strings for almost his entire life let's keep the candles lit and uh don't forget to subscribe to the youtube channel or leave a review on itunes trying to get to 2000 reviews here we go mr cliff williams oh man here we are continuing the ac dc week on my podcast let me talk fantastic guests mr cliff williams how are you buddy doing great thank you doing great yeah yeah i'm just uh waiting for all this stuff to get behind us so we can get on with our lives you know but hey where are you in um north carolina or something yeah i'm in up in the mountains of north carolina wow now you live you live in florida and north carolina yeah i kind of split the time yeah that's cool i'm waiting for it to cool down down there and i'll go down there when it's getting very cold up here so snowbird style exactly i've been uh i've been dying to talk to you for years because i i'm a huge ac dc fan of course but i also just have been fascinated about all things cliff williams and phil rudd for years one of the greatest rhythm combos in the entire history of rock man we'll say very much and it was really uh it's really wild because uh i wanted to talk to you a little bit about before your ac dc ride uh you were out there playing bass uh in numerous bands and then you joined a band called home and uh and and that get a record deal and and that's riding for a while right that that's uh yeah that was um myself and uh lorry wisefield a guitar player uh who ended up in wishbone as a couple of other mick cook and mick snubs who unfortunately are no longer with us but uh we put that together around about 69 70 i got a deal with cbs records we had three hours we had four we recorded four three escapes but the the last one didn't uh and the band broke up after that about 73 someone like about 74 and you guys open for like zeppelin in the faces and stuff right yeah uh we did the zeppelin gig was interesting on the bill was stoner crows as well uh who were a great band of their day faces were fantastic we played a show with them in berlin and that was before the war came there that was a hundred mile corridor you drive through it it was thick snow and we were all in that we had a transit band two transit bands one for gear and one for us the gear transit band went off the road lost all the equipment we made it to the gig and the faces said use our gear i mean thank you very much guys that was awesome wow wow i mean there's there's some epic bands to be out playing with like the faces and zeppelin what was the zeppelin era was the first record or the second well it was let's see it would have been and i think it might have been the first one i'm not too sure now well yeah yeah man that's i mean that's that's that's a brutal a brutal band right there and i open for right they just come out take no prisoners yeah yeah they were they were pretty amazing in the day now who was it for you that got you into the base uh was it the Beatles were you watching stuff on tv how do you get in there i got into yeah obviously the Beatles were and the Stones and the kinks and all that you know in the early 60s got my attention but um i i mentioned this the other day to an uh in an interview was like when i was really little i hadn't started playing here i was probably 12 or so when i was walking past uh it would have been like a youth club or something like that and there was music playing it was in the afternoon uh and there was it was like stacks and tamlo motown stuff coming out of there and of course bass you know sticks right out and goes through walls and stuff like that and it stopped me in my tracks i was literally outside the building just listening to the bass lines it was probably james james or someone you know i really got my attention so uh i kind of i guess i put the seed in me did you start uh by playing uh with fingers or were you always a pick guy uh god i think i don't think i knew what a pick was in those days i was i started on six string my my my folks who got me an acoustic guitar and then this uh this band a school band they had two guitars drums singing i needed a bass player so god bless and my folks got me this bass i think it was fingers to start with i mean uh because your style is so distinctive in acdc with the picking acdc always had that kind of bass rolling bass thing going you know yeah and the pick gives gives me a lot of attack it can be keep it tight so let's just get it punchy fingers when you get sort of loose now when you're when you're playing acdc songs i know because once a year i do a tribute to bond scott and we uh we do all these songs are you palm muting slightly on a lot of that stuff in the back of the bridge or are you just hitting it straight on when it's needed you know like just the just here you know if you just got to keep keep it contained so i i do that yeah you know why i ask is because when guys come down i do it with a lot of uh celebrity musicians when they come down at first when they're playing it they'll just be like and it's like and i'm like no no there's there's a there's a slight mute in there you know like and then they get it but when they first come in they're just playing you know straight ahead bass it's funny with acdc like people think i got this and then they go to do it and they go what are these guys doing it's a it's a real thing you get you know we've been doing it so damn long now you know so it's just second nature so after home breaks up your um basically you're thinking of retiring from bass in my in my right and then you get a call to check it out uh i got together with a couple of players um and we had a group called bandit for a short time i did one album we did one album together the band went on after i left i've had a couple of interesting people in uh jim diamond who is no longer with us unfortunately a scottish singer uh and jimmy lutherland lutherland was in uh coliseum in the sixties great guitar player grand broad who's been with Roger waters now for many years uh and we we had that little noise for a while when i got out and i was kind of like thinking no this is yeah banging on the door for 10 years now maybe maybe this is it and then i got a call from jimmy lutherland actually saying he got word through i think it was muff winwood uh the the boys were over looking for a bass player and uh i guess my name got thrown in the pot do you know how they uh heard about you did they did they know about your work with home or something i don't think that i don't know you know it's just interesting it's been 40 plus years and i never asked them that how the hell did you come up with money yeah i always wonder that i mean to me the acdc auditions are so um monumental and nobody talks about them like i was i had a long conversation yesterday about who else did acdc look at before brian uh you know what i'm saying it's like there had to be other guys in there and that's how i felt with uh when you came in on bass were there other guys uh you know what was the audition process like did you fly over to australia is that how this happened no the guys were in london uh i think you know with greatest respect to all osi bass players that the boys know knew the pool of players to draw from there and i think they wanted to uh to just expand that and come over to england and look at some some different bass players so uh i think they looked at a bunch like a bunch uh so um i i went to play with them i think four or five times you know uh when you went in was it did you learn acdc songs or how many songs did you play when you're in there was there like a couple songs each time yeah um what the first time around um i'd seen them on a tv show in england some i can't remember the top of the pop store it wouldn't have been that because they weren't a big success at some tv show anyway and it you know it's like they looked like they're having a lot of fun right there you know so so i knew of them like that i'd not really heard anything any other music so i just want to went down and you know i didn't um play it uh and then the manager gave me a bunch of lps to take home and they were you know the big uh to take home and listen to which i did obviously and came back for a second go around uh having a bit more ammunition knowing a bit more of the style and the songs and so that's that's amazing so four or five times are you going crazy like what's going on here you got to be like hey dude i think i nailed it on the third audition let's go yeah yeah what what were your first impressions of bond when you got in there was he uh like a great dude or was he uh what kind of guy was he kind of it was first go right it was kind of quiet uh and you know because they didn't know me i didn't know them you know but they were very friendly now was super friendly and open fill was they were all friendly you know they were all friendly but you know it takes a while to relax and all that good stuff so but they were very open because they were great do you remember if you uh what bass and did they have a rig there for you did you bring your rig was it like a fender and a there was an ant there i just came with my with my base of the time i noticed that over the period of acdc you've played a a bunch of different bases you're playing a jazz bass for a while then your p bass for a while and then the music man stuff uh what what was really your main bass back then did you just have one the p bass was pretty much i played that i had the jazz bass for a little while it was an old beat i think it was great but it was real thin it's a jazz bass you know so um i see what else i try to i tried some others i try to thunderbird one time for a little while oh yeah on the back and black photo shirts you had that yeah but i it was not on the record um i just it's a cool looking guitar so we'll try this now i had this big gretch white Falcon and um just yeah we were going off a little bit experiment with the guitars but i had the p bass for the long long time and then george malarang's brother who was the band's producer of the time uh got a hold of one of these music bands and let me try it and it was you know that's yeah that was that's and that's been my instrument ever since i bought my first one in 1979 so yeah yeah i mean that you are known as the music man it's funny i saw you in 78 oakland coliseum dan the green you're rocking rocking the p bass man out there just an old p bass i was like you had kind of like a almost a Hawaiian shirt on and i was like yeah no it was cool though man it's there's almost punk rock like you guys come out like oh look at these guys when you join ac dc i guess it's right after the let the be rock and then you're getting ready to do power age is that right i'm i always wondered that exact timeline um let let the be rock was recorded when i joined them i know but and i toured first on that record although i was not on it uh and then we rolled into so that was 77 when i joined 78 we did power so that was my first recording with them so it's unreal i mean the sin city baseline is uh so iconic with ac dc it's it's it's it's the epic baseline man what's idea yeah when when you join and they're writing the power age record which a lot of people consider the crown jewel of ac dc are you are you going like wow these songs are great and are they coming together pretty quick what's that writing process like sure uh in those days we'd sit around in a room and the guys would work on the songs uh malon have an idea for something you know hang out have an idea and they just sit there and mal will just sit with his guitar and he closes eyes and he he'd go and then he try this and and like that you know so it was worked out on the spot um and and power age is my favorite album because it was my first and all that but there's some great songs on it so it was a really kind of a roots writing thing in those days it was the the record was just so slamming i mean like kicked in the teeth again that kind of stuff it's like wow this is uh i mean that record is over the top the album cover the photo everything about at the tour that's the first tour i see you guys on and uh you've got a semi hit i would say with sin city they're playing it on the radio that's how i find out about you guys no and then you know you guys are out touring and i'm talking about uh the day in the green a coliseum but i know other than that it was a real grind out there right kind of van stuff yeah yeah we we had a like a ride a van or something with a couple of a couple of guys for our equipment and we all used to travel around at the station wagon yeah uh fill a drive fill a drive fill a drive yeah and uh with our guitars and suitcases you know five five was in there they might have sometimes been six with a tour manager and we did like a couple hundred miles a day you know it was just uh well but we were you know 23 and 20 i was 27 28 at the time you know bulletproof and you're having a ball yeah so that's all i i once i once heard that you guys pulled up today in the green which is the giant concert in oakland you know coliseum in the station wagon and you got to the backstage gate and they're like can we help you and they're like yeah we're uh playing today and they're like nah they just saw the wagon and they're like see you later you guys like no we're playing today i don't know if it was that one but what we did a couple of days on the green over the over the years i think angus did a radio interview on the fly when he was doing his solo and glad to be wrong he was he was playing away and doing an interview at the same time really oh yeah yeah it was great i'm pretty sure but you'd have to ask gang but i'm pretty sure that he did that what was it like when mutlang comes in for highway to hell uh which is the next record you do uh right away we're to me this is this is my record that i i mean i love them all but this one really sonically and everything was just another level what what was that like because he was fairly he wasn't the mutlang of three records later in the death leopard era and all that right so what was he like at that time it was great he was to rule down to earth um just a different you know we've had george and harry for so long so this was something new for us and uh he was very easy to work with you know he got lots of lots of good input uh uh you know i've not seen him for years but he was he was been like he's been like that you know i'm sure he's the same guy now you know it's just like pretty down to earth and all that good stuff so uh and some some different as you say sonically some different sounds the engineer uh um oh god i can't think of just like i'm sorry uh he was he and mark worked together with on three records i think oh yeah yeah the guy that did uh yeah back in black and yeah right right right yeah when when you guys uh start highway to hell though you start with a different producer and then can that right yeah who was that i can't remember uh uh what's his name eddie eddie cremer thank you but i didn't pan out it just we just didn't have a meeting of the minds on that one which is it happens so we just moved on and was much suggested by someone or because i don't remember him uh maybe he did four or four by now four or four is after so i don't know what he did before highway to hell yeah um my memory is vague on it i know he'd had he'd done a couple of bands but nothing that really you know left out or anything and what studio was that done at can't remember i love you i'm just because as we're talking i'm trying to think damn come on what's i'm out of hell where were you that is so great that's how it should be yeah oh yeah yeah um i always had a question about this because i think that the film let there be rock is one of the greatest uh live music films ever it just for so many reasons but for a lot of it like the cinematography and the way that it was shot and the color of it it's kind of almost like godfather it's got these ambers in there and it's just beautifully shot what was the idea on this um who came up with it who paid for it was it the record company that said let's do a film and probably the record company at the time i would think yeah i was just wondering because it was weird how it came out it came out like you know shown in movie theaters and then it just kind of went away for a long time until the vhs tape came around yeah i guess yeah i'm trying to think i must have been the record company because we didn't have any money in those days so uh yeah i mean you add a little bit of a noise and then uh disappear so yeah yeah i don't want yeah it's fantastic man do you remember uh those that show that they shot because it's pretty damn electric that show i'd have to go back and look at it again to be honest with you yeah yeah i mean you've played what a couple thousand gigs with a cbc those little things that were a little not so little fantastic shows you know hammer smith only and stuff like that a couple of thousand seasons the rose ball it's gone now and uh rose ball rose rose land ballroom oh yeah excuse me they tore the building down never want it awesome little venue that place magic right yeah when you're in the band uh now that you're up in highway to hell you've been in the band quite a bit now who were you hanging with a lot was it bond or or who was your guy phil phil phil and i were tight i i i roomed with bond for a while because we didn't have our own room and then phil and i hung out room together and he and i were we're pretty tight you know we got into the photography thing we each had a little camera we get up and take pictures and in the uh the holiday and dark bathroom we'd use it making dark room out and do all our own stuff yeah so phil and i was like wow you got like photos of the tour like out on tour but all all black and white pictures got them today sure oh you got those still yeah oh you gotta put a book out but it's nah it's it's it's it's like i mean i was a terrible photographer i wouldn't want anyone to see him but for the memory it's great you know and but a lot of it was like through through a window a tour bus window snapping things and just backstage and uh you know so it was it doesn't trust me there's no book coming out but again good good good stuff to see for me well acdc anything acdc history wise you know hey here's a bad photo of me in a tour bus people go crazy for that stuff you know let's uh let's talk a little bit about your thoughts of uh when they were auditioning singers uh once bond is gone uh i talked to angus uh about how this went down they said that he said him and malcom would be at the studio and guys would come in they just played the two guys on a guitar and filter through them that way and then uh if a guy made it past that then the band would come down do you remember it like that i i'm sure it banks it is that's what it was then that's what it was i go i just remember when the band was all together uh and they'd probably weeded a few people out at that point yeah do you remember any of the other guys that sang or what they were like or um yeah there was one guy i remember he's he's gone now as well uh what was his term i can't think of his name london boy black there uh there were a couple uh that um i i don't i don't recall names i'm sorry ding no that's all right what about styles of the guys were they were they kind of in the in the rock area i mean there had to be i guess you know so uh but we were excited about brian coming down yeah couldn't find it for the longest time we were sitting around in in in the playroom uh and was you know was was brian johnson he was downstairs playing paul with the crew guys he didn't know he'd just come in and i guess they didn't i don't know how it happened but we were hanging around he's down there playing a game of paul with with our row crew he came he came up and i think the first thing we did was uh nut bush city limit yeah uh and then went on from there you know he was he is a bundle of fun so oh my god i mean that that early uh brian johnson vocals of this first three are so radical you had to be just going like whoa this guy is going for it you know you get into that it's it's got a texture and a grit and then the how high it is vocally it's pretty wild yeah yeah he really nailed it on the back of black album with some awesome stuff on i'm a big fan of uh flick of the switch a lot of people don't talk about this record and i think it's absolutely fantastic it's a strip down after the mount lang stuff but uh i think the tunes are are amazing and that tour was fantastic oh bless you well that was our i think what happened you know mark was um uh has his sound and it was starting to get onto acbz and like their flip but you know we just didn't want that to happen we needed to keep the acbz thing like it should be you know like it was so that's why the guys mellow man decided to to to move on from mark and uh do it themselves so but thank you i'm glad you like it oh no no i mean look let's be honest if anybody else put out flick of the switch it'd be their greatest record of all time but of course it comes after back in black and uh and i i love for those about to rock also just as much as back in black if not more and then this flick of the switch especially if you listen to it years later like you get away from the behemoth of back in black and that whole thing and you listen to it later you go whoa man this thing's great i'm gonna go back and listen to it i've not heard it for years oh god for real man it's got a real raw almost of let there be rock type of raw going for it you know now when you're in the studio uh how do you guys track is it usually you and phil just live going for it with the the whole band of play uh and we'll do it until it doesn't hurt you know uh and then uh so we've got a good drum track here then some maybe guitars good just fine and then but then we have the option of going back and fixing it up so we'll start off all of us playing together and we'll do that with all the tracks and do you do anything like double the bass or or anything like that is a just straight bass just straight bass and then svt at bass rigs or what are you really yeah svt typically um on back in black i used a turn over top uh portafilas oh wow really and a fourth ten cabinet and a couple d is mixed together wow a turn over top that's amazing man the bass tone on that record it's unbelievable yeah it's mixed i mean the turnover tops in there but then he's got some other stuff going on to create the sound i think one of the greatest things visually about this band live is the walk up for the background vocals and the walk back how does this come about and how long do you guys practice this you never mess it up it's exactly perfect uh we didn't that that came just just doing it i mean basically what you're doing is trying to keep out of angus and brian's way right and they know when we have to be there and when we don't have to be there and we we're just trying to go through the bit and get the hell out of there to leave the stage open that's all that was it was never uh thought about or anything it just happened like that god it's perfect and it's the ultimate look here comes the backgrounds you know and just the perfect walk up sing them then go back to the amp and just crush it rhythmally i love it i'm fine yeah yeah yeah now uh when you came in that had to be a big uh big part of the audition was being able to sing the backgrounds because that's a massive thing in ac dc and it's only you and malcolm singing backgrounds yeah yeah so i guess i i did all right and uh uh you know be in this in recording will double those obviously yeah chorus picking them up i could hold it doing a little bit were you singing before that or are you just we're going for always would never lead singer i was always just the choruses let's talk a little bit about uh the differences of course once phil leaves simon right comes in later chris slade uh both those guys fantastic drummers but totally different feels right what was that like for you and did you guys audition a bunch of guys once phil was gone for the before simon got it were you looking at guys because you know it's a big thing for a bass player they got to be able to feel it yeah really and it was a big thing uh what we what we did was in rehearsals again in london um we'd have dickie jones uh drummer he feels the guy would have a kit set up in a room and he would get the people in and they would play along to a record and if he thought that this was an opportunity he would send them through to us and that's how that was fed in and uh so we auditioned a few guys simon knew all the songs which was really helpful yeah so so we're not you know we weren't in there for months and months trying to find the right guy you know and simon did fine uh it's uh very difficult yeah i mean malcom and phil and i as a rhythm section had really just gotten solid you know we were we we loved to play with each other it was a great time so that was a biggie when phil stood out for us stepped out for a while and then chris came in the same thing with chris uh i don't i can't remember where we were we auditioned not in london somewhere else uh but great drummer great drummer but phil has the swing dude he's the secret sauce i call it a vacy dc yeah there's something to phil isn't it wild like when you think about it like uh i really really noticed it on the uh rocker bus tour because slade was back there again and slade definitely plays it his way but as soon as uh phil's in that chair there's that swing and there's there's a thing where he doesn't play anything that doesn't need to be played but yeah he's just you said it you know he just swings like a mother and it's not all this stuff it might have been eddie crema that tried to get phil to get do a few fills phil you know just to get a little fancy and i think phil's comment was uh you got the wrong drummer so yeah that's that's phil i love phil man he is the outlaw back there with the cigarette and the glasses on on the uh black ice tour oh my god he just looks so great man he's and then in let the be rock when he's got the portion nine two eight just cruising it out on the ice is uh well brian is a cool song you hit some so yeah oh yeah yeah absolutely now toward towards the end of uh the rocker bus tour we all know what happened it's it's just kind of brian has the hearing problem and then axel comes in and you decide to step away um was that a uh a thing of if brian's not here and you guys are pretty tight i know was it that of like this is this is run its course it was before then i i spoke to angus about it initially i was at a point this is at the beginning of the rocker bus tour that i just felt for me it was time to hang it up um i didn't i knew that i didn't want to keep doing these two year tours and i didn't want to hold them back so i at least i made them aware of the fact that this was going to be my last uh go around um it was a tough tour to finish um god bless axel for coming in and helping us out finish it up he did a great job and uh at the end of that it was i was definitely that was it for me done just done uh that like that compounded the whole thing and the reason i came back you know if if back in black has bond scott scott all over it uh for me uh power up has got malcolm young oh this is for him and and it's it's all it's all the almost it's the band that that we put that we play together with for 40 plus years i mean i wanted to do that i wanted to come back and do that and at the end of the we did some rehearsals earlier this year before this darn covid thing popped up uh and we we had great rehearsals with bam is playing really well uh so we do you want to do a few shows sure a few shows uh and that was that that was the last we were planning on doing that everyone goes home to their respective homes and bang we've been here ever since so you the plan your commitment was a few shows not a two-year world tour right wow wow that's you know from my health you know we all have our issues down the line you know so but just for me i just can't do that was it your mental health or physical i did both of it i definitely have some physical issues which i won't call you in the detail but yeah i mean it's just uh it's tough you know so uh i'm very grateful for everything you know it's been fantastic but i just don't want to do that anymore was there any um thought of at the rehearsals of just mid-set playing the whole back in black since it was the 40 year anniversary never came up wow no wow the human plan the whole all the tracks through correct yeah yeah never came up interesting thought though oh god yeah i mean it's 40 year anniversary of the second biggest record ever made i was really thinking there was going to be some type of back in black tour you know of course you got the new record which is fantastic so you look at the whole thing i got the whole thing man it's great it's great i uh i really love the new record actually i think i also love rock or bust a lot um i think that these two records at this deep in the career and to be this rockin still is fantastic you know nice man absolutely stuff like code red and the opening track realize uh the more i hear that the more it gets crazy stuck in my head and then you've got that classic ac dc old school riffing on demon fire you know yeah that's the song when you know when you're an ac dc head like me you need that that kind of stuff you know you know like shake a leg back in black um uh beating around the bush those kind of you know that kind of stuff that that no one could do uh cool stuff yeah so good man so okay so the record's coming out november 13th um i did read some places uh where the kind of at malcolm's funeral all the guys were there and it was like hey uh you want to get together and maybe you know dig into these tracks that are uh left over from black ice and stuff uh is that how it went down for you or was it a call later it was a call later um it was uh an email i got so i just got guys are thinking of doing this i just want to do this are you on on board or not and then did he tell you the the idea was to go through the guitars uh the the song ideas and then meet up in vancouver uh i i knew that's what he was doing i mean the mallard angers have a pool of material or ideas risks and loads of stuff uh that the draws from did it with rock or bars as well so uh that that will be the natural course of events and were you surprised uh on the the spy shots photos of the studio it was someone across the road from the studio in vancouver snapping shots of the boys outside smoking cigarettes and drinking tea and i don't smoke cigarettes anymore so i never went out there it was i never got my snap but that was kind of ah a bit of fun yeah and so i mean that was big news man that is big news because for years people are like well it's it's probably done who knows you know and uh pretty wild when you went up there how fast did uh was the record made did you track for a couple weeks it was done in about six six weeks or so uh bring on bring on a bra and our producer of the last three now he works he keeps it going he's really good he keeps it fresh doesn't let you sit around and you know drink tea and smoke cigarettes and that's all you do you know but uh it rolled really quickly it rolled really well and with that that studio we love that place it's a great playroom because one wall is all kind of glass so you don't feel enclosed you're not in a dungeon of a of a studio uh and the sound comes off comes back at you just how you put it in you know see the acoustics of the place is really good yeah it's funny because brennan has his own studio in atlanta and i was always wondering why you guys weren't in there yeah we never tried it i'm sure he loves it but uh uh he's happy to work with the same fancouver and we just really like that that's great now you uh have set some time with the record now what songs stick out for you what do you like well it depends what day it is you know what you said mr time is really different it's so different right yeah i can't but i like demon fire and wild reputation uh two tracks that i really enjoy but then i'll go on i'll listen to another one go awesome what's uh what's your life like these days um what do you like to do uh well we're up here in the mountains uh it's beautiful um i've got a group of friends here that we go you know flip burgers and drink beer and all that good stuff uh i go to sport clay shooting i like that that's my hobby now and that's it i mean pretty much you know what do we all do anymore i mean you're you're out you're out there out here you know so yeah that's good yeah i just i'm the same i'm the same way i'm a comedian and uh i have no work anymore you to get this behind us this is bullshit this is great it is crazy where are you being i'm in los angeles okay gotcha my daughter used to live there oh yeah yeah yeah she's out of there now but yeah cool it's kind of at this point now where you can kind of live anywhere doing this type of stuff now uh with zoom and everything so i'm just trying to figure out really what i would uh where else i would live um i always wondered why you picked florida and a lot of the people from the uk pick florida it's the heat you like the warmth yeah those certainly that's attractive although in summertime it's brutal as you know um for me it was a uh well bram was there uh johnson um so that was we were moving from where we were we my wife and i both enjoy the water a little bit of boating and stuff like that and a nice climate also in those days it was a good central point for touring yeah you get to europe easy you get to north america canada or whatever south america it was a good central point so it made sense uh and i i i i would say to my wife i'm not going to florida and growing old too late we've been there a long time now i've got good good old buddies there you know so that works which party out uh we're on a way on the gulf coast uh in a town called four mars oh right on yeah give me before we get out of here do you have one great bon scott story that that maybe nobody knows a great one i don't i'd have to sit and think so i don't have a great story what i one of my memories of bon uh when i was rooming with him will be you hear like breaking glass and his cackle of a laugh uh and i just thought because he'd be on his bed i'd be in mind we'd be doing our jack and coke and stuff like and he just got and chucked the glass and it smashed all over the wall it's been the tvs you remember in the old days of tv sets on a post it's been the shit out of that stuff and it's just stuff like that it was a waterfall yeah i i can't thank you enough for talking to me and uh i'm really happy that this back in black core made this record uh power up man it's it's i think we more than ever right now need it this is like some good news in this horrible year it's the it's the the crown jewel of 2020 bless you thank you dig and we just hope we can get out and do play those who showed whatever it is that we can get to thank you yeah i hope so too and i and i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart man for just rocking it up there one of the best rock and roll bass players ever just up there laying it down you malcolm and and phil rudd i've never seen anything like that as far as you want to talk about locked that is the definition when you open up the dictionary it's the three of you sitting there i need the definition of locked there it is bless you thank you thank you so much man and uh i wish you uh great health and keep rocking i hope to uh meet you one day in person let's do that thank you thank you brother i'll see you later mad yeah see you