The deadly concert
In 1991, an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City ended in tragedy with the deaths of three teenage fans: 19-year-old Elizabeth Glausi, along with Jimmie Boyd Jr. and Curtis White Child, both 14 years old, died when they were crushed by fans surging forward.
There were about 13,000 people at the show, and according to People, 4,400 of them were crammed into festival-style seating. That basically means no seating at all, a setup that had caused 11 deaths at a Who concert in 1979. Witnesses testified about an insanely horrible scene, where crowds of fans pushed forward, knocked people over, and buried others under a pile of bodies. Just what happened in the chaos differs based on the source, but it's not disputed that the pushing and shoving started right when the concert did. While security says it took about 45 minutes before someone was able to make it onstage to tell the band what was going on, AC/DC maintains they only played four songs before Brian Johnson called for a spotlight on the crowd and an end to the chaos.
Ten years later, AC/DC returned to play another show at Salt Lake City. Johnson spoke to Deseret News about the lasting effect it had on them all, saying, "No matter how long ago it happened, you still think about it. You hope and pray it never happens again. … That was an awful incident, and it hit us very hard."
In 1991, an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City ended in tragedy with the deaths of three teenage fans: 19-year-old Elizabeth Glausi, along with Jimmie Boyd Jr. and Curtis White Child, both 14 years old, died when they were crushed by fans surging forward.
There were about 13,000 people at the show, and according to People, 4,400 of them were crammed into festival-style seating. That basically means no seating at all, a setup that had caused 11 deaths at a Who concert in 1979. Witnesses testified about an insanely horrible scene, where crowds of fans pushed forward, knocked people over, and buried others under a pile of bodies. Just what happened in the chaos differs based on the source, but it's not disputed that the pushing and shoving started right when the concert did. While security says it took about 45 minutes before someone was able to make it onstage to tell the band what was going on, AC/DC maintains they only played four songs before Brian Johnson called for a spotlight on the crowd and an end to the chaos.
Ten years later, AC/DC returned to play another show at Salt Lake City. Johnson spoke to Deseret News about the lasting effect it had on them all, saying, "No matter how long ago it happened, you still think about it. You hope and pray it never happens again. … That was an awful incident, and it hit us very hard."
Malcolm Young's battle with dementia
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Malcolm Young died on November 18, 2017. When AC/DC announced his passing on Facebook, Angus wrote, "As his brother it is hard to express in words what he has meant to me during my life, the bond we had was unique and very special. … Malcolm, job well done."
His death came after a long and heartbreaking battle with dementia, one that was announced in 2014. According to Rolling Stone, they were originally vague about his health issues, only saying he was going to be taking a break and his nephew, Stevie Young, would fill in for him again. It wasn't until later that Angus publicly announced Malcolm had also undergone major operations on his heart and lungs, saying (via Ultimate Classic Rock), "He seemed to get everything hit him at once, besides his dementia. So he had quite a lot of things going on."
When Angus talked to The Guardian in 2014, he said Malcolm's dementia had started during their Black Ice tour. He'd needed to relearn the songs he had written before getting on stage. "Sometimes you would look and he'd be there, and you'd be, 'Malcolm!' … And other times, his mind was going. But he still held it together," he said.
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