Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen believes that Angus Young should not make a new AC/DC album with Axl Rose.
The 60-year old Collen also thinks that AC/DC have lost their integrity due to the recent series of line-up changes. Axl Rose became a member of the band in 2016 after Brian Johnson was forced to retire due to hearing difficulties.
AC/DC co-founder Malcolm Young, brother of Angus, toured with the band until 2014, when he announced his retirement due to incipient dementia.
He died, aged 64, last November. Drummer Phil Rudd also departed the band in 2015, while bass-player Cliff Williams left in 2016. Angus Young is the only original member in the current line-up.
AC/DC biographer Murray Engleheart recently insisted that Rose and Angus Young would continue to lead the iconic band.
"Speculate all you want but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: AC/DC will continue with Axl on vocals - new album, touring, the whole nine yards, " Engleheart said in a Facebook post. "What was a massive gamble by Angus turned out to be an equally enormous triumph that has set the scene for the future."
However, Collen recently told radio station Forrest of the Boise, "I’m a huge AC/DC fan, and if the whole band’s left or gone… Malcolm dead, obviously. Brian Johnson got kicked out. Cliff Williams retired and Phil Rudd got arrested.
"You’ve got one person (left), so it’s not really AC/DC. Maybe call it ‘A, with Axel Rose.’ It kind of loses its appeal. It becomes karaoke. It becomes something else, and it’s lost its integrity, really."
"I wouldn’t do that, personally, if I was Angus. I thought Axl Rose (did) a great job, by the way. I thought he [was] amazing when he stood in for Brian Johnson. Full power to him - he’s done really, really good stuff. But I think as a band, if he was gonna do an album, it may sound good, but it’s not really the band anymore."
