Are Angus and Axl writing the next AC/DC album together?

Rumours circling the globe are that Angus Young is planning to write the next AC/DC album with Axl Rose.

If true, it seems to indicate that Rose’s position in AC/DC’s ranks is more permanent than first indicated.

Initially the Guns N’ Roses singer was to step in so AC/DC could finish off ten remaining Rock Or Bust dates in 2016 when Brian Johnson was forced to step out over hearing issues or face complete deafness.

But since then, both Rose and Young have indicated they are keen to extend the relationship.

No official statement has been made on this.

The band’s biographer, Sydney writer Murray Engleheart, one of the very few writers allowed into the AC/DC inner sanctum, earlier told his followers that Rose would remain, and that the band would record new music and tour.

In a Facebook post, he wrote: “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.”

Rose’s commitments with the original Guns N’Roses lineup ends in July when the band headlines the UK Download festival.

In the latest round, Rose Tattoo’s Angry Anderson says he got it from the horse’s mouth.

He told The Rockpit: “I was talking to Angus earlier last year when we were doing the encores and we were opening for Guns ‘N Roses.

“Angus and I were asked to do the encores and I said to him ‘What are you going to do?’ and he said ‘Mate I’m writing a new album’.

“I thought ‘cool’ so I asked him who was in the band and he said ‘Axl’.”

Like most long time AC/DC fans– Rose Tattoo shared the same Australian record label, Alberts, when they started out in the ‘70s – Anderson lamented that most of the long time members had gone.

Aside from Johnson, bassist Cliff White has retired from the road, drummer Phil Rudd dumped due to his legal issues in New Zealand, and Malcolm Young left due to dementia in 2014 before passing last November.

But Anderson was pleased that fans would be able to hear new AC/DC music.

“There are these people, and yes it’s sad that the original line-up aren’t there any more but it’s the songs, people who have supported them all the way through their career they want to hear the songs.

“In a sense we owe that to people, so really it’s a debt of gratitude and what we’re saying is you’ve stood by us, we’ll stand by you.

“So Angus, and let’s face it he doesn’t need the money, he acknowledges that there are still millions of people around the world that want to hear AC/DC songs played live.

“In the same way, though on a much lesser scale obviously there are plenty of people around the world who want to hear the songs that made Rose Tattoo famous.

“They want to hear those songs played live. And this is a line-up that can do that.”

In the past, AC/DC have overcome death, illness and bad luck by throwing themselves into their work.

In the case of Angus, who lost both Malcolm and mentor brother George within weeks of each other late last year, he had been urged by Malcolm to keep the band going.

There are some who felt that AC/DC treated Johnson badly

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott told Blabbermouth last year, “I wouldn’t have done it like that.

“I can’t speak for Angus [Young] and his team as to what their reasons were for doing what they did.

“But considering that we had a drummer lose an arm and we waited for him, the way that they dealt with it was not the way I would have done it.

“Put it that way.”

But Johnson bears no hard feelings. In a Sunday Times interview last month, he described his time with AC/DC as “a great run.”

“On stage, it was getting harder and harder to hear the guitars, even hear the keys, and I was basically going on muscle memory.

“And I’m not the kind of guy who likes to cheat. The way I look at it, I had a great run.”

Although more recently fronting British TV shows around his passion for fast cars, he had indicated he would return to recording and touring but did not indicate if it was with AC/DC.

Currently, AC/DC consists of Angus, Chris Slade on drums and Angus’s nephew Stevie Young on guitar.