AC/DC reveal lineup for first gig in seven years

10 September, 2023

AC/DC's Angus Young

AC/DC have confirmed their line-up for their upcoming gig at Power Trip festival, their first performance in seven years.

Across three days at the Empire Polo Club in Indio – the venue for Coachella – the band will play alongside Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden and Tool on October 6, 7 and 8.

At the show, the band’s bassist Cliff Williams will come out of retirement, while drummer Phil Rudd will be replaced my Matt Laug.

Rudd had been replaced by the band in 2014, before rejoining for 2020 album ‘Power Up’. Williams, meanwhile, retired following the band’s ‘Rock Or Bust’ world tour.

Brian Johnson also returns on vocals after being replaced by Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose on their last tour.

In audio from their rehearsals posted to X/Twitter, the band wrote:  “PWR UP for Power Trip! Listen to the rehearsal of the boys powering up with Cliff Williams, who’s coming out of retirement for the festival and Matt Laug on drums.”

The line-up for Power Trip appears to be Johnson on vocals, Williams on bass and Angus and Stevie Young on guitar.

Power Trip was set to be Ozzy Osbourne’s first since he announced his retirement from touring, but recently pulled out of the performance.

“Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet and I am much too proud to have the first show that I do in nearly five years be half-assed,” Osbourne wrote in the statement at the time.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shared that listening to AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses has helped him during the war against Russia.

In an interview with CNN, journalist Erin Burnett asked Zelensky: “As a human being, so many people look up to you; they rely on you. No one can imagine how hard that is. Do you do anything for yourself? Are you ever able to take a minute to read or to listen to music or something to sort of give yourself that moment?”

The Ukrainian leader explained that during these difficult times, he turns to music, specifically such acts as AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, and Eric Clapton, as a form of distraction to help him deal with the political turmoil of the war.

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