Some musicians cling to their commitments and don’t want to get engaged in other initiatives, despite the fact that many artists are open to collaborating with others or working on side projects with musicians outside of their bands. For instance, Metallica has a very rigorous policy about this since taking up a side project would be like to cheating on one’s spouse and would be detrimental to the band’s success. They took this so seriously that Jason Newsted had to leave the group.
In the instance of Angus Young, the musician preferred not to participate in endeavors that required him to collaborate with other musicians outside his colleagues. He has chosen not to collaborate with anyone else and has long been an AC/DC fanatic. It turns out that Young’s stance on the issue is not very rigid. In a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, the guitarist admitted that, despite being afraid to meet the artist in the first place, he would love to collaborate with the legendary Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.
2003’s Molson Canadian Rocks For Toronto concert included both The Rolling Stones and AC/DC on the same stage. The event, which featured the two rock and roll icons before a crowd of 500,000 spectators, inevitably became the biggest concert in North American history. The Stones’ Licks Tour, which included stops in Sydney, Leipzig, Hockenheim, and Oberhausen that year, was introduced by AC/DC. They put on an amazing performance of the timeless Stones song “Rock Me Baby” as a group.
After the performances, the Young brothers spoke with them in an interview about playing with the Stones. According to Malcolm, their management granted Keith Richards’ request for a meeting with Angus Young. But Angus had some serious reservations about meeting Richards. Although the guitarist’s candor and biting wit would seem to be the issue, Angus admitted that he was worried about passersby’s cameras.
Rolling Stone interviewed Angus Young in 2016 about the musicians he would most want to work with.
“You’d have to resurrect many people from the dead, I think,” Angus laughed as he answered. “I’d sit down with Keith Richards, do something,” he went on to say that if it were feasible, he would be glad to collaborate with Keith Richards on a project.. “He’s a rhythm guy like Malcolm.”
One year after this discussion, Angus Young claimed that his brother Malcolm was a better guitarist and that Keith Richards’ tone was lifeless because the group lacked a second guitarist to support him. Uncertain of his support for either Keith or Malcolm’s guitar playing, Angus seems to have changed his mind about the publicity and created a place for a collaboration with the Stones guitarist.