Founding member of the band
Former AC/DC drummer Colin Burgess is dead
December 17, 2023, 12:50 a.m
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Colin Burgess was 27 years old when he founded the band AC/DC with Angus Young and a few other musicians. A few months later the drummer was thrown out; by the time the hard rockers became international superstars, he was no longer there. Now Burgess is dead.
The hard rock band AC/DC mourns the loss of their first drummer Colin Burgess. He died at the age of 77. The band announced this on several of their social platforms on Saturday. He was a very respected musician. The group wrote on Instagram: “Happy memories, rock in peace Colin.” She also posted a black and white photo of the former band member.
Burgess had already been making music professionally for several years and had a few chart successes with The Master Apprentices before he founded the band AC/DC in Sydney, Australia in 1973 with Malcolm and Angus Young, Dave Evans and Larry Van Kriedt. But before the hard rockers really took off, Burgess’ days in the combo were numbered again: In February 1974 he was arrested for being drunk on stage and the band threw him out. He later returned for a few weeks to replace his injured replacement Phil Rudd.
In 1975, AC/DC released their debut album “High Voltage”, and their international breakthrough came a year later. The band, which had changed its line-up several times, became superstars with “Back in Black”, released in 1980, the second best-selling album of all time behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Meanwhile, Burgess continued with his new band His Majesty from 1983 and later with various other projects.
How Burgess died is unknown; AC/DC didn’t write anything about it. Fans expressed their sadness on Facebook, for example. One user wrote: “May he keep rocking.”