Report: AC/DC To Release New Album This Year, Tour Australia In The Fall

AC/DC is rumored to be close to announcing a world stadium tour. The trek will apparently include singer Brian Johnson, who was forced to leave the band mid-tour nearly four years ago due to a dangerous level of hearing loss. He was eventually replaced on the road by GUNS N' ROSES vocalist Axl Rose.

On Monday (January 20),Australian radio personality Eddie McGuire discussed the possibility of the legendary hard rockers' comeback on his Triple M Melbourne breakfast show.

Eddie said (hear audio below): "My mail is there will be a new album released by AC/DC February/March this year, but also that AC/DC will be touring Australia October/November 2020. And after a lot of work and a lot of technical research, they have been able to get a hearing aid for Brian Johnson, who will be out front. And even Phil Rudd [drums] might be back in the group either playing percussion or drums with Angus [Young, guitar] so that they've got three of — well, not the originals, but three of the old-timers, if you like, back there. They've had a few changes over the journey, but Angus out front, Brian Johnson lead singing, and maybe Phil Rudd, after his issues that he's had in recent times."

A year and a half year ago, Johnson and Rudd, along with Angus Young and fellow guitarist Stevie Young, were photographed outside Vancouver's Warehouse Studios. Based on the pictures, the assumption was that AC/DC was in the midst of making — or at least planning — another album, with Rudd and Johnson both back in the lineup.

Ever since AC/DC completed the tour cycle for its 2014 album "Rock Or Bust" three and a half years ago — a turbulent trek that weathered the forced retirement and eventual death of co-founder Malcolm Young, plus the departures of Johnson, Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams — fans have wondered whether sole remaining founding member Angus Young would keep the band going or decide it was time for AC/DC to pack it in.

Last February, a photo surfaced on social media suggesting that Williams has also returned to AC/DC and will appear on the rumored comeback album.

A September 2018 report from JAM! magazine cited a "reliable source inside the AC/DC camp" as indicating that the band was recording a new LP which would utilize previously unreleased guitar tracks from Malcolm Young on all the songs.

Rudd was ousted from AC/DC when he was sentenced to eight months of home detention by a New Zealand court in 2015 after pleading guilty to charges of threatening to kill and drug possession.

Rudd, who has appeared on all but three of AC/DC's 18 studio albums, recently toured in support of his 2014 solo debut, "Head Job". It was the release of that album that led indirectly to Rudd's arrest, with the drummer allegedly so angry at a personal assistant over the way the record was promoted that he threatened to have the man and his daughter killed.