Wednesday, December 14: Tig’s Rock Birthdays

Happy Birthday today (Dec. 14) to AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams. He’s 67. Other rockers celebrating include singer C.J. Snare of Firehouse (57) and former Shotgun Messiah singer Tim Skold (50).

Cliff Williams was the bassist for AC/DC from 1977 until his retirement in 2016. His first album with the band was 1978’s Powerage. Williams was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with AC/DC in 2003. AC/DC are one of the best selling artists of all time with over 200 million albums sold worldwide. The album Back in Black has sold around 50 million albums worldwide (22 million in the U.S. alone.) It’s the sixth best-selling album of all time. AC/DC ranked number 72 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

The band’s last album Rock or Bust was released in 2014. The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S. with 172,000 copies sold in it’s first week out. It was certified Gold by the RIAA in the U.S. for sales of 500,000 copies in January 2015. Cliff Williams announced in July of 2016 that he would be retiring from AC/DC following the band's Rock or Bust World Tour. He cited the change in the band's lineup as a reason for his feeling the need to retire. Guitarist Malcolm Young had left due to being diagnosed with dementia while drummer Phil Rudd was on house arrest battling legal issues. The biggest change in the band would be singer Brian Johnson leaving due to hearing issues and being replaced by Axl Rose. I personally think that it's time for AC/DC to hang it up and retire. They have nothing left to prove. One of my favorite times seeing AC/DC live was in 2001 on the Stiff Upper Lip Tour at the Pepsi Arena (now the Times Union Center) in Albany. I had second row center seats for the show which also featured openers Buckcherry. I'll never forget watching singer Brian Johnson swinging from the giant bell during "Hells Bells" and at one point, smiling and pointing to the girl I was with, while singing "Let Me Put My Love into You". LOL, one hell of a rock show it was!