Rock or Bust

The title track of AC/DC's fifteenth internationally released studio album finds Brian Johnston crooning, "In rock we trust. It's rock or bust." AC/DC had released fourteen previous songs including the word 'rock', from 1975's "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)," by way of 1981's "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) " and 1995's "Hard As A Rock" through to 2008's "Rock 'N Roll Train." Rock or Bust also contains three other rock-monikered tracks, "Rock the Blues Away," "Got Some Rock & Roll Thunder" and "Rock the House." Angus Young told The Pulse of Radio why it felt like time to use the word 'rock' in a title again. "Well, 'Rock Or Bust', it's a good, strong title and it's got the word 'rock' in it, you know? [laughs] 'Cause everyone says, jeez, you know, how many songs have they got with 'rock' in the title in it," he said. "But they've got to cut us some slack — I mean, we've made 16 albums, you know."

The song opens with a combination of guitars from Angus Young and Malcolm Young's replacement Stevie Young. Brian Johnson said he toyed with the idea of calling the album 'Man Down' in reference to Malcolm Young's absence, due to dementia. He said, "But it's a bit negative and it ('Rock or Bust') was probably just straight from the heart. I like that."

The song's music video was shot on October 3-4, 2014 along with the clip for "Play Ball." It was filmed by director David Mallet at Black Island Studios in Middlesex, England. The visual finds AC/DC, playing in the round to some of their fans. Phil Rudd was unable to attend and Bob Richards of Shogun filled in for him on drums. Brian Johnson told the audience that Rudd was occupied with a "family emergency" at the time. It later transpired that he was answering murder allegations, which were later dropped. Bob Richards told Rhythm magazine he was contacted and asked if he could make his way down to London for the video shoot. "I received a call on the Thursday evening asking if I could step in as Phil was unavailable, so I filled in at the last minute," the Welsh drummer recalled. "It was all hands on deck. I got my kit sorted out and then an early start to London." "I heard the songs an hour or so before we went on to the set to start the filming," Richards concluded. "I played it over several times and did a bit of air drumming to it." "The band were fantastic," he concluded. "They made me so welcome and we had a great time shooting the videos. They were very encouraging. I could just enjoy the experience."