The upcoming Rock Or Bust is the first AC/DC album in the band’s 41 year history without founding member Malcolm Young on the recordings, who is in a home suffering from dementia.

"It's something that had actually been happening for a long time," Angus Young tells RollingStone.com , speaking publicly for the first time about Malcolm's condition during an earlier conversation in October. The symptoms – lapses in memory and concentration – "had surfaced even before the last project," AC/DC's 2008 album, Black Ice. But Angus says Malcolm was "still capable of knowing what he wanted to do. I had said to him, 'Do you want to go through with what we're doing?' And he said, 'Shit, yeah.' " Malcolm, Angus points out, "liked to finish what he started."

Hunched over a cup of tea in a London hotel, speaking in a soft, resigned growl, Angus reveals that Malcolm was already in treatment during his last tour with AC/ DC, from 2008 to 2010. "He got good help, good medical care," Angus says. Malcolm had to "relearn a lot of things," including riffs he had created for AC/DC's biggest songs, "which was very strange for him. But he was always a confident guy, and we made it work."

Malcolm is eerily present on Rock Or Bust. The 11 songs are credited to Young-Young, largely built by Angus from guitar hooks he and Malcolm accumulated while writing previous AC/DC records. Angus did not play any of the new material, as he worked on it, for Malcolm. "With the condition he got in, that kind of faded," Angus concedes. He sought guidance from another older brother, George, a member of Sixties Australian rockers the Easybeats who co-produced AC/DC's early albums. But ultimately, Angus says, "You've got to make the decision yourself: 'What am I doing?' " He and Malcolm, both born in Glasgow and raised in Sydney, answered that question together in 1980 after the death of then-AC/DC singer Bon Scott; they hired Johnson, an ebullient Englishman with a sandpaper howl, and made their biggest-selling album, Back in Black. This time, in late 2013, Angus turned to Stevie, the son of his and Malcolm's oldest brother (also called Stevie). Stevie had filled in for Malcolm on a 1988 tour, when the latter took a sabbatical to beat his alcoholism.

Angus, Malcolm and Stevie were close as boys, attending school together in Australia; later, Malcolm produced demos for some of Stevie's bands. "Angus filled me in on what was going on with Mal," Stevie says. "It wasn't going to be the band the way it was – that was impossible." Stevie, who lives in Birmingham, England, flew to Australia to visit Malcolm, "to see the situation for myself. Mal was physically fine," he contends. "But I don't think he could have done the tour."

"It was awful and great at the same time," Johnson, 67, says of making Rock or Bust. "Angus must have felt strange playing these tunes without Malcolm."

Read more at RollingStone.com

In other AC/DC news, drummer Phil Rudd was behaving erratically long before his arrest last week, according to his bandmates.

Speaking with USA Today, guitarist Angus Young and bassist Cliff Williams said that Rudd - who initially faced a murder-for-hire charge, which was dropped, but still stands accused of possessing methamphetamine and marijuana - was elusive during the recording of the group's album, Rock Or Bust, due December 2nd.

While the musicians were in the studio, "It was tough to get (Rudd) there in the first place," says Williams.

"It put us in a difficult situation," says Young - one that has endured through subsequent video and photo shoots. "It put us in a spot where we couldn't move forward. Does the guy show up? Is he reliable to do his job in good shape? We've always been a solid, reliable unit."

AC/DC has indeed resolved to move forward; it is planning to tour next year. Whether Rudd will join his bandmates remains in question.

"Phil created his own situation," says Young. "It's a hard thing to say about the guy. He's a great drummer, and he's done a lot of stuff for us. But he seems to have let himself go. He's not the Phil we've known from the past."

Read more and check out some photos at USA Today.

AC/DC filmed their new video for the single “Play Ball” with director David Mallet on October 3rd and 4th at Black Island Studios in Middlesex, England. The official video can now be seen below, along with previously posted behind-the-scenes footage:

AC/DC's new album, Rock Or Bust, is the band’s first studio album in six years and features 11 new tracks. It will be released by Columbia Records in North American on December 2nd. Rock Or Bust follows the immensely successful Black Ice album, which debuted at #1 in 31 countries upon its release in 2008 and has gone on to sell nearly 8 million copies worldwide. Rock Or Bust was recorded in spring 2014 at Bryan Adams' Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, BC and finds AC/DC once again working with producer Brendan O’Brien and mixer Mike Fraser.

Rock Or Bust tracklisting:

"Play Ball"
"Sign Of The Times"
"Ain't The Way"
"Rock Or Bust"
"Done Her Good"
"Steal My Meal"
"Watching Games"
"Cardhouse Blues"
"Bulletride"
"Rumble"
"Back In The Zone"

AC/DC will undertake a world tour in support of Rock Or Bust in 2015. Stevie Young, nephew of founding members Angus and Malcolm Young, plays rhythm guitar on Rock Or Bust and will accompany the band on tour.