Weeks after AC/DC announced it was rescheduling concerts due to lead singer Brian Johnson’s health, rumours have surfaced that Guns N’ Roses star Axl Rose is set to replace him.

Rumoured replacement Axl Rose. Photo: Getty

The speculation was seemingly sparked by a Facebook post from Ross Malcolm Young, son of Malcolm Young and nephew of Angus Young.

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In a since-deleted post, the young Young allegedly wrote “it’s true” beneath a post from a friend regarding Rose replacing Johnson.

While Rose’s presence on the tour would be a novelty for longtime fans, it would also be the final nail in the coffin for the original band, which is now unrecognisable from its glory days.

Angus Young is now the only member of AC/DC who was there at the Bondi Lifesaver on New Year’s 1973, or later playing suburban Police Boys’ Clubs around Sydney with Bon Scott singing.

The core of the band was always Angus and his brother Malcolm.

Malcolm hung in the shadows keeping the tempo solid while Angus, dressed in a school uniform, went crazy out the front.

Malcolm Young was forced to retire in 2014 due to dementia. Photo: Getty

Then there were the singers – first Bon Scott, an older and wiser mentor who died from booze in 1980.

His replacement, Brian Johnson with a soft cap and a big voice, took the band to the next level.

That level was 50 million albums – one of the top five best-selling LPs of all time. They have sold more than 220 million albums.

Back in Black established the group as a dynamic live act but Brian and Angus took most of the weight.

In 1977, bassist Mark Evan was replaced by Englishman Cliff Williams who has held the spot since.

Drummer Phil Rudd did the hard yards from 1975 until 1983 when his lifestyle choices got so out of control that he was replaced, first by Simon Wright and then by Chris Slade before Rudd was brought back into the fold in 1994.

Last year when the band began work on the Rock or Bust album things started to fall apart. Phil Rudd was embroiled in a fiasco in New Zealand involving contract hits, prostitutes and drugs and was not asked to work on the album.

The dementia that had been creeping up on Malcolm Young for some years reached a critical point where he could no longer play or write.

Brian Johnson risks permanent hearing loss if he keeps performing. Photo: Getty

Nonetheless the show went on. Nephew Steve Young was brought in to replace Malcolm and Chris Slade was brought back to hit skins.

Rock or Bust was one of the biggest selling albums of 2015.

The Rock or Bust tour was an incredible success. The second-biggest tour of the year, just behind Taylor Swift in ticket sales grossing $180 million but AC/DC had the largest number of fans (2.31 million).

Then another tragedy struck when, with only 10 dates to go on the current leg of the American tour, Johnson was told he needed to stop playing live immediately.

An injury from his hobby racing cars had damaged his hearing and any more noise pollution from the stage would cause irreparable hearing loss.

And so Angus in his schoolboy uniform is alone now.

The fact that 2.31 million fans turned out despite Malcolm Young’s retirement suggests that the show can go on.

Whether Johnson’s replacement is indeed Rose or one of the many other superannuated American rock stars, the band needs someone who can take direction from a little guy in short pants. Rock or Bust indeed.