Angus Young and AC/DC are almost single handedly responsible for Australian rock & roll today. The sight of Angus sitting on top of Bon Scott's shoulders wrestling with is guitar is a sight burned into the Australian music lover's psyche. In 1979, Angus was happy to describe himself as one of the biggest rock & roll animals in the business, and he still is. "When I'm on stage, the savage in me is released. It's like going back to a cave man. It takes me six hours to come down after a show." AC/DC has sold more than 85 million albums worldwide and there's more to come.
Rolling Stone:
What was music like when you were a kid? Rolling Stone:What was the first band you saw? Rolling Stone: How much did that influence the nine-year-old Angus Young? Rolling Stone:Was that the night you decided to become a rock star? Rolling Stone:What made you get into music? Rolling Stone:Did you practice your moves in the mirror? Rolling Stone:What was your first gig with AC/DC like? Rolling Stone:Did you play original songs that first night? Rolling Stone:What is your most memorable gig? Rolling Stone:Did you know many of the other bands that were around at the time? Rolling Stone:A lot of Australian bands have named AC/DC as the band that inspired them to get started. Which Australian bands did you admire when you started? Rolling Stone:How do you feel about inspiring hundreds of young Australian's to pick up the guitar? Rolling Stone:Why? Rolling Stone:Most of the band were born overseas and you spend a lot of time overseas. Do you feel like an Australian band? Rolling Stone:How did AC/DC get its sound? Rolling Stone:is that unique to Australian audiences? Rolling Stone:Who came up with the idea for the cannons in "For Those About to Rock"? Rolling Stone:So Princess Diana inspired the cannons?! Rolling Stone:What do you prefer, playing live or recording? Rolling Stone:Do you have a favorite AC/DC album? Rolling Stone:Have you ever thought about quitting? Rolling Stone:What are you listening to now? Rolling Stone:What do you think of Australian music now? Rolling Stone:Will you retire soon?
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Angus Young: Billy Thorpe was about and Lobby Loyde…there was a sprinkle of small bands doing their own thing and the rest was very commercial pop. But the stuff I was into was coming out of England at the time, a la bands like the small faces, the Who and the Yardbirds.
Angus: The first one was my brother [George]'s band, the Easybeats. I saw them at Rushcutter's Bay at the old Sydney Stadium when I was about nine. That was a great, great night because it was my brother and I was excited. They were a great band. What got me going was that they came from Sydney and had done a lot of clubs and bars and stuff and this was their first big show and to feel the excitement from the crowd.
Angus: A lot actually. The feeling they gave the crowd…because they were still a bit rough and ready. In their day they were a forerunner of bands like the Led Zeppelins because they were playing a harder edge rock & roll.
Angus: That came later [laughs], I liked the excitement and the culture that went along with it - the long hair and the feeling.
Angus: I had played guitar since I was very small. I could bluff my way through a song but what really triggered me was when I first started buying records. The earliest records were blues based stuff and that wasn't mainstream stuff at the time. I liked it when Little Richard and Chuck Berry did a rock song with a bit of blues in it.
Angus: In the mirror? No! [Laughs] In my teenage days I stuck a Playboy calendar up on the door as a warning: "No one enter my room, Im practicing." I was always pretty shy and I'd sit in my room and play a lot and keep to myself.
Angus: We played at the Chequers club in Sydney. We'd rehearsed for about a week or so in an old condemned building which we got for a buck a day. Someone got us a gig at the club and it was New Years Eve going into 1974. I was 17. It was great, I think we stuck out to the people and I think that was because we laid into the rock n roll stuff. Everyone thought we were wild and woolly.
Angus: Yeah [laughs]. But we wouldn't tell anyone they were our songs!
Angus: A gig I used to always love in Sydney was the old Lifesavers out in Bondi because it had that real gutsy atmosphere. The crowd just came in to rock. A lot of bands at that time used to really enjoy gigging there, it was one of the better places in Sydney to play.
Angus: We did a tour of South Australia with the Angels, I think they were the Keystone Angels at the time, and they were doing old 50's rock n roll covers and around about the some time Cold Chisel had just started, so there were bands emerging.
Angus: There were a few bands that I thought were a good influence, like the Loved Ones out of Melbourne and the Missing Links out of Sydney because they were sort of blues based, and I was into that.
Angus: It's kind of scary [laughs].
Angus: You never know, they might pick up bad habits [laughs]. As a band we've had a lot of compliments over the years, like from Nirvana - some even told me the Sex Pistols used to look at us in the beginning they liked our attitude. We never said to ourselves, "You're influencing people." The main inspiration for us was the audience - the harder we played the rock n roll, the more they liked it. The Australian really dictated what we sounded like, they didn't want to hear anything clever, they wanted to hear good, straight rock n roll.
Angus: Yep. I grew up here, went to school here, everything that influenced me was from here and it's the same for Malcolm and George also. That is the country that gave me my upbringing after my father immigrated here. Even when he died, on e of my older brothers asked if he'd liked to be buried in Scotland and he said, "No way, Australia is my home." Which is a great compliment. He thought Australia really gave him something and gave his children something.
Angus: It's definitely distinctly Australian, the audience were the ones who gave us our sound. Australians had a regard for rhythm based bands. You could tell because when I was younger and saw the Rolling Stones in Sydney, the vibe the audience gave, even before they came on, they were restless, there was a sense of awe. I always found the bands like the Stones, the Who and the Small Faces were the ones the audience got into more - it was like a nazi rally, they would bring the whole audience with them.
Angus: Yeah, I think it is. Even when we played all over the world, Australians always wanted to hear the music hard - there was never a ballad in the night. When bands said they wanted to play something a little bit mellow then the people would wander back to the bar.
Angus: Bon had given me a book by Robert Graves called, "For Those About To Die We Salute You." It was about the Romans and he knew I liked reading a bit of history so he gave it to me when he'd finished reading it. The title just stuck in my head. Then we were in Paris recording when Princess of Whales was getting married and the wedding was blaring on the T.V in the other room. The cannons went off while we recording and I thought it sounded great [laughs].
Angus: Yeah [laughs]! We thought it was a great idea.
Angus: Both really. One of our earlier songs, "It's a long way to the top", really summed us up as a band. It was the audience that really allowed us to even get near a studio.
Angus: Let There Be Rock, mainly because of he title. For us as a band it allowed us to be adventurous. Before that, a lot of bands were concentrating on good melodic songs but we wanted and out and out heavy rock n roll album with a lot of guitars.
Angus: The only time was when Bon died. We were in doubt about what to do but we had songs that he had written and wanted to finish the songs. We thought it would be our tribute to Bon and that album became Back in Black. We didn't even know if people would even accept it. But it was probably one of out biggest albums and the success of that kept it going. We were on the road with that album for about two years so it was like therapy for the band after Bon's death.
Angus: I'm listening to stuff that was recorded in the 1920's. A lot of stuff I listen to is acoustic blues stuff. I've been listening to this guy called Tampa Red, the songs are very raw and gutsy for their day.
Angus: I think Australian music seems to be going very strong. When we started playing Europe and America you were a unique thing, there weren't many Australian bands that had gone out in the world and tried it and now it's quite funny, I can be standing anywhere in the world and some band will come up to me and say, "G'day mate!" Now we're just contemporary as anyone else.
Angus: Retire [laughs]? I'd have nothing to do!
