"Have you got any kids?" "My wife says I'm the only one" "I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sounds exactly the same, Infact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same" "I'm not going bald, my head's just getting higher" "Do you have any sympathy for punk bands?" Angus: "None." Bon: "What's a punk band? Hey, who's got beer?" "When I'm on stage the savage in me is released. It's like going back to being a cave man. It takes me six hours to come down after a show" "We're a rock group. we're noisy, rowdy, sensational and weird" "I'm 33. Before AC/DC i've played with lots of bands in Australia. You're never to old to rock & roll" "I've seen Bon drink three bottles of Bourbon straight off...even though he did like to drink and have a crazy time, he was always there when you needed him to do his job" "We saw more of [Bon] than his family did, especially us three. It was always me, Bon & Malcolm. We hung out together. Go to clubs together, get thrown out of clubs together..." "One second he was there, you could see him in the booth then the next second he was down! The guys doing the recording kept asking Bon to do the line one more time, and every time he kept givin' his all, but in between takes you could hear him drinkin' down whiskey, (if you listen really close you can hear it on the album!) it was like: With a bullet in his back... Guzzle, guzzle, guzzle... With a bullet in his back... Guzzle guzzle guzzle. And finally on the last one (the one we used on the record) he just gave it everything he had and passed out, we all kinda went around and just seen him there on the floor" "Oh, we've had our share of hotels bein' smashed and all, but that was a long time ago. You get lousy room service... I mean, there's no use throwin' a TV set out the window for the sake of throwin' a TV set out the window. But if you get a lousy picture then you have an excuse" "I don't like to play above or below people's heads. Basically, I just like to get up front of a crowd and rip it up" Angus: "I have been a reforming influence on Bon. You should have seen the man when I first met him. He couldn't even speak English. It was all 'fuck, cunt, piss, shit.' I introduced him to a new side of life. Sent him home with a dictionary..." Bon: "He taught me to say 'Please fuck. And 'Thank you' after" "Bon joined us pretty late in his life, but that guy had more youth in him than people half his age. That was how he thought, and I learned from him. Go out there and be a big kid" "Often he would trail off with fans that came back stage after a show and go off with them to a party or something. He judged people as they were and if they invited him and he was in the right mood to go, he went. We used to call him 'Bon The Likeable'" "We could be somewhere where you would never expect anyone to know him and someone would walk up and say 'Bon Scott!' and always have a beer for him" "I saw all the women and I figured that looked good. I was horney. I got a guitar off my brother and started playing anything" "My new schoolmates threatened to kick the shit out of me when they heard my Scottish accent. I had one week to learn to speak like them them if I wanted to remain intact. 'Course, I didn't take any notice. No one railroads me , and it made me all the more determined to speak my own way. That's how I got my name, you know. The Bonny scot, see?" "I think after Bon [died] I felt horribly grown up in a way, when you're young you always think you're immortal and that time really spun me around" "I've been on the road for fifteen years and I had no intent to stop. We meet a lot of people, we drink lots of stuff and have lots of fun" "I was in a band called the valentines and they broke up last week. -laughs" "His first words when he got out of the car were, "Im Bon." Then he looked down and went, 'ah, I've put on my wifes underwear.' And that was his first introduction with the band." Musicians with money usually buy expensive tuners when their sharps are a little flat. But who ever heard of a musician with money? If you're broke like the rest of us, here's an option: simply slap on AC/DC's "It's a Wong Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll)." The song has only one chord. If you can figure out which one it is, hold the chord with one hand and twist the pegs with the other until you sound just like Angus. If that fails, just follow the example of Sonic Youth and forego tuning althogether. Remember: one man's "noise" is another man's "art." "Angus Young took the same premise that made Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath" work and updated it with knickers and Australian hedonism. He kept the SG though." "Im more in love with Rock n Roll today than other things. It grows, you know?" "In those days girls were only interested in...well, not us. " "We never care about labels such as punk, psyedellic or whatever else." "Style, I didn't think we had any! I just plug in and hit the thing really hard. That's my style...or lack of one!" "I just go where the guitar takes me." "I'd like to do a whole string of concerts headlining as big as this one is today. The more people they can give us upfront the harder we play." "Once you're on stage you can't go back, even when things go wrong people expect you to stay there and entertain them. When all else fails, you've got to try tap dancing." "Angus Young's frantic over-the-top soloing has sparked many of AC/DC's biggest tunes. But beneath the reckless theatrics and naughty schoolboy images lurks a skilled guitarist." "One of the secrets to AC/DC's sound os bassist Cliff William's innate ability to "swing" while playing straight eighth-notes." "I'd always wanted an SG, I think the cutaway horns reminded me a bit of myself." "I am the poet with this band" "We're never going to win any Grammy awards. We're never gonna win any respect from the squeaky-clean mob and Rolling Stone or everybody like that, because we don't give any messages out that they think are important." "I think we do what we do well, whatever it is that we do. do." "Malcolm would always tell me: don't tickel it, hit the bugger!" "We aren't the prettest things in the world. With AC/DC its not like we're out to steal your wife and your girlfriend and your daughter. We may borrow them but..." "Most bands have ups and downs. With us things just stay the same." " I like AC/DC." "3, 2, 1, Nuclear energy is dead, the neutron bomb can kiss my ... AC/DC's newist blast to the rise, Powerage. Powerage the ulitimate AC/DC album." "We gotta do something like that." "We never thought of ourselves as a 'heavy metal band' we've always regarded ourselves as a rock band. The big differance we've always thought we had a lot more feel for rock, we always went out for songs, not riffs or heavy, heavy sounds. But every now and again it does come on like a sledge hammer." "The Headmaster used to call me up every second day or so and say, 'well Young what have you been up to this time?' "People can go out and hear REM if they want deep lyrics; but at the end of the night, they want to go home and get fucked! That's where AC/DC comes into it." "Bon was one of the nicest guys I ever met. I really mean that. If he was an asshole I'd tell you. Im not just saying that because the poor guy is dead. He really was a lovely guy...It was a great loss..." "I like rhythm n blues, I like Rock n Roll. AC/DC I like alot: very loud!" "AC/DC are the best at what they do. It's as simple as that. I wouldn't say that I like everything they've done, but in their own way they are as classic a band as Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple..." "I was annoyed that Bon wasn't given the respect due when he was alive." "He was a tough sonofabitch! If he went off, shit it was fuckin' scary! Not sort of hitting people with chairs but fist beating people. He was the best street fighter I've ever seen, bar none." "You mean an undrugged album?" "We've got the basic things kids want. They want to rock, and that's it." "We use to think of ourselves as an Austrailan band, but we're beginning to doubt that now; the fuckers won't even let us play here!" "We'd been drinking in the airport bar for about ten minutes when I says, 'don't you think it's time we caught our plane?' and she says, 'What do you mean our plane? Im staying here.' I runs back and the fuckin' planes gone. Anway she takes me to this black bar and she's Mexican-and I starts drinkin' and playin' pool. I had a goodnight, beatin' every bastard. After about two hours playin' this big titted black chick and beatin' her too, I happen to look and the bar is goin', 'Grrr.' I think, 'Uh oh Bon,' I gives her another game and lose nine to one. 'Anyone else want to beat me?' I says. So I escapes with me life, only barely-and I made it to the gig in Austin." "Punk and all that was just an image that ripped people off. Johnny Rotten's a wanker, and that's all there is to it." "I was at Monte Cassino when the Americans flattend the place, and I was at El Alamein when we knocked Rommel back with a big barrage of guns, but I've never heard anything as loud as this in my life." "We're not black magic satanists. I don't drink blood. I may wear black underpants now and again, but that's it." "When we started, we didn't care about gettin on the radio and we didn't care what people said about us...We just went out and played rock music" "We just go out and don't give a fuck about critics. We play what we play and that's that." "I'm an out and out basic man and AC/DC are one of the best rock'n'roll bands in the world, doing things just to the basics, you know." "For me, you just canna whack rock'n'roll, cos it justna tell any lies, knorrimean?" "I like the bell cos it makes a brilliant sound and it was fitting for the time we went through after Bon's death and "Back in Black" and so on. It was part of the situation at the time. Those cannons I'm not sure about. If it was a real cannon out there and we could blow everyone's brains out, then that would be GREAT" "The only image we've ever had is what we really are. We never cover up anything" "I don't think any bastard knows who I am anyway, so I never have any trouble getting mobbed off stage. And look at Brian, do you know what some hotel cleaner said to him the other day? She asked him if he was Neil Diamond or his twin brother" "That was the final bleedin' insult! Kevin Keegan I wouldn't have minded, but bloody Neil Diamond..." "We can't sit on our arses and say the world owes us a living because we've paid our dues. Me; I think if I fluff a note I'm robbing the kids. You're gonna pour it all on until you drop, so even if they hate you they can still say' At least they tried'." "I'm lucky enough never to have to stand and queue or pay to see this band, cos I really enjoy listening to 'em. That's no bullshit, I'm really serious!" "It's like AC/DC, they've become successful but they've still managed to remain honest, regular sort of guys. They're our sort of group, a sort of no nonsense get down and do it group. Like us, they're down to earth. And I'm gonna make sure we stay that way." "We were a scandal in Australia. They love scandal there. Mums tugging their kids away from us on the street. "Ooh, look them!" "All the songs we do are basically about one of three things: booze, sex or rock n roll." "Im 33... Before AC/DC I've played with lots of bands in Australia. You're never too old for Rock n Roll." "I've never had a message for anyone in my entire life. Except maybe to give out my room number." "It keeps you fit - the alcohol, nasty women, sweat on stage, bad food - it's all very good for you." "No matter how long you play rock n roll songs might change just as the balls are there, the rock balls. And that's what's important to us." "(Panama) was kind of AC/DC-inspired. We had just done a tour with them the year before. It was us, Motley Crue and AC/DC in '83, in Europe, and just the power of those guys blew my mind--the constant "boom, boom, boom." They play the same song over and over, but it's a great song. AC/DC was probably one of the most powerful live bands I've ever seen in my life. The energy...they were just unstoppable. I'll never forget our first big tour. It was a theater-sized tour--3,000-seaters. We headlined a bill featuring Ronnie Montrose and Journey. We were supposed to do 60 shows, but we left early because we had an offer to do "A Day on the Green" [a Bill Graham concert production held in Oakland, California]. I think Aerosmith and Foreigner were co-headlining. We had our own trailer, and next door to us were AC/DC, who were also playing that day. Anyway, they went on before us, and I was standing on the side of the stage thinking, "We have to follow these motherfuckers?" They were so fuckin' powerful, but I remember feeling that we held our own. I was really happy. It blew my mind. I didn't think anybody could follow them. |
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