Angus Young
Yes, we're still five little people with a noisy attitude.Collection: Attitude
There are all sorts of cute puppy dogs, but it doesn't stop people from going out and buying Dobermans.Collection: Pet
We played by feel. We felt as though you could put us on any stage, and we would find a way to win that crowd over. We had that attitude: We can't fail. You might not like it right now, but you will.Collection: Attitude
Nothing happened overnight. Every country we went into, we started at the bottom. We knew that because the music we were playing and the attitude we had, we knew we'd be at the bottom and have to work our way up.Collection: Music
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.Collection: Death
I just go where the guitar takes me.
Key to longevity... drinking embalming fluid every year.
I have this theory about us. When we started writing our own songs, we were 17 years old. When you're 17, you write songs for other 17-year-olds. We stopped growing musically when we were 17. We still write songs for 17-year-olds.
I have the Internet, but the first that happens with it is my machine will crash. I get by when it's operating. What would I know about updating?
I never bothered with cars. I was probably one of the few kids in school who didn't run around with hot-rod magazines. As I would be at home fiddling with my guitar, they would be fiddling with a car engine.
I think that's what it is with rock music. It helps you hang tough, I guess.
'Rock Or Bust' is a thing we've always done.
In the real world, people just get on with their lives. And that's where AC/DC come in.
You've got to love what you do. You've got to like doing it, because it is a lot of your life.
I think what AC/DC does best is play live. That's when everything comes together. Even after you make a studio album, when you go out and play live, that's when you learn what being in a band is all about.
My ambition was just to be able to play guitar.
If you know what you do well and stick to that, I think you can appeal to the different generations. You can strike a chord with them. I've got the brain of a teenager anyway.
The mainstream media tend to lump everything together. To them, there's no difference between Madonna, the Rolling Stones, or whatever.
I used to run home from school, pick up my guitar, and lock myself in my room and play.
I can't deny that Eric Clapton's and Eddie Van Halen's lead stuff has influenced a stack of people, but for me, it's the rhythm thing that's way more impressive and important to a band.
The places we'd play were full of bikers, brawlers, and drinkers coming off a day of work looking for a good time, and all these guys would be looking at me like Hannibal Lecter looking at his next victim.
I saw Deep Purple live once and I paid money for it and I thought, 'Geez, this is ridiculous.' You just see through all that sort of stuff. I never liked those Deep Purples or those sort of things. I always hated it. I always thought it was a poor man's Led Zeppelin.
The misunderstanding out there is that we are a 'hard rock' band or a 'heavy metal' band. We've only ever been a rock n' roll band.
I think the '60s was a great time for music, especially for rock and roll. It was the era of The Beatles, of The Stones, and then later on The Who and Zeppelin. But at one point in the '70s, it just kind of became... mellow.
If I heard a noise at night, I'd think there was a burglar sneaking around; the first thing I'd do was check on my guitar.
Over the years, the critics have said, 'They never change.' Maybe the little guy's got a new color of school uniform. I always thought, 'Well, what were we going to change into?' A jazz band? A keyboard band?
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.
From the first album, we've had songs like 'The Jack' that are blues based. We also did it in 'Ride On,' where we went into the blues.
The school suit allows me to be an extrovert. Basically, I'm the opposite of what I am on stage.
You'd be playing in a pub in the afternoon. Then late at night, you'd be playing a club. You got into that habit: 'If we don't play, we don't eat.'
I tried a Les Paul when I was a lot younger. I tried the Les Paul, and because of the weight of the thing, it nearly dislocated my hip.
In our hands, even the straightest lyric sounded shady.
When we play live, it's always been a do or die effort. And everything we've ever done has always had that approach.
We just stuck to what we did best. Maybe that's why people plug into us and go 'They never change.' We're reliable. A bit like old shoes.
When you sign on and say, 'I'm gonna do this and that,' it's always good to say at the end of it, 'I've done all I said I would do.'
I wouldn't know any newer bands. We're past the pimple stage.
We're a rock group. we're noisy, rowdy, sensational and weird.
I remember one of the first gigs I played with that amp was at a local church. They wanted someone to fill in with the guitar and my friend say, 'Ah, he can play.' And so I dragged the amplifier down and started playing and everybody started yelling 'turn it down!'
Soloing was pretty easy for me because it was probably the first thing I've ever done.
A lot of times you'll hear bands and it's a different sound coming out than what's on stage. Because you can clean it up through a PA and make it sound completely different than what they really sound like.
A lot of people say, 'AC/DC - that's the band with the little guy who runs around in school shorts!'
My part in AC/DC is just adding the color on top.
I honestly believe that you have to be able to play the guitar hard if you want to be able to get the whole spectrum of tones out of it. Since I normally play so hard, when I start picking a bit softer my tone changes completely, and that's really useful sometimes for creating a more laid-back feel.
Actually, because I'm so small, when I strike an open A chord I get physically thrown to the left, and when I play an open G chord I go right. That's how hard I play, and that's how a lot of my stage act has come about. I just go where the guitar takes me.
Every guitarist I would cross paths with would tell me that I should have a flashy guitar, whatever the latest fashion model was, and I used to say, 'Why? Mine works, doesn't it? It's a piece of wood and six strings, and it works.'
That's usually what happens with AC/DC: you make an album, and then you're on the road flat out. And the only time you ever get near a studio is generally after you've done a year of touring.
With AC/DC, we've always started with rock, and we've just kept it going. The critic's view is always, 'They just made an album and it's the same as the last one.' I'll have fifteen of them, anytime.
Australia is the place I know best.
When we grew up, Australia was the land of opportunity; it really was.
The media, being what it is, is always looking for the next new thing. There are still bands out there playing, no matter what the new thing is. The Stones go out there, and people go see them without records or even airplay.