Angus Young
Angus Young
Angus McKinnon Youngis an Australian guitarist of Scottish background, best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter and sole constant member of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he moved to Australia with his family at the age of eight. Known for his energetic performances, schoolboy-uniform stage outfits and his own version of Chuck Berry's duckwalk, Young was ranked 24th in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 greatest guitarist of all time list...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth31 March 1955
CityCranhill, Scotland
You should hear me on my own. It's horrendous.I saw Deep Purple live once and I paid money for it and I thought, Geez, this is ridiculous.
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 wouldn't know any newer bands. We're past the pimple stage.
My part in AC/DC is just adding the color on top.
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.
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.
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 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.
A lot of people say, 'AC/DC - that's the band with the little guy who runs around in school shorts!'
The best AC/DC cover I've heard? There was an all-girl cover band in America, the Hell's Belles.
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!'
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.
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.
Yes, we're still five little people with a noisy attitude.