“Look out, here comes that Tasmanian Devil!”
“Look out, here comes that Tasmanian Devil!”
My previously unpublished 2005 interview with legendary AC/DC guitarist Angus Young
For the last Jagged Time Lapse post of 2022, I thought I’d celebrate the end of this dismal year by unearthing an interview with Angus Young, one of my all-time favorite guitarists. The majority of JTL readers will need no introduction to the diminutive AC/DC lead guitarist, his crazed “world’s oldest schoolboy” image, his impossibly energetic stage performances or his adrenaline-charged blues licks, so we won’t waste any time on that here. The fact that I have a cat named Angus — and that the only “artist signature model” guitar I’ve ever owned is my 2007 Gibson Angus Young SG — should give you a pretty good idea of how much of an Angus Young fan I am.
As detailed in this previous paid-subscribers-only JTL post, I became an AC/DC fan in early 1980, just before their legendary frontman Bon Scott tragically met with “death by misadventure”. While Scott’s untimely passing could have easily marked the end of the band, Angus and his rhythm guitarist brother Malcolm Young somehow managed to write, record and release an entire new AC/DC album — Back in Black — with new singer Brian Johnson in just a little over the five months that followed Scott’s death.
The album, which featured such classic rock anthems as “You Shook Me (All Night Long),” “Hell’s Bells” and the title track (along with Side One’s pre-Spinal Tap trilogy of “What Do You Do For Money Honey,” “Given the Dog a Bone” and “Let Me Put My Love Into You”), reached #4 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell an astonishing 25 million copies in the US, and a mind-melting 50 million worldwide.
In 2005, I interviewed Angus via phone from his home in the Netherlands for a Revolver magazine feature on the 25th anniversary of Back in Black. Chatty, mordantly funny, and willing to share thoughtful answers to questions he must have already answered countless times, Angus was an absolute pleasure to speak with. While excerpts from our interview appeared in the finished piece, the entire conversation can now be read below for the first time ever — just another example of the kind of goodies I have in store for my dear paid subscribers…
Hello, Angus! I’m doing a story on the 25th anniversary of Back in Black, and I figured you’d be a good person to talk to…
Oh, yeah, well — I was there. In some form, at least. [laughs]
It’s AC/DC’s biggest-selling record — would you also say that it’s your best?
Well, that’s a tough one. I would think, yeah? Because we have made a lot of records over the years. I suppose it depends how you look at it — if you get something big, commercially, that means a lot to people who are into big things, commercially. We look at it probably a little bit different. I think what I mean is that, through all the albums we’ve made, there’s a lot of tracks on each album that you can dig your teeth into and go, “They’re good tracks!”
So why is it that this AC/DC album, out of all of them, resonates so deeply with people?
It’s probably one of those records that just seems to span the test of time. It was one of those albums that kind of pulled you back in — you played it once, and then you had to play it again, you know? You liked it… but then when you played it again, you kind of liked it further, you know?
A grower, in other words.
Yeah. It pulls you in, and it keeps you going. It never loses its charm, I think. Well, that’s from my point of view. And my bank manager’s! [laughs]