Top 111 Angus Young Quotes

Go back to the very beginning, when we first started playing in local pubs. We used to play Chuck Berry covers. Every now and then, we’d slip in one of our own songs, and we found that we were getting away with it – nobody seemed to know these were original tracks.

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.

I plug into a lot of old rock & roll. Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis – I love all that stuff.

Go back to the very beginning, when we first started playing in local pubs. We used to play Chuck Berry covers. Every now and then, we’d slip in one of our own songs, and we found that we were getting away with it – nobody seemed to know these were original tracks.

Blues is a big part of rock and roll. The best rock and roll got its birth in the blues. You hear it in Little Richard and Chuck Berry.

When I was young, and I would see bands playing, I would dig the rock & roll and get excited, but when they would start to take the pace down, my attention span would start going.

There’s more to playing the guitar than being able to split your legs.

We came out in the midst of the hippie hangover. All this mellow music.

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.

It doesn’t take much for anyone to pick up anything I play – it’s quite simple. I go for a good song. And if you hear a good song, you don’t dissect it – you just listen, and every bit seems right.

In our hands, even the straightest lyric sounded shady.

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.

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.

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.

A lot of people say, ‘AC/DC – that’s the band with the little guy who runs around in school shorts!’

Australia is the place I know best.

When we grew up, Australia was the land of opportunity; it really was.

For the two hours I climb on stage, I become the schoolboy. But as soon as it is over, I get off stage and go home and get told to wipe my feet before I come in.

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.

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 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?

My part in AC/DC is just adding the color on top.

With seven boys and one sister, there was always a lot of music in the house. A few of my brothers were playing instruments, so it was from hearing that, coupled with discovering early rock, which triggered me to pick up a guitar and try to pick out the notes.

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.

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.

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.

We’ve been involved in a lot of albums that were really rushed at the end.

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?

The school suit allows me to be an extrovert. Basically, I’m the opposite of what I am on stage.

I’ve been shocked for a long time in a lot of circumstances. I get shocked when they say, ‘Hey, we’re paying ya.’

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.

A lot of people say, ‘AC/DC – that’s the band with the little guy who runs around in school shorts!’

In the real world, people just get on with their lives. And that’s where AC/DC come in.

We’re a rock group. we’re noisy, rowdy, sensational and weird.

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.

When we grew up, Australia was the land of opportunity; it really was.

In the real world, people just get on with their lives. And that’s where AC/DC come in.

You have to put a market value on what you do.

I think that’s what it is with rock music. It helps you hang tough, I guess.

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.

In the studio, my brother and I have always used a lot of Marshall amps. We like to keep it pretty basic. We just use a couple of cabinets each – sometimes just one, if we think that’s enough. We mainly go for 100-watt and 50-watt heads.

My ambition was just to be able to play guitar.

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 think that’s what it is with rock music. It helps you hang tough, I guess.

Soloing was pretty easy for me because it was probably the first thing I’ve ever done.

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.

Riffs are a repeating thing. They come back to you. Some of the things on ‘Back in Black’ were ideas we had knocked around on tracks before that: ‘That bit – maybe we should take a chunk of that and slug it in here.’

A good record is one where I can tap my toes. I always say let your feet do the thinking.

I don’t know how many bands I saw who would try to wreck a hotel room, but I never wrecked a hotel room in my life! If I’m gonna sit there and throw a TV out the window… if it’s a good TV, maybe I should just take it home.

For myself, I keep writing. I’ve got to do something. I can’t sit on my hands and do nothing.

I’m constantly surprised when people say, ‘But you haven’t changed!’ It’s like saying, ‘You’ve got a wheel. Now why don’t you make it a square?’

We never go overboard and above people’s heads. We strive to retain that energy, that spirit we’ve always had. We feel the more simple and original something is, the better.

I never thought we’d be put into any sort of historical thing. When we started as a band, it was a day-to-day thing. You sort of played a gig, you got your money and thought, ‘OK, where’s tomorrow’s gig?’ You never thought you’d get past a summer.

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.’

I wouldn’t know any newer bands. We’re past the pimple stage.

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.

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 just go where the guitar takes me.

We knew when we started we wouldn’t be accepted overnight, that it was going to be a long haul.

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.

You have to put a market value on what you do.

To me, meeting Buddy Guy was like meeting a piece of history.

I’ve heard people say all our music sounds the same, but it’s usually just the people who don’t like us who say it.

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.

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.