Guitar Tricks Insider November / December Issue | Page 28

COVER STORY
being in a club at a big show. But that’s
a load of bull! You just have to remember
you’re on a stage, and you have to
entertain. Don’t forget what you’re doing.
I was always told if you want to show the
people what the guitar is all about, you get
out there and show them.”
Making his guitar do its thing both onstage
and on record has been Angus’ stock
in trade in AC/DC for five decades and
counting, having discovered his calling
when he was a budding teenager. “I didn’t
get my hands on an electric guitar until
I was 14,” Young reveals. “Just to have
one at that time was a big thing. But I
was never that patient to play along with
records. I was fortunate that, when I was
a kid, I could sit down and pick out bits of
tunes or a 12-bar blues. It was just there.
I don’t know how I did it; I just picked it
up. I enjoy any music that I can rock to,
as long as I find it exciting. I remember
seeing The Who and thinking, ‘If they can
do it, so can I.’”
Once AC/DC got together in the early ’70s,
the band found its footing while playing
to many a rough-and-tumble down-under
crowd. “There was one night where it
came more out of anger than anything.
We were playing to a tough audience and
trying our hardest, but they were looking
at us like dumb cold fish,” Young recalls.
“I picked up my guitar and, in sheer
frustration, before you knew it, I was all
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GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
DIGITAL EDITION
That merger of professionalism and
showmanship was instilled in Angus at an
early age by his older brother, the noted
record producer/songwriter George Young,
who was also a member of The Easybeats
and the co-author of “Friday on My Mind,”
a monster international hit in 1966.
“George was probably the biggest one for
saying that,” confirms Young. “He told me
when you put your hand in the air, you f--
-in’ mean it. You don’t get up there and
look like a weasel — you stick that arm
in the air, and you make the guitar do its
thing.”
over the place. I was on the floor, kicking into
the amplifiers, and they responded. The fish
comes alive!”
Garnering that kind of reaction inspired Young
to further evolve his onstage persona into the
energetic schoolboy that persists to this day,
albeit via much trial and error. “A lot of it came
from anger and accidents. I’d fall over a lot,
which was pretty easy to do because there was
a lot of stuff onstage,” he confirms. “I didn’t
have to practice moving since the music has
always motivated me. Even when I started
playing, my head was always going 100 MPH.
It’s like a form of timing. Some people keep time
with their feet, but I keep time with my head
and my feet.”
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER