Angus Young

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 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.

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.

For me, New York has always been a city of unpredictability. You can never guess what's going to happen next.

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.

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.

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

Most people can do what I do - they can do guitar solos - but they can't do a good, hard rhythm guitar and be dedicated to it.

Because we grew up in Australia, to find information about a lot of blues guys, I used to go to the library and find the jazz magazines. They didn't even sell them at the time in news agents and stuff.

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

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

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.

The playing is great. The traveling is tough. It's a hard thing.

I think we're just one of those bands that we know what we do best.

The hardcore fans have hung with us because they go, 'Hey, they don't disappoint.' And we stick to that style.

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.

We don't go around the world counting ticket and record sales, nor do we glue our ears to the radio to hear what's trendy at the moment - we're not that type of 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.

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.

When we were younger and first starting out in Australia, we found that we sold more records by word of mouth because we were playing the bars, clubs, and small places and building a following. And as we got bigger, we still relied a lot on word of mouth.

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.

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

The guitar can go at a scream. It can yell at you.

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.

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

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

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.

With guitar riffs, we always look for something that 's a little bit special. We've always found that it is harder to come up with something that's nice and simple without getting something that's hard but easy.

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.

I don't regard myself as a soloist. It's a color; I put it in for excitement. It's not great loss if a solo has to go. We've made songs without solos.

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.'

We always try to get new songs. That's what AC/DC has always been about. You can listen to what we do, and you can go, 'Well, it's AC/DC, but it's a new song.' So that's what we've always tried to achieve. So we've always got that style.

We're not the prettiest bunch of animals in the world.

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

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

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 used to run home from school, pick up my guitar, and lock myself in my room and play.

I've always been someone who thought it didn't matter where you were playing. I always shot for the best you could get. It never bothered me if it was small or it was big.

In our hands, even the straightest lyric sounded shady.

We've always been quite clear about how we want the songs to sound. If we can imagine the song being played at a party, and it gets people tapping their feet, then it's in.

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.

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.

'Rock Or Bust' is a thing we've always done.

When we play live, it's always been a do or die effort. And everything we've ever done has always had that approach.

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.'

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

What we admit to is being a rock n' roll band. From day one, I was a big Chuck Berry fan.

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

By the way he carried himself, you really thought that Bon Scott was immortal.

There's nothing worse than trying to patch something or make do. If there wasn't something there in the beginning, it won't be there at the end.