Angus Young

"They paid their money to see the high-divin` act, I think they`re gonna see it."

AC/DC guitarist Angus Young, the inspiration for countless rock bands and a role model for at least half the wacky cartoon duo "Beavis & Butthead," was discussing the drive behind his high-energy concert performances, and the rigors of more than two decades of touring.

"That`s a long road. It takes it out on your bones," he said from a tour stop in Dallas, en route to a recent San Diego performance. "And during the day, it gets hard to move. But at night, when you get on stage...."

That`s when Young, decked out in his trademark schoolboy shorts, jacket, tie and cap, becomes a man transformed.

"I put on the school suit and it gives me that thing. I couldn`t walk around the streets like that - then I definitely would be in a cage. But I do enjoy it onstage. Maybe it`s the suit that gives you that ability to say, hey, I`m gonna be nuts for a few hours.

"I wish I knew myself. I sit and try to think about it, and in the end, I just give up and go, `ah, who cares?`" (Young said he dabbled in other costumes onstage before settling on the schoolboy look, including Zorro, Superman and, as a joking reference to his homeland Australia`s beginnings as a penal colony, "little convict pajamas.")

"As long as you enjoy yourself - and I enjoy myself - and as long as I`m having a laugh, that keeps me going."

Despite some notoriety over the years - including attention garnered when serial killer Richard Ramirez declared himself a fan - "We were never a band that looked for trouble. It just sort of walked up to you."

It found the band in Spain, for instance, in the form of a riotous debut appearance in the late 1970s.

"The first time we played there, there was a bit of a ruckus in Madrid in the streets, a lot of people. And the police were very heavy-handed at that time." (Footnote: This year, Young attended a ceremony in Madrid in which a city street was named for AC/DC.)

"There were a lot of times when you relied on your wits, and you had fun doing it."

But the band, which includes Young`s brother, Malcolm, on guitar, also had a tragic loss to endure. In 1980, AC/DC singer Bon Scott died after a night of drinking. Young said he`s still sorely missed.

"He`ll always be with you. Bon, he was one of those people that, even in the beginning, when we were playing around in clubs, he was larger than life.

"We still play a lot of tracks from those years. There`s always memories and things I think of that still make me laugh, and cry.

"And Brian (replacement singer Brian Johnson), which is true, he will say that the guys talk like (Bon) is still there in the next room."

Young conceded the band had a broader musical range in those rowdy early days.

"We probably had more scope in the beginning, when we were playing bars and clubs, because in those days we were doing a couple sets. We always had fun. We never knew what we were going to play that night.

"I think the best compliment I ever got was when we played Chuck Berry`s `School Days` one night and a guy said to me, `Excuse me, Mr. Young, was that a Chuck Berry song you played up there?` And I said, yeah. And he goes, `You could have fooled me.`"

Even with its occasional forays into blues territory, Young said, "I`ve always looked at us mainly as a rock `n` roll band. We might be a bit harder than most. And if there`s a bit of blues that shines through, even better, because blues was the beginnings of rock `n` roll."

AC/DC has honored those roots over the years, especially in the studio.

"We stray away from technology," Young said. "We still go in and do it the way we always knew, which was pretty much live."

AC/DC`s new album, "Stiff Upper Lip," marks the return of a third Young brother, George, as producer.

George Young, who also produced AC/DC`s early works, "was always good with Malcolm and myself when we were younger, taking us in the studio, showing us how you recorded, passing on lots of little tricks and things. He`s a very creative guy, especially when it comes to rock `n` roll. To this day, he`s still the same."

While Young shuns technology, the guitarist has a live-and-let-live attitude regarding Internet music distribution, and offers a comic-book analogy:

"I used to like comics. We used to have little shops where you could go in and swap comics. And if there was a really hot number you wanted, the guy in the store would go, `Well, you give me two and you can get that rare edition.` I always liked that sort of thing.

"And so, when people talk about the Napster thing and that, as far as I`m concerned, if the public get into it, and they like it that way, that`s their thing."

His interests, after all, are much simpler. "The thing I enjoy best is playing my guitar. And as long as, at the end of the day, I get to do that, I`m happy. That`s above everything else."

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: James Healy