“Ang, you’re on fire!”: When AC/DC’s riff almost burned down the studio
Sometimes, you know an album is good simply by listening to it—it resonates with you instantly and becomes an undeniable favourite. Other times, it feels as though divine intervention plays a role, with an external, unexpected event underscoring its greatness. For Angus Young, it seems the latter has been known to seal the deal.
When talking about his favourite AC/DC album, Angus Young said he thought it was Let There Be Rock. The reason he gave was because he believes it defined them as a hard rock band, which could well be the case.
“Let There Be Rock, for me, is the album,” said Young, “My brother, George, [asked] me and Malcolm… ‘What sort of album do you wanna do this time?’ And Malcolm just looked at me, and he said, ‘We just want an album that’s just gonna be pure hard rock guitar’.”
Young continued, saying that in the wake of punk and new wave, the band managed to make something true to the music which inspired them but also felt new. “I just thought, ‘This is pure magic’,” said Young, “And that album defined AC/DC in my eyes. That’s when I went, ‘This is a great band’.”
It could well have been the sound of the album that won Angus Young over and convinced him it was AC/DC’s best work. However, his mind was likely made up before the record had even been recorded. When you’ve set out to make a great hard rock album, what could be a better sign that you’re doing that than having the amplifier set on fire mid-solo?
Young has always been famed for his ability to work a guitar solo. He plays the guitar fast and makes the distance between the top and bottom of the neck look small with how quickly he can play frets low and high. Pair that with the extravagant way he plays the guitar, rolling on the floor and running up and down the stage; you have the makings for a guitarist who can set a room on fire while recording Let There Be Rock, and that’s exactly what happened.
“Yes, it was on fire and I had to keep playing until the end,” said Young when talking about the terrifying incident, “Because my brother was in the control room, and yelling out ‘KEEP GOING!’ – So I had to keep going until the thing kind of went into meltdown.”
What’s surprising isn’t that Angus Young once rocked so hard that he set his amp on fire; it’s that this isn’t an isolated event. Despite the albums being decades apart, Young showed he was still one of the best hard rock guitarists on the planet when recording their 2014 album Rock or Bust.
“On this album, Rock or Bust, we had the same thing,” he recalled, “My amp just went on fire. And I didn’t even know! I thought it was a cigarette going. But Brendan was shouting out, ‘Ang, you’re on fire!’”
