“Since we were young”: Angus Young on the one person who guided AC/DC
When it comes to Australia’s biggest-selling artists, one name commercially towers over the rest of ‘Down Under’s’ musical exports. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds? Keep guessing. Kylie Minogue? Forget it. Not even INXS make the top spot. Boasting over 200 million record sales—with 1980’s Back in Black being one of the most successful albums of all time—Sydney’s AC/DC have endured as hard rock royalty and paved the way for the new wave of British heavy metal that offered a beer-soaked antidote to punk’s nihilism.
Their secret? Keep it simple, stupid. Despite forming in 1973 during classic rock’s prime, brothers Malcolm and younger schoolboy-dressed Angus Young just didn’t think rock was pure, cloddish, and fun enough. Recruiting brawny frontman Bon Scott, AC/DC penned good-time rock ‘n’ roll largely concerned with partying, Aussie ‘ard blokes, and a stunted view on sexual politics, which placed them deep into the hearts of every spotty, testosterone-fuelled metalhead to this day.
From first cutting their debut Australian LP at Albert Music Studios with High Voltage through to 1978’s Powerage, AC/DC were confidently selling hundreds of thousands per go. Yet their American distributor, Atlantic, was still antsy, eager to further bolster the band for a predicted Stateside conquer.
Ceasing the former trend of enjoying Harry Vanda and George Young’s production duties—the latter their elder brother and former member of The Easybeats pop group—the band reluctantly agreed to a new big-time producer as well as signing up for management with Peter Mensch, who would later revitalise Aerosmith and Ted Nugent’s flailing careers.
AC/DC’s story is typically divided between the tenure of their two singers—discounting the brief founding vocalist Dave Evans. After a night of heavy drinking in Camden, Scott was found unresponsive in his car and declared dead from “acute alcohol poisoning”. Refusing to call it quits, former Geordie frontman Brian Johnson stepped into Scott’s giant shoes and pulled off the greatest singer swap in music history. An impressive feat, yet arguably, it was Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange’s entry as producer and the collaborative departure of their older brother and mentor George which truly ushered their second phase.
“For the band, and especially myself and Malcolm, George had guided us since we were young,” Angus told Guitar World in 2003. “When we were kids, he’d get a big kick out of taking us down to the recording studio and showing us what was going on. He knew it was such a big deal for us to go into a studio and see how everything worked and to see people playing guitars. So it was strange to be going into a studio without him.”
Sentimentality soon gave way to big bucks. Atlantic’s hunch proved correct, with Mutt realising 1979’s Highway to Hell’s beefy rock attack before overseeing their Back in Black magnum opus. Later, producing Def Leppard’s monster Hysteria and Shania Twain’s country-pop behemoth Come On Over, both the Young brothers and Mutt mutually owe each other much for their respective career trajectories.
“Mutt fit in really well with the band,” Malcolm revealed. “It was a shame we never got back together with him after For Those About to Rock. Actually, we saw him recently at a gig in Paris, and afterward, he said, ‘You’re still the best fucking band I ever worked for!'”
