The best AC/DC albums, according to Slash
What do Slash and AC/DC have in common? Pure classic rock hedonism. While they might have emerged in different eras, the American guitarist was always beholden to acts such as the Australian outfit, who put energy back into a bloated, prog-stricken genre, placing the guitar and big riffs at the forefront of their charge.
Although his propensity to use a Gibson Les Paul might draw Slash closer to other classic rock acts such as Led Zeppelin, Cream and The Rolling Stones during Mick Taylor’s tenure, he has always had a soft spot for the SG-toting Angus Young and his motley crew of Australian rockers. A big fan of his crunching sound and tricky riffs, AC/DC certainly bled into Slash’s sound while developing it.
Fusing arresting arena rock atmosphere with raw energy befitting the chaotic small clubs that AC/DC made their name in, there are several key parallels between Slash’s and Young’s approaches and their respective bands. It’s reflective of this affinity that Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose filled in for AC/DC’s Brian Johnson in 2016 due to his increased hearing loss. He even recently covered ‘Highway to Hell’ with Billy Joel.
In his time in the spotlight, Slash constantly praised the prolific ‘Back in Black’ group and cited them as a key early influence. He is so indebted to them that after Slash’s Snakepit released their second album, Ain’t Life Grand, in 2000, they went on a long world tour with AC/DC to promote it. It was in keeping with his music’s environment.
He’s also been explicit about the AC/DC records he loves the most. Recently, when speaking to Matt Pinfield for New and Approved on 95.5 KLOS, he was asked to name his favourite album by the Australian band when he was starting out. As if there was to be any doubt about the era he loved the most, it was the late Bon Scott period and the first chapter of his successor, Johnson. He named 1978’s Powerage and the following year’s Highway to Hell – the two final Scott albums before his 1980 death – and that year’s Back in Black, the first to feature Johnson, as the ones.
Slash said: “Powerage. Still probably one of my favourite AC/DC records. But at the time when I got into ’em, the record that came out was Highway To Hell. And that’s how I became familiar with them. And then, because of that record, I heard Powerage, and I was like, ‘Whoa, this record.’ That was, really, that got me into the whole AC/DC catalogue. And then Bon Scott died. And that was just… It was, like, ‘I just got into these guys.’ And then really in pretty quick succession, Brian came into it.”
The Guns N’ Roses guitarist then maintained that Back in Black is another masterpiece, arriving in what he described as one of the “biggest years for metal”. Although most wouldn’t necessarily describe AC/DC as such, that year’s hit record certainly contains metallic elements, and Slash likened it to other genre highlights such as Ozzy Osbourne’s second solo effort, Diary of a Madman and his old band Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell.
As for Slash’s favourite AC/DC song, he named it as ‘Down Payment Blues’ from Powerage, which clearly outlines his sonic context and the sounds he looked to replicate when conceiving his approach to the guitar.
