Five musicians who shared their dislike for AC/DC
No matter how successful an artist is, no matter how many all-time greats they pen, how many other bands they influence, and how many fans they amass, they will always be subject to criticism and cynicism. AC/DC may be one of the biggest bands of all time, but they are no exception to this rule. They have created some of the most iconic riffs of all time, but even that couldn’t absolve them from their fair share of hatred.
Since spawning out of Australia in the 1970s, the Young brothers and their bandmates have secured a legacy as one of the most influential rock bands ever. Between the iconic ‘Back in Black’ riff and the rocking ‘Highway to Hell’, the striking ‘Thunderstruck’ and the self-explanatory ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll)’, they endeared themselves to millions of rock fans and encouraged many of them to pick up a guitar themselves.
They also earned the admiration of other artists, winning over the likes of Slash, Joe Perry and even Paul McCartney with their distinctive form of rock and roll. But not all of AC/DC’s fellow rockers and guitar-wielders were complimentary towards their work. Despite their commercial success, there was plenty to criticise in AC/DC’s songwriting – from sexist lyrics to monotonous albums – and several of their peers were more than willing to do so.
While the Who guitarist Pete Townshend was critical of the Aussie band’s reluctance to deviate from one specific sound, Kurt Cobain was expectedly not a fan of their questionable lyrical content. From Johnny Ramone to Roger Waters, we’ve collated comments from five artists who shared their dislike for AC/DC below.
Five musicians who hate AC/DC:
Roger Waters
As the bassist for Pink Floyd, Roger Waters won over just as many guitar enthusiasts with his output, earning his own place in the history of rock. But while AC/DC focused on riffs and hard rock, Waters and his bandmates ventured into concept albums and psychedelia, carving out a very different legacy for themselves.
Perhaps expectedly, then, Waters wasn’t the biggest fan of the more generic Aussie rockers. During a conversation with Joe Rogan – a poor choice within itself – via Far Out, Waters shared his disinterest in “popular music” and “loud rock ‘n’ roll.” He named AC/DC as an example, stating that he “couldn’t care less” about them or Eddie Van Halen.
Kurt Cobain
As the frontman of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain spent the 1990s reinventing guitar music for a new audience. Infusing it with a new grunge edge, he became one of the most important rockstars of all time, maintaining his influence decades later. He also reinvented the idea of the rockstar. He was entirely committed to his beliefs, tackling gender issues in his lyrics and speaking out against homophobia. Expectedly, then, he wasn’t the biggest fan of AC/DC’s lyricism.
Like many bands in that era of rock, AC/DC infused their lyrics with sex and sexism. In ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, for example, the band compare women to cars. Brian Johnson begins, “She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean.” While Cobain may have enjoyed the sound of AC/DC’s music – as Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg recalled during a conversation with Forbes – the lyrics were, understandably, “not something that he felt comfortable with.”
Pete Townshend
The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has never been afraid to critique his fellow rockers unabashedly. Over the years, he has shared his dislike for some of the biggest bands in the genre, including fellow rockers Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. His critique of AC/DC is a particularly valid one, as he once stated during a conversation with The New York Times that “all their albums were the same,” an accusation he believed could never be thrown at The Who.
“It wasn’t the way The Who worked,” he added, “We were an ideas band… We’re not making Coca-Cola, where every can has to taste the same.” It’s certainly a fair criticism to make of AC/DC – their songs are all fairly indistinguishable from one another, each entry into their catalogue a predictable collection of rocking riffs and shrieking vocals. With 18 albums to their name, there’s surprisingly little variation.
The Stranglers
While AC/DC were honing their rocking sound in Australia, The Stranglers were on the other side of the world, penning punk rock. Despite the distance between them, the two bands would cross paths when AC/DC supported The Stranglers, resulting in a particularly hostile green room encounter.
“When [The Stranglers] walked into our shared dressing room,” Malcolm Young recalled via Louder Sound, “They took one look at us with the hair and went, ‘Fucking hippies.’” According to Young, AC/DC’s original vocalist, Bon Scott, attempted to intervene with some particularly foul language. They instead resolved to show them up on stage, walking back into the dressing room after and saying, “Fuck you, follow that!”
Johnny Ramone
Johnny Ramone was another figure who existed within an entirely different realm to AC/DC, inhabiting the New York punk scene with the Ramones. It’s to be expected, then, that he wasn’t the biggest fan of their sound, but his dislike for the band also seems to spawn from their comparative success. “I just can’t believe how few records we sold compared to everyone else,” he said to Mojo, noting that Back In Black had sold 20 million.
He went on to suggest that Black Sabbath were “much better” and called AC/DC’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance “offensive,” concluding, “The little respect I had for them I just totally lost.” It’s certainly a scathing critique, but not one that their performance was entirely undeserving of. Watch the clip below.
