Angus Young is one of the most influential guitarists in the world who, unlike many of his peers, has kept a low profile over the years, especially in recent decades, when he only spoke to the press when AC/DC released new albums. As a result, he rarely discussed other bands and artists, but he has revealed who his favorite guitarist is and also mentioned one he didn’t like.
The guitarist Angus Young likes the most and the one he doesn’t
Chuck Berry (His favorite one)
“My guitar heroes, I like people like B.B. King, Buddy Guy is a great guitarist. My all time favorite (is) Chuck Berry,” Angus Young said in an interview with Paul Cashmere in 1993. In his opinion, it was the American artist who, besides being an incredible composer, was also a fantastic guitarist and performer. For him, Chuck brought together Blues, Country, Folk and Jazz, blending it all into his sound.
When asked by BBC’s Johnnie Walker to name his Rock God, his choice was, of course, Chuck. “(Berry) was probably one of the great guitar people for rock and roll. He combined a lot of elements, he combined blues, a bit of jazz and his own unique style.
“He melded all these kinds of different genres of music. But he seemed to bring it together and bring it out and it [came] out in that rock and roll style. So plain and simple, but it was so effective. I saw him live once when I was younger. I just loved his stage presence and how he performed. He was one of those people, when he got on a stage, he owned it,” Angus Young said in 2021. Inspired by the legendary American artist, he does for decades his own version of the “Duck Walk”.
He once said that Chuck Berry was much better than Eric Clapton
Angus’ admiration for Chuck Berry has always been big and he once said that in his opinion he was much better than highly regarded guitar players like Eric Clapton. “Chuck Berry was never a caring person. He didn’t care whether he was playing his tune, out of tune, or someone else’s tune.”
“Whenever he plays guitar, he has a big grin from ear to ear. Everyone always used to rave about Clapton when I was growing up, saying he was a guitar genius and stuff like that. Well, even on a bad night, Chuck Berry is a lot better than Clapton will ever be. Clapton just sticks licks together that he has taken from other people—like B.B. King and the other old blues players—and puts them together in some mish-mashed fashion.”
“The only great album he ever made was the Blues Breaker album he did with John Mayall. Maybe a couple of good songs he did with Cream. The guy more or less built his reputation on that. I never saw what the big fuss was about Clapton to begin with,” Angus Young told Guitar World magazine in 1986.
Hank Marvin (The Shadows – the one he didn’t like)
Curiously, one guitarist Angus was quite harsh about in the past was Hank Marvin from the influential band The Shadows. Although he influenced countless famous British guitarists like Brian May, Tony Iommi and David Gilmour, he did not inspire Angus. In fact, in his opinion, Marvin “set music back 20 years.”
“I just plugged it into the amp and played. I never used any of those ‘wangy’ bars or stuff like that. Those things (tremolos) never appealed to me. If I want to get a similar kind of sound, I just de-tune the strings. Cliff Richards used to have this guy in his backing band, Hank Marvin, who used that thing on almost every note.”
He continued:
“He was like a Buddy Holly clone, he used to do these silly little steps. Guys like Hank set the music world back 20 years. I couldn’t believe guitarists like Beck looked at him as inspiration. Whenever I saw guys like Hank Marvin, I would always go in the complete reverse of what they were doing. Consequently, whenever I hear a tremolo, I can only think of him,” Angus Young told Guitar World magazine in 1986.
The main reason the AC/DC guitarist didn’t enjoy Marvin’s sound was that he thought his style sounded dated. “They (my early instruments) did (have tremolos) but I took it off. I used to fool around with them but you begin sounding like Hank Marvin.”
“It’s like when the music of the day dictates that the guitarist has a wah pedal or a tremolo effect or something. You listen to it five years later, and go, ‘Jeez, it sounds so dated.’ We never did that,” he told Guitar World in 2003.
Formed in 1958, The Shadows served as Cliff Richard’s backing band until 1968. Meanwhile, they also had their own records, releasing 21 albums by 1990. Some of their most famous songs are “Apache”, “Summer Holiday”, “Wonderful Land”, and “The Young Ones”.
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