Classic Rock
Angus Young recalls he had the idea for “Highway To Hell” in the bathroom
AC/DC guitarist Angus Young recalled in an interview with Zane Lowe that he had the idea for “Highway To Hell”, one of the band’s biggest hits, when he was using the bathroom. The musician said that he had the riff but the lyrics were difficult to appear.
Angus Young recalls he had the idea for “Highway To Hell” in the bathroom:
“We’d been in Miami, and we’d been in a rehearsal room and that’s what we were doing. We were putting together new tracks. And we’d been there a couple of weeks and we were going a bit slow. And then I had come in one day with [Malcolm Young, late AC/DC co-founder and guitarist] and just before we got in, I said, ‘I’ve got a good idea in my head.”
“So I got in and he came in, and I started playing the beginning, the intro. And so I was doing the da-da-da, da-da-da. And then I said to Malcolm… I had this thing about the drums. And I said, ‘I just want it to come in in the right spot.”
He continued, saying:
“He said, ‘Okay.’ Malcolm got behind the drums and he said, ‘Right, you let me know when you hear the downbeat, the first downbeat of what you want.’ So that’s what I did. I said, ‘I’ll do my drop,’ and he said, ‘And I’ll follow your foot.’ So he came in with the beat. That’s how we set it up.”
“I went to the toilet, and then I was in the toilet and I was there and I’m sitting and thinking. And I’m just sitting on the throne more or less. And then I go, ‘I think I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got the idea in my head.”
“And then I came in there and I said, ‘I’ve got it. Highway to hell.’ And I was over the chords that we had tried out through a chorus. And he went, ‘Yeah, that’ll work.’ And he said, ‘If we spread it out a bit into full singing thing.’ So he came up with a spread of it, ‘(Singing) Highway to hell.’ ”
