Angus Young was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1955 and had the chance to see the evolution of Rock and Roll when he was still just a kid. A few years after moving with his family to Australia, he formed alongside his brother the band AC/DC that became one of the most successful bands of all time. In more than five decades, the band has sold an estimated amount of more than 200 million records sold worldwide.
During his career, the musician talked about many bands and once even compared Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant to an important artist that first appeared in the 50s.
The 50s artist that Angus Young compared to Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was formed by the guitarist Jimmy Page after The Yardbirds, band that he was part came to an end. He recruited the vocalist Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones and the drummer John Bonham. After the release of their first two albums in 1969, the band immediately became a sensation. They were selling millions of records and playing everywhere they could.
They continued to make praised albums that made them become one of the best-selling groups in history. The group have sold an estimated amount of 200 to 300 million records sold all over the world. Their career came to an end after the tragic death of the drummer John Bonham at the age of 32 in 1980. The band released a statement at the time saying that they couldn’t continue without him, because he was such an important part of their sound.
Angus Young liked what the British band did in the early albums of their career and in an interview with VH1 back in 2014, when AC/DC was promoting the album “Rock Or Bust”, the musician compared their music and Robert Plant to what Elvis Presley was doing in the 50s.
He talked about that when he was asked to point out which artists that every young Rock musician should hear. “I guess I’d just say if you want somebody looking for a Led Zeppelin type, plug in to Elvis Presley. A lot of the early Presley there’s a bit of Led Zeppelin you know?”
He continued:
“I mean, in Presley, you’re definitely hearing Robert Plant. And in our case you could probably plug into something like Little Richard, ‘cause he always just went for it. He just had power-packed vocals and power-packed songs. If I still hear those early Little Richard tracks, it’s like a hurricane, my hair goes up, you know?” Angus Young said.
Although he liked their early music, Young was not a big fan of what Zeppelin did later
During the same conversation with VH1, Angus was asked which kind of music inspired him and his brother. The guitarist mentioned that the 60s were a great era for Rock and Roll. Mainly because it had bands like The Beatles and The Stones and later on other groups like The Who and Led Zeppelin.
However, he noted that in the 70s things just started to get “mellow”. Which it was one of the biggest things that inspired them. Because they wanted to create another “great Rock band”. He had that same opinion already in 1977 when he talked with Classic Rock magazine about being frustrated when he saw Zeppelin playing live.
At the time AC/DC had already released praised albums like “High Voltage” (1975) and “Let There Be Rock” (1977). “I’ve seen that band live. They were on for three hours. For two-and-a-half hours, they bored the audience. Then at the end they pull out old rock’n’roll numbers to get the crowd movin’. That’s sick. They’re supposed to be the most excitin’ rock’n’roll band in the world,” Angus Young said.
It wasn’t the first time that he had the chance to see the guitarist Jimmy Page performing live. He and Malcolm were lucky enough to have watched him when he was still a member of The Yardbirds.