The Van Halen song that Angus Young said is one of his favorites

There are many coincidences involving AC/DC and Van Halen, for example, both bands were formed in the same year (1973), they were also founded by two brothers and of course, they became two of the most important Hard Rock bands of all time. They even shared the same bill at festivals sometimes and they became good friends.

The late guitarist Eddie Van Halen was a big fan of AC/DC and said many times that “Powerage” (1978) was one of his favorite records of all time. But the AC/DC co-founder and guitarist Angus Young also likes the American band and once even revealed which one of his favorite songs from their discography.

The Van Halen song that Angus Young said is one of his favorites

By the time Van Halen released their self-titled debut album in 1978, AC/DC was already a successful group. They had released many famous albums like the one that became Eddie’s favorite. As Angus Young revealed in an interview for the Neil Zlozower photo book (Reported by VHND) about Eddie Van Halen released in 2011, one of his favorite songs of the band is “Eruption”, which was featured on that album.

“AC/DC played on a bill with Van Halen back in 1978, 1979 for a Bill Graham Day on the Green show. I didn’t know much about Van Halen then except that I remember seeing film clips of them. Especially the one of Eddie playing the solo piece, ‘Eruption’, I was very impressed. I didn’t meet Eddie until years later when there was a Monsters of Rock open-air festival in England. I was shocked to hear he liked my playing. Because I’ve never rated myself as a guitarist.”

Angus Young continued:

“(…) ‘Eruption’ is a favorite track. He’s got everything characteristic of his playing in that song. There’s a bit of everything. When Jimi Hendrix came along it was like, ‘Where did this guy come from? I think that was the same feeling with Edddie. When Eddie appeared on the scene, every guitarist I ran into said, ‘You’ve gotta hear this guy!” Angus Young said.

During the same conversation, Angus explained that Eddie was an innovator like Jimi Hendrix was. For the AC/DC guitarist, Hendrix came along and changed the whole game and was imitated by countless other guitar players. For the musician, the same thing happened when Eddie appeared, because he “He turned the rule book upside down in terms of his approach. There was a lot of experimentation to his playing. Eddie also crosses into that avant-garde thing, which puts him in the same category as Hendrix,” Angus Young said.

It wasn’t only Angus who was impressed with “Eruption”, that track really shocked guitarists all over the world at the time. Because it wasn’t like anything anyone had done before.

Eddie went to AC/DC whenever he could and was a good friend of Malcolm

Eddie was a big AC/DC fan and used to annoy the band whenever he went to see them live. He kept asking if they would play songs from “Powerage”. One of his favorite ones was “Down Payment Blues” and he even told Billboard in 2015 that that song had one of his favorite guitar riffs of all time.

He became a really good friend of the late AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young over the years. When Mal passed away in 2017 at the age of 64 due to dementia, Eddie released a  statement talking about the musician and said he was the heart and soul of AC/DC.

“It is a sad day in Rock and Roll. Malcolm Young was my friend and the heart and soul of AC/DC. I had some of the best times of my life with him on our 1984 European tour. He will be missed and my deepest condolences to his family, band mates and friends,” Eddie Van Halen said.