AC/DC’s ANGUS YOUNG Recalls Life-Changing Moment When He Heard JIMI HENDRIX For First Time

In a new interview with Anders Bøtters Tiny TV, AC/DC guitarist Angus Young spoke about the musical inspiration for many of the band’s classic early LPs. He said (see video below): “The thing is a lot of what goes in those albums, when we were younger, that’s where a lot of it all goes back to, at that point — like when I was an early teenager; 13 or 14. Music excited me, still at that age. And I think back, in my time, what I liked music-wise, I had to wait up all night. I would be there all night, and then at about two o’clock in the morning, there was a man on the radio, and he would play rock music of this time. He was an American man. And I had a little radio, and I would sit there in my bed and wake up just for this guy. And there I was. And he would bang out the latest stuff. I heard [Jimi] Hendrix on there, I heard CREAM — people like this. And later on, you started to get your [LED] ZEPPELINs and bands like this. And especially when Jimi Hendrix, when I heard ‘Purple Haze’, boy, that was it. I was so excited. And then I thought, ‘How am I gonna find out about Jimi Hendrix?’ I was out walking anywhere. I went up to a magazine store, and I’m trying to look if they’ve got a magazine from England, ’cause I knew he was in London. And I found a little picture of this guy with a guitar, and I was going, ‘Wow! I wanna look that cool.'”

According to Angus, his goal with AC/DC‘s new albums and live shows is to channel the same feeling that he had as a child discovering rock music for the first time.

“I’m just trying to give you the excitement of that time,” he said. “I refer to that my whole life; I still think that. When I get on a stage, it’s the same thing. I get on a stage and I play, I’m playing to the new kid who’s 13 [or] 14 who’s never seen me before. And I go, ‘Okay, a lot of these older ones out there, they’ve seen me before. They know what you’re about. But that new kid, he’s not seen me before.’ And I’m going, ‘I’m gonna impress him. I’m gonna play for him.’ And it pumps you up. That’s all I need to do. I see some younger faces, and I go, ‘Here I come.'”

AC/DC‘s comeback album, “Power Up”, was released on November 13. The LP features the band’s 2020 lineup of Brian Johnson (vocals), Phil Rudd (drums), Cliff Williams (bass), Angus Young (guitar) and Stevie Young (guitar).

“Power Up” was recorded over a six-week period in August and September 2018 at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with producer Brendan O’Brien, who also worked 2008’s “Black Ice” and 2014’s “Rock Or Bust”.

According to Hits Daily Double, “Power Up”, is expected to shift between 105,000 and 115,000 equivalent album units in the United States in its first week of release. Of that sum, between 100,000 and 110,000 are projected to be in traditional album sales.