Underneath every pillar of rock music, every guitar solo, screaming fan, life-changing moment, and sold-out event, are the three essential components that laid the groundwork for the world’s most important genre: sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. AC/DC are sound champions, but the band’s focus has always been on the latter above all else. This was solidified with the release of the band’s album Let There Be Rock. In the face of a continuously changing musical world, they established themselves as artists who refused to deviate from the style that they had so clearly defined as their own. Decades later, they are still considered one of the tour de forces in rock, and their unwillingness to bend.
“For me, Let There Be Rock is the album,” said Angus Young, speaking of what he considers to be the definitive AC/DC release. “My brother George asked me and Malcolm… ‘What kind of record would you like to do this time?’ Malcolm simply looked at me and said, ‘We just want an album that’s just going to be pure hard rock guitar’.” According to the band’s lyrics, sex was never far away from the AC/DC camp, as tracks like ‘Hard As A Rock’, ‘Cover You In Oil’, and ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ are self-explanatory. Interestingly, they have never had a strong drug link. While this may seem harmless,
“There was a lot of stuff floating around,” recalled Young, talking about the drug scene after shows, “Every time I went to America, I had every dope dealer in the world waiting backstage for me. But me, really, I drink tea, and at that time, I used to drink milk and chocolate.”
This innocence meant that when drug dealers came up to Young and asked him what he wanted, he was honest with them. “I used to get the dope squad people coming up to me and saying, ‘What’s the little guy on?’ And I would say, ‘You know, I eat chocolate bars’.”
Rather than running to the local shop and buying Young a gift bag full of sweets, the dealers interpreted the term as a code for something, unwilling to accept that the duck-walking, adrenaline-inducing guitarist wasn’t high. “So, they’re all running around,” he says. “With these little chemical kits trying to find out what this new drug was.” It’s a valid assumption. Anyone who has watched AC/DC live performances will notice Young and presume he has taken something. It’s simply impossible to play with such ease and energy for so long, but Young does it. It’s not the product of drugs, as is the case with a lot of other rock artists; rather,
