(Credits: Far Out / Harry Potts / Alamy)
Wed 31 December 2025 18:15, UK
Through thick and thin, Angus and Malcolm Young always stood by each other’s sides. There’s a lot to be said for that sibling bond – one that may have been too brittle for some, but instead lasted them a lifetime.
A shared sense of sonic intuition did a lot of heavy lifting for them both in terms of keeping that relationship completely ironclad. Unlike most bands, AC/DC had the added pressure of having family frictions threaten to derail them if things went wrong. But, despite the band’s various hairy moments over the years, that element never waned.
In reality, the story of AC/DC began in perhaps the unlikeliest of places, namely in the Cranhill area of Glasgow, where the two Young brothers were born. At that time, their future home of Australia was nothing but a distant dream, let alone their rock and roll horizons. Yet even from their earliest memories, there was always one man who showed them how to stir up a scene.
The life lessons bestowed by Chuck Berry were elixirs taken as gospel by the Youngs, as well as the vast majority of the rock landscape of their era, it seemed. But it was for a good reason – with Berry’s careful blend of rhythm and blues, showmanship, and electric energy, he was the ultimate gateway to the chaos that would then ensue when AC/DC and their cronies hit the scene.
However, his teachings from the rock and roll bible extended far further than just personality traits alone. As Malcolm Young once told Rolling Stone: “As a kid, it started with Chuck Berry. You can’t forget Chuck Berry. I mean, just about everything he did back then was great.”
In this sense, it seemed written in the stars that Angus was always destined to join his older brother in the rock and roll leagues of greatness, mainly because they shared such an affinity for Berry and the entire orbit of everything he did. As the lead guitarist explained in a 2000 interview: “I think Chuck Berry has a lot of gifts, because he brought together blues, country music, folk music, and a bit of jazz, and put it all together into what we call rock and roll.”
Angus was not so blind as to suggest Berry’s influence was purely singular. “He started it, and from that little well, a lot of people have drunk from. You’ve had The Beatles, you’ve had The Beach Boys in America, you’ve had the Stones, and it continued on. He’s probably the one who inspired even Elvis Presley and Little Richard.”
Through a combination of pioneering sonics, sharp lyrics, and the entertaining showman persona, it was clear that Berry possessed a touch of everything. “He had a lot of elements just put in the one man,” Angus noted, “and that’s just pure talent”. In some ways, he makes it sound simple – but only a true rocker knows the spirit it took for a man like that to triumph.
Over the course of everything they went through as a band, it might have been easy for AC/DC to lose sight of what they were born out of. But whenever that happened, all it took was the Young brothers putting their heads together and remembering what sparked their fires in the first place. If nothing else, Berry was capable of setting blaze to an inferno.
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