AC/DC's new album Power Up topped the charts all over the world upon release – as well as being named the best record in both Classic Rock and Louder's end of year polls – and even broke records, making AC/DC the first band ever to score number one albums in five successive decades in their native Australia.
While they may have nailed the feat of supplying 2020’s champion record, in the latest issue of Classic Rock – on sale now – we took our deep-dive into the record's inception one step further, asking the people who made it to crown its greatest moment. Yup, you can always count on us to ask the tricky questions.
"I really like the opening track a lot, Realize," Angus Young tells us. "But I like them all – Rejection, Shot In The Dark, Wild Reputation, Demon’s Fire… and Money Shot is a big song," he adds diplomatically.
"I’m a bit biased, you know?"
Vocalist Brian Johnson, meanwhile, refuses to pick favourites. “No! Don’t ask me that," he says. "It’s like trying to pick your favourite Beatles song. It ain’t gonna happen.
“And if I pick one I’ll only change my mind tomorrow. The first thing I said to Angus when I got a copy of the album was: ‘Jeez, I do not envy the man who’s got to pick a single from this lot.’”
AC/DC have been responsible for a barrage of rock'n'roll anthems in their time, but earlier this year, Young let slip that their catalogue isn’t as solid as he’d like. In conversation with Vulture Magazine, he revealed that there is one track he was never too pleased with. "On our first album, High Voltage, we did a love song called Love Song," he says. "That was very different for us. I didn’t know if we were trying to parody love songs of the time, because Bon [Scott] wrote the lyrics. I don’t even remember what the words are.”
"I remember that song because the guy who worked for us at our record label told us that’s what was on the local radio at the time – very soft music. His thought was we should release that song, because it’ll probably get some airplay.
"I remember thinking, 'Who in their right mind would want this to go out?'"
Grab a copy of the latest issue of Classic Rock to read our AC/DC feature in full.
