Anthrax’s Scott Ian has paid tribute to late AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young and says he’s “always been my hero since day one.”
Ian was a guest of Gretsch Guitars and was filmed playing the new G6131-MY Malcolm Young Signature Jet. And in the video, Ian credits Young with inspiring him to learn to play the guitar when he was a youngster growing up in New York City.
Ian says: “Malcolm’s always been my hero since day one because he basically taught me how to play guitar.
“As a kid, with AC/DC’s vinyl albums in my little bedroom, I used to sit and figure out how to play their songs – and it was all Malcolm .
“I was learning how to play specifically by listening to what he was doing. He was my guitar teacher. He’s the reason I learned how to play rhythm guitar the way I do.”
Ian say that the way Young played was “perfectly in synch at all times, making it seem effortless” and adds: “AC/DC always sound really simple. People think, ‘Oh, that sounds easy, it’s just a couple of chords.’ But try playing it right. That’s my challenge to anybody.”
He continues: “There’s an instant rush any time I hear AC/DC. It’s mainlined into my brain. As soon as I hear him playing chords, I just get excited.
“If I put on Let There Be Rock, I feel the same now as I did 40 years ago. It moves me in exactly the same way.”
Young died in November 2017 at the age of 64.
