AC/DC - Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be!
by Tim Henderson

It's been one month since we unveiled the first part of AC/DC's Stiff Upper Lip saga, and in that short time, the record vaulted into the charts worldwide, they shook hands with the gutter at their first in-store appearance ever in New York City, joined WWF lunatics on Saturday Night Live (helping cook up Saturday Night Live's highest ratings of the season with an estimated 20 million viewers on March 18) and performed at the ultra-exclusive Warner Music Juno Awards party on March 12. In short (no pun intended), these Aussie lads have taken the spotlight in their own hands and shone it on themselves. In the past, AC/DC have chosen to shy away from such exposure, but the mood in the camp these days is full of tomfoolery and pent-up juvenile antics. Axe-weilding brothers Angus and Malcolm Young conclude the tale...

The AC/DC philosophy...
Malcolm: "We just try hard to please ourselves really. You gotta do what you do best. You get lots of people saying, 'Oh, when are they gonna change?' and plenty say, 'Don't change.' We couldn't change cause we only know the stuff we like - straight ahead rock and roll, no frills and good performances. The music really is the important thing, that's the bottom line, personally that's all I'm interested in, I'm not even much up for the rest of the thrills of it. Even the press - I'm not a big mover and shaker in those areas and never wanted to be. If I were out of a job I'd be back at the factory, I think. We were all fitters and turners. That's what they called 'em back then in the metal trade, steel work. It was like apprenticeships, four of the guys were fitters and turners and Angus worked with lead."

Success and the meaning of the dollar...
Malcolm: "You don't forget. I get amazed a bit sometimes when you see a lot of young bands who've come up from tough parts of town, especially the rap guys. You see them just buying everything straight away and then six months later they've no more hits, no more money. 'Scots are thrifty!', you know. We're not tight, but we do know what the value of a dollar is."

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