Angus Young, AC/DC’s electrifying guitarist, has always stood tall — not just for his guitar riffs and stage antics, but also for speaking candidly about the state of rock music and his peers. His views have stirred controversy, but also show a fierce loyalty to what he believes “real rock ‘n’ roll” should be. Below are some of his most memorable criticisms, what they tell us, and why many find them fascinating (or infuriating).
What He Expects From Rock
To understand Angus’s criticisms, it helps to know what he values:
Raw energy over polish. He seems to believe rock lives in power — song structure, guitar tone, live performance. If it drifts too far into spectacle, he often disapproves.
Authenticity. Staying true to roots, playing well, not leaning too much on gimmicks or genre-hopping for its own sake.
Feeling the audience. He’s shown annoyance with long, drawn-out performances that, in his view, lose people until older hits are thrown out just to revive the crowd.
Respecting what rock ‘n’ roll started with, instead of trying to remake it into something else.
Angus vs The Rolling Stones
Angus has not shied away from criticizing The Rolling Stones. Some highlights:
He said they have begun “playing soul music these days” and questioned how that fits with what he thinks is rock ‘n’ roll.
He suggested that in moving away from rock roots, The Stones have lost something essential. He believes they’d be better and more comfortable if they stuck to what they do best.
Regarding live shows, he also criticized big bands (including The Stones) for long concerts, where most of the set doesn’t excite until the classics appear. For example: “They were on for three hours. For two-and-a-half hours, they bored the audience. Then at the end they pull out old rock’n’roll numbers to get the crowd movin’.”
Angus vs Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin
These two bands have also come under Angus’s sharp critique.
In a 1984 Guitar World interview, Angry Young said:
“I saw Deep Purple live once and paid money for it and I thought, ‘Geez, this is ridiculous.’ You just see through all that sort of stuff. I never liked those Deep Purples or those sort of things. I always hated it. So I always thought it was a poor man’s Led Zeppelin.”
He hasn’t spared Led Zeppelin either. One of his criticisms was that during a Zeppelin show he saw, the band played for three hours, and for most of that time, according to Angus, the crowd was bored until they pulled out classic rock-and-roll numbers at the end to engage them.
Other Bands He’s Called Out
The Ramones: Angus didn’t think much of them. He claimed (once) he heard them once and a song did nothing for him. He felt their bands in that punk scene “can do the visual, but they can’t play.”
Eric Clapton: There are sources saying Angus felt Clapton borrowed heavily from older blues artists, assembling licks rather than developing them in his own unique way. But these accounts are less directly documented than the ones above.
Far Out Magazine
Why It Matters
Why should we pay attention to these remarks, beyond the gossip?
They reveal Angus’s rock philosophy. He believes that live performance should be raw, exciting, energetic. Long concert lengths or genre shifts that dampen the energy are not, in his mind, true to rock’s essence.
They highlight tension between evolution vs tradition. As bands age, many experiment, shift genres, change stage production. Angus seems skeptical of changes that move too far away from what got bands started.
They show that even within rock, there are debates about authenticity. What counts as “soul,” what counts as “rock,” who has the right to mix, whose roots are being honored vs diluted — these are contested ideas, and Young has never been shy about taking one side.
Final Thoughts
Whatever you think of Angus Young’s opinions — whether you agree or think he’s being too harsh — his outspokenness is part of his identity. It complements his guitar style: power chords, raw tone, high-voltage performance. He doesn’t just play rock; he defends a version of it. And in doing so, he helps keep alive some of the debates that shaped the genre: energy vs polish, roots vs change, performance vs spectacle.
If you listen to AC/DC and then one of the bands he criticised, you’ll probably hear what he means: for many fans, it’s not only about the music but about how it feels. Angus Young wants rock to feel like rock.
Listen to Deep Purple ‘Black Knight’ below.