AC/DC’s Angus Young says he came up with idea for ‘Highway To Hell’ while on the toilet

AC/DC‘s Angus Young has revealed he came up with idea for the song ‘Highway To Hell’ while sitting on the toilet.

The guitarist discussed the making of the record while speaking in a new interview, saying that the premise for it came while he was having a bathroom break.

“We’d been in Miami, and we’d been in a rehearsal room and that’s what we were doing. We were putting together new tracks,” Young told Zane Lowe for Essentials Radio on Apple Music 1. “And we’d been there a couple of weeks and we were going a bit slow. And then I had come in one day with [late AC/DC co-founder and guitarist Malcolm Young] and just before we got in, I said, ​’I’ve got a good idea in my head.’

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“So I got in and he came in, and I started playing the beginning, the intro. And so I was doing the da-da-da, da-da-da. And then I said to Malcolm… I had this thing about the drums. And I said, ​’I just want it to come in in the right spot.’ And he said, ​’Okay.’ Malcolm got behind the drums and he said, ‘Right, you let me know when you hear the downbeat, the first downbeat of what you want.’ So that’s what I did. I said, ‘I’ll do my drop,’ and he said, ​’And I’ll follow your foot.’ So he came in with the beat. That’s how we set it up.”

Explaining that the music was there but the lyrics weren’t, Angus said Malcolm then asked him if he could come up with something.

“I said, ​‘Okay, give me a few minutes,’” Young recalled. ​”And I went to the toilet, and then I was in the toilet and I was there and I’m sitting and thinking. And I’m just sitting on the throne more or less. And then I go, ​’I think I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got the idea in my head.’

“And then I came in there and I said, ​’I’ve got it. Highway to hell.’ And I was over the chords that we had tried out through a chorus. And he went, ​’Yeah, that’ll work.’ And he said, ‘If we spread it out a bit into full singing thing.’ So he came up with a spread of it, ‘(Singing) Highway to hell.’”






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Meanwhile, Funko Pop! has announced new Motörhead and AC/DC figures.

The US collectables company has released the ‘Ace Of Spades’ and ‘Highway To Hell’ figurines are part of their ongoing ‘Albums’ series.