Angus Young: the school uniform, the SG and 50 years of AC/DC | Ultimate Guitarist Reunion

Why fans still care

ANGUS YOUNG has played lead guitar in AC/DC for more than 50 years, most of it in a school uniform. The National Portrait Gallery calls AC/DC “Australia’s most successful ever band”, and he is its only continuous founding member.

Back in Black, from 1980, has been certified 27 times Platinum by the RIAA. That makes it the third-highest certified album in the US. Rolling Stone Australia put it at number 1 on its list of the 200 greatest Australian albums.

Sony Music puts AC/DC’s sales at more than 200 million albums. When Power Up went to number 1 in 2020, AC/DC became the only Australian group with number 1 albums in five decades, by Rolling Stone Australia’s count.

Early life and training

He was born in Glasgow on 31 March 1955, the youngest of eight children of William and Margaret Young. The family emigrated to Sydney in 1963 and stayed first at the Villawood Migrant Hostel. In 1965, after stays at other addresses, they moved into a house at 4 Burleigh Street, Burwood.

His older brother George played in The Easybeats and later made records as a producer with Harry Vanda. Another older brother, Malcolm Young, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon), would start a band with him.

The guitar came early. He bought his first Gibson SG, second-hand, in 1970.

Career chapters

1. 1963The family emigrates from Glasgow to Sydney
2. 1973Forms AC/DC in Sydney with Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon)
3. 1974First gig in the school uniform, Victoria Park, Sydney
4. 1979Highway to Hell, Bon Scott’s, Who’s Who number 3 in · Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion (story coming soon) last album with the band
5. 1980Bon Scott, Who’s Who number 3 in · Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion (story coming soon) dies on 19 February; Brian Johnson, Who’s Who number 1 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) joins; Back in Black
6. 1981For Those About to Rock tops the US chart
7. 1988ARIA Hall of Fame
8. 2003Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; APRA Ted Albert Award
9. 2014Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) retires; Stevie Young takes over rhythm guitar
10. 2016Axl Rose, Who’s Who number 2 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) fronts AC/DC for the rest of the tour
11. 2017George and Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) die
12. 2020Power Up, number 1 in the US, the UK and Australia
13. 2023Back on stage at Power Trip, California
14. 2026The Power Up Tour ends at MetLife Stadium, 2 October

Sydney, 1973 and 1974

Angus and Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) formed AC/DC in Sydney in 1973. uDiscover Music puts it late in the year.

He first wore the school uniform on stage in April 1974, at an outdoor show in Victoria Park, Sydney. It was Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) and their sister Margaret who suggested the look. Before that he had tried a gorilla suit, a Superman outfit and a Zorro-style cape.

Highway to Hell and Back in Black 1979 and 1980

Highway to Hell, released in 1979, was Bon Scott’s, Who’s Who number 3 in · Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion (story coming soon) last album with the band. Scott, Who’s Who number 3 in · Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion (story coming soon) died in London on 19 February 1980, aged 33, of alcohol poisoning.

Within weeks the band was rehearsing again, and by early April they had chosen Brian Johnson, Who’s Who number 1 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon). “We knew if Bon liked him, he must be good,” Angus told Ultimate Classic Rock in 2015.

They recorded Back in Black at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas with producer Mutt Lange. It came out in July 1980, went to number 1 in the UK and number 4 in the US, and went into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013.

The big years 1981 to 2014

For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) gave AC/DC their first US number 1 in 1981. Black Ice did it again in 2008, with 784,288 copies sold in its first week in the US.

In 2014 Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) retired because of dementia, and their nephew Stevie Young took over rhythm guitar. Rock or Bust came out that year and reached number 3 in the US.

A new singer for the road 2016

In 2016 Brian Johnson, Who’s Who number 1 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) stopped touring because of hearing loss. Axl Rose, Who’s Who number 2 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) stepped in to front AC/DC for the rest of the tour, which started again in Portugal on 7 May. That April, Angus had guested with Guns N’ Roses at Coachella.

Losing George and Malcolm 2017

George Young died in October 2017. Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) died a few weeks later, on 18 November, aged 64, after several years of dementia. Angus’s statement read: “Malcolm, job well done.”

Power Up 2020

In November 2020 Power Up brought Angus back together with Brian Johnson, Who’s Who number 1 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon), Phil Rudd, Who’s Who number 15 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon), Cliff Williams, Who’s Who number 21 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) and Stevie Young. It was built on riffs he and Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) had stockpiled around the time of Black Ice. He told Music Week that Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) had kept pushing him to put them out. “I knew exactly what he wanted,” he said.

He also talked about getting through the grief by working. “Sometimes the best therapy is doing something,” he told Music Week.

Power Up went to number 1 in the US, the UK and Australia.

The Power Up Tour 2023 to 2026

On 7 October 2023 AC/DC played their first show in seven years, at Power Trip in Indio, California, with Matt Laug on drums. The tour that followed sold more than two million tickets in Europe. Back home, they played five stadium shows between 12 November and 14 December 2025, with Amyl and the Sniffers in support.

The touring band was Angus, Brian Johnson, Who’s Who number 1 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon), Stevie Young, Matt Laug and Chris Chaney.

In Philadelphia on 29 September 2026, the Inquirer found him still in near-constant motion at 71. The jumps were lower and the fretwork a little slower, but he kept moving.

The tour finished at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 2 October 2026. Foo Fighters opened, and Dave Grohl came out to join them for “Highway to Hell”.

Craft, sound and style

The Gibson SG is the guitar people picture in his hands. He bought his first in 1970, three years before AC/DC.

One of the SGs on Highway to Hell and Back in Black was a cherry red 1971 SG Standard, and he took it on the tours for both albums, Guitar.com says.

He has never had much time for pedals. “The best thing I ever did in the beginning was not use effects,” he told Vintage Guitar in 2020. The exception is a wireless. From 1977 he played through a Schaffer-Vega Diversity System, and its inventor, Ken Schaffer, routed out the back of the ’71 SG and two others so the transmitter could sit inside the guitar. The unit had its own boost, and it changed the sound as well as freeing him to run around. “You can really give a guitar hell with ’em,” he told the journalist Steven Rosen. By Angus’s account, his brother George had him use it in the studio from 1978, and when Mutt Lange came in, he asked for the same gear Angus used on stage. Engineer Tony Platt told Premier Guitar in 2010 that when Angus overdubbed his Back in Black solos in the Bahamas, they ran his rig wireless.

The duckwalk has a family tree. The Philadelphia Inquirer describes it as rooted in Chuck Berry’s, Who’s Who number 36.

For more than 40 years, Malcolm’s, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) rhythm guitar sat under his lead. Since 2014 that job has been Stevie Young’s.

Stories people still tell

1. The house in Burwood.

   The family home at 4 Burleigh Street was listed as a heritage site by the National Trust in 2013. It was knocked down shortly before Christmas 2024. The developer, Burwood Square Pty Ltd, said: “We are genuinely sorry for this oversight.”

2. The Ashfield blazer.

   Louder’s history of his school uniforms ties the look to an Ashfield Boys’ High blazer.

3. Signing a baby.

   When storm damage cancelled AC/DC’s Toronto show in September 2026, Angus turned up at a pop-up and signed a baby. Consequence counted it as his second baby-signing of the year.

4. Introduced at a show.

   Adrian Vandenberg says he introduced Angus to his wife, Ellen, at an AC/DC show near Arnhem in the Netherlands. By Vandenberg’s account, they married about a year later.

Legacy

AC/DC went into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1988, in its first class, alongside Johnny O’Keefe, Who’s Who number 1 in · Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion (story coming soon) and Vanda & Young. In 2003 Steven Tyler, Who’s Who number 23 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) inducted them into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The same year, APRA gave its Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Service to Australian Music jointly to Angus, Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 (story coming soon) and the late Bon Scott, Who’s Who number 3 in · Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion (story coming soon).

Rolling Stone Australia counts four AC/DC songs past a billion Spotify streams, and 27 albums on the Billboard 200, 10 of them in the top 10. The National Portrait Gallery holds four portraits of him.

As of mid-October 2026 there’s no new AC/DC album announced. He’s still the one who has been there since the start.