Cliff Williams: a London audition, a 1979 StingRay and 39 years of eighth notes | Highway to Hell

Why fans still care

CLIFF WILLIAMS is the bass on Highway to Hell, Back in Black, You Shook Me All Night Long and Thunderstruck. Highway to Hell, Thunderstruck and Back in Black have each passed 2.3 billion plays on Spotify. He mostly plays straight eighth notes on the root. A Premier Guitar columnist says he makes that an art form.

Early life

Before AC/DC he played bass in Home, a London band formed in 1970. They made three albums for CBS, Pause for a Hoarse Horse in 1971, Home in 1972 and The Alchemist in 1973, before the label dropped them in 1974.

Career chapters

1. 1970Home forms in London
2. May 1977auditions in London and joins AC/DC
3. 1978Powerage, his first AC/DC album
4. 1979Highway to Hell
5. 1980Back in Black
6. 1990The Razors Edge, with Thunderstruck
7. 2003Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
8. 2016final show of the Rock or Bust tour, Philadelphia
9. 2020back for Power Up
10. 2023Power Trip festival, Indio

Joining AC/DC 1977 to 1978

A friend told him AC/DC were looking for a bassist. He auditioned in a small rehearsal room in Victoria, London, in May 1977. The first songs they jammed were Live Wire and Problem Child. He took over from Mark Evans, and Powerage, produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, came out on 25 May 1978.

The big records 1979 to 2014

Highway to Hell followed in 1979 and is now 8x Platinum in the US. Back in Black came in 1980, with Brian Johnson, Who’s Who number 1, singing. It is now at least 26x Platinum. You Shook Me All Night Long reached number 35 on the Hot 100 and Back in Black number 37. The Razors Edge in 1990 brought Thunderstruck, now a Diamond single.

Stepping back and coming back 2016 to 2024

On 7 July 2016 he said he would stop touring and recording after the Rock or Bust tour. “I feel in my gut it’s the right thing,” he said. The last show was in Philadelphia on 20 September 2016. Angus Young, Who’s Who number 30, brought him from the back of the stage to the front of the catwalk for the crowd.

On 30 September 2020 AC/DC confirmed he was back, alongside Brian Johnson and Phil Rudd, Who’s Who number 15. Power Up was recorded in August and September 2018 at the Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with Brendan O’Brien. Williams called the line-up “as close as we could get to the old band”. He played the Power Trip festival in Indio, California, on 7 October 2023. For the 2024 tour Chris Chaney took the bass, to “carry the torch for Cliff”, in the band’s words.

Craft, sound and style

The engine room

He has described the rhythm section’s job as drive, foundation and engine. Mostly that means straight eighth notes on the root note. Victor Brodén, Premier Guitar’s bass columnist, says Williams makes that an art form, and that the man has no ego.

The 1979 StingRay

His main bass is a 1979 Music Man StingRay he calls his ”#1 Workhorse”, dated by the stamp in the neck pocket. He has played it for more than 40 years.

The Icon Series

In 2020 Ernie Ball Music Man made a limited replica of that bass, the first model in its Icon Series. It has a three-piece poplar body in a nitrocellulose “Back in Burst” finish and a maple neck and fingerboard. Inside are a custom humbucker with eight Alnico magnets and a two-band preamp, and Schaller tuners sit on the headstock. Williams gave feedback on the prototypes. Only 26 were made, at US$7,000 each.

Stories people still tell

1. Live Wire and Problem Child.

   Those were the first two songs he ever played with AC/DC, in a rehearsal room in Victoria.

2. The banjo.

   On Power Up, Brian Johnson says there’s a song that Cliff “basically stars in”, Systems Down. In his words it “sounds like he’s picking a banjo but it’s a bass guitar.”

3. The walk to the front.

   At his last show in 2016, Angus brought him out from the back so the crowd could thank him.

Legacy

AC/DC have four UK number one albums. Williams was in the band for 39 years before he stepped back in 2016, and he came back for Power Up. Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan calls him a great, great player.