Power Age

WW: So where have all the great riff-makers gone?

BJ: It's a puzzlement to me. But I never cease to be amazed by what Malcolm an' Angus come up with. We usually meet up in London to lay the seeds fer somethin' new, and they'll play me somethin', an' I'll go, "Where did you pull that from?" An' ya can imagine what it feels like, bein' the first person in the world to hear it. That's the big thrill.

WW: "Stiff Upper Lip" is part of a long and proud history of AC/DC songs that play off phallus references. What is it about the subject that keeps you guys coming back?

BJ: We're all from workin'-class people, an' swearin' was never allowed in the house -- absolutely nowhere. Me father never swore in his life. So workin' men used these little phrases all the time to say what they're really thinkin'.

WW: Like "stiff upper lip," but with a big pause after "stiff"?

BJ: Absolutely. Ya see, there's a million things you can do with it -- an' that's half the fun. Of course, the English have always been fabulous at satire, from Monty Python an' so on, an' our sitcoms have always been the best. The problem with American comedy is, it lacks irony. There's always a message at the end -- like, "The bruiser really was a bully," and by the end of the show, he's an angel. Jeez...

WW: Is our lack of irony one of the reasons some people decided your music was satanic?

BJ: I love America. I live here now, an' it's the greatest country in the world, as far as I'm concerned. But unfortunately, ya have some of the biggest looney tunes, meanin' the religious right. They're just nutcakes, an' if they can get advertisin' for themselves, they'll pick on somethin' people are enjoyin' just because they're enjoyin' it. An' of course they never listened to our lyrics, because there's nothin' satanic in there. Like "Highway to Hell," which we explained was about a three-day drive across a desert in Australia. Which was hot, ya know? Like hell? But these people, they've got so many gullible followers down in that Bible Belt. They'd say if ya play the record backwards, ya can hear evil things -- like, "Grrrrrrrr." An' I would think, "Jeez, I didn't know the devil sounded like that. I thought he was coherent, like the rest of us."

WW: Some of this gets touched on in the Behind the Music documentary that VH1 made about you -- and I was kind of surprised you did that, since VH1 would never play your music otherwise. Why did you decide to go along with that, and did it bother you how it turned out?

BJ: Absolutely, it did. We said we'd do it, an' we spent two hours each sittin' in a chair in New York tellin' about all the good times. An' when it came on, I thought, "What in the name of shit have they done to us?" I got straight onto the telephone with the guy who produced it an' said, "Ya bloody plunker." An' he said, "Hey, man, don't ya like it?" An' I said, "No, I don't like it. I think it stinks." He said, "Why?" An' I said, "We've got a bass player called Cliff Williams who's not even in it. He's been in the band fer 25 years, he was Bon's best friend, an he's not even in it, ya bloody plunker." An' the worst thing was, Cliff was sittin' at home in front of the television with his children, his neighbors, his wife, his mother an' father, to watch it. How do ya think he felt?

WW: "Did they do anything about that?"

BJ: Yeah, they changed it. They put Cliff in at the end. But ya know what their excuse was fer leavin' him out? "He doesn't talk very well." An' I said, "You rude git. Cliff's the nicest speaker of the lot. He's a lovely man. He's a gentleman." But they don't care about that, because they're too busy makin' it into a bloody soap opera. Every time there's an advert, a voice comes on an' says [in an announcer's voice], "When we come back, more death stalks AC/DC..." And I'm like, "Oh Jesus, I can't stand it." I was gonna cut me wrists. I thought, I'm not in this group. An' then they put in all that about that creep murderer, Ramirez, a real piece of shit who mutilated people before he killed them. They had a policeman on there sayin', "The AC/DC baseball cap had nothin' to do with it." But they put it in there anyway, an' glorified that creep again. An' I'm like, "Why did ya do that?"

WW: Because it gave them another dramatic twist.

BJ: Yeah, another dramatic twist before the adverts. I said to the guy, "I think ya've only got one script, an' ya just change the name of the band." You look at the one fer Mötley Crüe: "An' when we come back, more drugs, more death..." Oh God. Just insert the band name, put in a couple of clips, and bingo.

WW: What did the fans think of it?

BJ: Some of them liked it. They'd say to me, "That was fantastic." An' I've just got to bite me lip an' pretend. But it still makes me mad. We gave them the chance to make somethin' good out of a band that's been quite successful, and they treated it like, "Where are they now? Can you believe they survived?"

WW: To me, AC/DC isn't just about survival. It's about continuing to do the job.

BJ: That's it exactly, mate. An' the day I start becomin' a parody of meself, that's the day I'm out of there. I'll climb on me horse and just disappear into the sunset.