Angus Young opens up about his biggest stage fright and explains the reason why he never stopped moving around on the stage during live performances with his bandmates.
- August 24, 2020
AceShowbiz - AC/DC guitarist Angus Young's frenzied stage performances were triggered by his fear of getting hit by a glass bottle.
The rocker tells Guitar World he has always suffered from stage fright and was so worried about becoming a target for fans he decided to keep moving during shows.
Recalling the first show in which he appeared onstage dressed in his now-famous schoolboy outfit, Angus says, "The crowd's first reaction to the shorts and stuff was like a bunch of fish at feeding time - all mouths open... I had just one thing on my mind: I didn't want to be a target for blokes throwing bottles. I thought, 'If I stand still, I'm a target.' So I never stopped moving. I reckoned if I stood still, I'd be dead."
"All you can do is play and pray! You put your head down and hope a bottle doesn't come your way. That became part of my stage act. I learned to duck and keep moving."
And despite all the years he's been playing live, the 65 year old admits he never gets over stage nerves, adding, "Sometimes it is frightening."
"You've got to psych yourself up a bit, give yourself a good kick up the a**," he explains. "Usually, once I've got the uniform on, I'm OK. I'm on edge, nervous, but I'm not in a panic."
"For me, the shows go so quick. You're on and you're off, and then you have to go back to how you are as a person. That's the hard part, because once you go into being the schoolboy, it's pretty hard to come off it. I'm like two different people - sometimes three! I've been up there playing and thinking, 'What are those feet doing?' I'm watching them to see which way they want to go. That's all I ever do - follow the feet and the guitar."
