Veteran metal guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen spoke in an interview with Music Radar, and revealed what he really thinks about AC/DC’s legendary guitarist Angus Young.
Malmsteen claimed that ‘Angus Young is a very underrated player’, and here’s why:
“He’s super-tasty and always good! It’s still blues, though, even when he does his big solo. Classical isn’t just little triplets here and there; it’s your entire mind being released from the pentatonic box – a linear kind of playing. And no-one really does that…
It’s all guitar players who listened to other guitar players who listened to other guitar players. That’s a very incestuous line, and what happens is people don’t leave the pentatonic boxes enough.
To play classical, you need to throw everything away and think in a completely new manner. What’s my favorite AC/DC riff? I love them all, but Hells Bells is amazing.”
Yngwie also shared his thoughts about Eric Clapton, and said:
“I think maybe the first kind of blues I ever heard was John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers. I didn’t really even know who it was playing, but it kinda registered this was how you do the blues. And then Cream were really good… you could say it was the heavy metal for its time, for sure!
I don’t have any favourite Clapton solos as such, but there are certain songs like Stepping Out that I love. I’ve never met Eric Clapton, which is too bad because we’re both Strat and Ferrari men… he knows the deal, haha!”