NEW YORK (AC/DC Fans Website) -
AC/DC guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young know it's more fashionable these days for rock stars to be sensitive and earnest. But frankly, they'd rather watch The O'Reilly Factor. "We like to watch people argue on TV," says Malcolm, 50. "It's entertaining, in portions. Some people may think it's offensive, but what's more offensive is listening to a band like
R.E.M. play these slow, drudging ballads until you want to commit suicide. That's what's really dangerous. At least (Bill) O'Reilly can laugh at himself."
Kid brother Angus, 47, nods. "If you can't laugh at yourself and what's around you, life just becomes this dumb, serious moment. We always try to look for the giggle."
The philosophy has served the Aussie siblings and their gleefully crude but smartly crafted hard rock well through the past 30 years. Last Monday, AC/DC was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a ceremony that will be rebroadcast on VH1 tonight at 7 and Tuesday at 1 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT.
On April 22, the band will release the second of three groups of repackaged and remastered CDs representing its entire catalog, including the multiplatinum Who Made Who and The Razor's Edge. The first batch of reissues, which was released last month, featured such favorites as Highway to Hell and Back in Black, and a new bunch due May 20 will include Flick of the Switch and If You Want Blood You Got It.
The re-releases mark AC/DC's first project since signing a new deal with Epic Records. Over coffee and cigarettes at a midtown hotel bar, the Youngs address their decision to leave the group's previous label, Elektra Records, with typical candor. (AC/DC does owe Elektra one more studio album, a work in progress.)
"We just felt stale there in the last five to 10 years," Malcolm says. "We were working with some new people who didn't have a clue what we were about. Every kid on the street knows what we're about, but these people were just in another world."
Malcolm adds that, regarding the reissues, Epic had attractive ideas "about how to redo the product with some good packaging, to give it a bit more class again. And they're going to issue some vinyl LPs for us, for the hard-core fans who want them."
Malcolm and Angus concede to having old-fashioned taste themselves, and not just where technology is concerned. "As kids in the '60s, we listened to The Beatles and the Stones, and we still go back to the same sources they went to," Angus says. "We go to R&B, to rock, to a little bit of soul music � not the slow stuff, but the boppy stuff."
The musicians also hear their own influence in some contemporary rock. "After we cut through the disco phase in the '80s, with Back in Black, there were a lot of bands that sounded like us, but then they faded. These days there are bands that have been influenced by us but don't sound like us. They've moved on, but we've shown them the way - that you don't have to be a commercial outfit. You can go against the grain. You can be outlaws."
Not that AC/DC is thinking of retiring any time soon. "We're always working on new material," Angus says. And if the current mainstream pop world proves too prudish for their dirty deeds, they figure, their fans only benefit.
"I always look at it this way," Angus muses. "If things get that bad - hey, we're going to look even better, you know?"
