Angus Young Explains Inspiration For AC/DC Classic

Keavin Wiggins | 02-25-2021

AC/DC lead guitarist Angus Young has revealed that the title of their classic hit "For Those About To Rock" was inspired by a line from British poet and author Robert Graves.

Angus shared the story of the writing of the track during an appearance on Zane Lowe's Apple Music show. He said that he and his brother Malcolm, "worked on that and we came up with the verse idea of it

"And the funny thing is, when we got to the chorus, we were going, 'Okay, what are we going to sing on this?' And for me, I just thought, well, sometimes I go back [to] something I've read somewhere, and there was the writer Robert Graves, I believe his name was, I think he had a book out or a story he had put in one of the papers, because he did a lot of history stuff.

"And I had read it and it was, 'For those about to die,' and he went into a day in the Coliseum or somewhere in Rome at the time and the thing that the gladiators did. And I thought, 'That might fit.' So it was a case of, if I can come up with a way of singing something that can sing into it.'

'I think at first Malcolm thought, 'Wait. What is he on?' And I'm going, 'Well, for those about to ...' And I got it in, I got it all in, 'For those about to rock.' So that kicked off that." Check out the interview below: