Blues is the foundation of Rock and Roll and also of other styles that came later, such as Hard Rock, being especially important for bands like AC/DC, which these days is led by guitarist Angus Young. He has always been a huge fan of the genre and the old bluesmen were his biggest heroes. Over the decades, he has spoken about many musicians from that style, including more recent ones like Eric Clapton. What is Angus Young's opinion on Eric Clapton "Everyone always used to rave about Clapton when I was growing up, saying he was a guitar genius and stuff like that. Well, even on a bad night, Chuck Berry is a lot better than Clapton will ever be. Clapton just sticks licks together that he has taken from other people, like B.B. King and the other old blues players and puts them together in some mish-mashed fashion. “The only great album he ever made was the Blues Breaker album he did with John Mayall. Maybe a couple of good songs he did with Cream. The guy more or less built his reputation on that. I never saw what the big fuss was about Clapton to begin with,” Angus Young told Guitar World magazine in 1986. As can be seen, Angus Young didn’t have good things to say about Eric Clapton back then. So his opinion seems to have changed over the years, since he has later praised Clapton and spoken about him in positive ways. To the AC/DC guitarist playing the Blues is simple but the difficult part is to make the song "come alive". It is something that according to him Clapton can do. "Anyone can play a blues tune, but you have to be able to play it well to make come alive. And the secret to that is the intensity and feeling you put into it. For me, the blues has always been the foundation to build on. I’ve always liked the blues, but not only Muddy Waters or Robert Johnson. Any good blues tunes will get my attention, whether it’s by Eric Clapton or Albert King or whoever" he told Classic Rock in 1992. “Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton” is one of his favorite albums Angus is a big fan of the 1966 album "John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers" released with Eric Clapton. He listed that record as one of his favorites of all time when asked by Guitar Tricks Insider magazine in 2016. Some of that love for that record came certainly by the influence of his brother. Angus said Malcolm "listened repeatedly and studiously to Eric Clapton’s blazing work with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers". As the late Malcolm himself recalled in an interview revealed by The Coda Collection, when they were kids he was more interested in The Beatles and Rolling Stones, while his brother was more into Jimi Hendrix and Cream. “We never really played together (Before AC/DC). I was more into The Beatles and Stones. Angus was more into the heavier stuff, Hendrix and Cream, with the lead guitar. I used to listen to songs as songs — the drums, the vocal, the music side of it. So I tended to pick up on the chords, the whole picture around the guitar,” Malcolm Young said. Angus Young said Clapton was one of the great players from his era https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkedAcAAcU4&list=RDOkedAcAAcU4&start_radio=1&pp=ygUbZXJpYyBjbGFwdG9uIGJsdWVzIGJyZWFrZXJzoAcB When Eddie Van Halen passed away, Angus shared a message to honor him, in one part, when explaining how important the musician was, he recalled that Clapton was one of the greats in the music business in the 60s. "When I grew up we had a lot of guys from England who were great players, like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. And then, of course, when Jimi Hendrix came along, he changed the game," Angus Young said. From the 1980s onwards, Hard Rock guitar playing became more technical. In Young’s opinion, that took a bit of the soul out of the music. To explain that, he used Eric as an example of a guitar player who played from the gut and not thinking about scales. "They could play what they’re doing on stage at home. It really sounds like they’re practising scales. And that’s fine, but then to me it’s rehearsed. Whereas you listen to someone like Clapton and you know he’s playing from the gut. For me, some of the greatest solos are by guys like Freddie and Albert King and they’re barely playing three notes," Angus Young told Rhythm Guitar in 2017. When it comes to rhythm Angus thinks Malcolm was more important than names like Clapton The musical connection between Angus and his brother Malcolm was magical, to the point where each could predict the notes the other was about to play. This was the secret ingredient behind AC/DC’s unmistakable sound. Angus has always said he was underrated and that was always “awestruck by the sheer power” of his playing. Because of that and the importance of the rhythm guitar, Angus once said that Malcolm was always doing something better than other musicians. "People like Malcolm, Steve Cropper, Chuck Berry and Keith Richards—they're all doing something better than the rest of us. I can't deny that Eric Clapton's and Eddie Van Halen's lead stuff has influenced a stack of people. But for me it's the rhythm thing that's way more impressive and important to a band. Malcolm is a big inspiration to me; he keeps me on my feet," he told Rhythm Guitar.The post Angus Young’s opinion on Eric Clapton appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.