The Record That Changed My Life: Dave Mustaine on AC/DC – Let There Be Rock (1977)

I was 16 and made a living from selling dope. My Mom left me alone pretty often back then and I had to figure out for myself how to get along. One of my customers was a guy from a record store. He recommended Let There Be Rock to me, and I think he even partly paid for his drugs with it that day. Back home, I put on the album and after 30 seconds I knew that my life had changed forever. I looked right into the soul of the rhythm guitar. It was truly a sexual experience. “Let There be Rock”, the title song, felt like an orgasm. And in terms of sex things really went uphill for me in the time after. I had my first serious relationship, and we had a lot of fun together- in bed, but also in general. Also, my entire circle of friends got on board and AC/DC became the soundtrack to that crazy time. When I think about it, not much has changed about that. Today, Let There Be Rock blasts from my Mercedes, but the feeling is still the same.

Years later, I got to meet Malcolm Young. He looked like a thin, chain-smoking dwarf next to me. Accordingly, I felt like a nervous, tongue-tied giant. But when Malcolm was on stage, he became a giant for me. AC/DC have created something immortal, and I’ll fall on my knees for this band until the end of my days. We have covered a couple of songs from Let There Be Rock when playing live, but that has always felt strange. You should let your heroes be heroes.

by Dave Mustaine