Chords for Scott Ian on 'The Magic of Malcolm Young' | Artist Interview | Gretsch Guitars

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[D] _ [A] _ _ Malcolm's always been my [N] hero since day one because he basically taught me how to play guitar.
As a kid with ACDC albums, vinyl albums, in my little bedroom on a turntable,
I just used to sit and figure out how to play their songs.
And it was all Malcolm, you know, it was all him.
So I was learning how to play specifically by listening to what he was doing.
He was my guitar teacher.
He's the reason I learned how to play rhythm guitar the way I do.
The way he played, the economy and the percussiveness of his playing,
his right hand and his left hand together, were just so perfectly in sync at all times.
And making it seem effortless.
ACDC always sounds real simple.
People think, oh, that sounds easy.
Oh, it's just a couple of chords.
But try playing it right.
That's my challenge to everybody all the time.
That's why there's only one Malcolm and there's only one ACDC,
because only [E] they can do that. _ _ _ _ _
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It's like, name that tune.
I could name that guitar player in one note.
All I would have to hear is_
And I knew it was Malcolm instantly.
Just what a tone.
[N] The percussiveness of his right hand, how hard he's digging into those chords,
has so much to do with his sound, as much as the guitar, as much as the amp.
His right hand, just Jesus Christ, just unbelievable.
And it doesn't look like he's doing much there, but he's digging in so hard.
He made it so simple for himself.
That's what I love about it.
Anything that could possibly annoy him or go wrong, he just took it out of the equation.
One guitar, never goes out of tune, plugged straight into some Marshalls.
And that's it.
That's my gig.
And once in a while I walk up to a microphone and I do a backup vocal.
And then I step back here and I just do my thing.
And nobody bothers me.
Stay the fuck out of my way.
It's the best.
Just the simplest [A] thing ever.
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[D] _ [A] _ _ [E] There's like this splash when Malcolm hits a big old chord and lets it ring out.
He digs into that chord and that sound just comes at you.
It's like a giant wave coming at you and then it crashes.
And then another one.
And then another one.
And this has that feeling.
When you dig into that chord, you hear [A] the amp react.
You can literally feel the tubes go like_
You feel it.
You feel that swell of volume.
And then it pulls back.
And then you hit another one.
It makes you feel like a part of it.
It's that swell, that wave, that splash of his tone.
And it sounds exactly like that.
[D] _ It _
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_ _ _ _ _ sounds [Cm] great.
It [E] feels great.
I don't get to just play big open [A] chords in my [D] band.
[E] My band is all about down picking and palm muting and fast alternating.
A completely different style of rhythm playing.
So when I get to just hit big chords and really dig in,
it's so much fun for me because it's kind of the opposite of what I do.
But it's what I grew up learning how to do.
And it's what I still love going back to that.
So anytime I could just pick up a guitar that sounds so good and feels so good
and then play chords that sound perfect, I could do that all day.
It just makes me happy.
I could literally sit for an hour and play that A chord
over and over and over again and not get bored.
I've read a little bit about him basically [A#] Frankensteining the one that he was given
and turning it into his own, obviously taking the paint off
and basically just added these things on because he thought they looked cool.
These little pieces that he found at a hardware store.
Pulling the pickups out and experimenting.
He decided to make it his own.
It became an icon.
It's just one of the most iconic guitars since rock and roll was born.
I would put Gretch up there probably in the top 10 iconic guitars of rock and roll for sure.
For me it's number one.
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_ [E] _ _ It's [C] amazing to [F#] me that [E]
Malcolm would still take that guitar on tour.
He did have a number one, right?
And there was a number two, right?
But still the fact that that number one would ever leave the house was amazing to me
because I mean obviously irreplaceable.
So the fact that he wrote all those riffs on that guitar
and played that guitar on all of those albums
and then would take it out and play it live.
I would have been too scared to take that thing on tour with me.
The idea that he sat for so many years.
He would just sit around and pick up that guitar.
I mean I read an interview about that where Angus said,
Yeah, you know, Malcolm said, Yeah, listen, I came up with this [D] part. _
[A] _ [E] And Angus was like, Yeah, sounds great.
To anyone else, [D] if I did that it would just be like [A] big fucking [E] deal.
You [D] know, [N] he, like who gives a shit, those three chords.
But in his hands that becomes back in black.
And that's the magic of Malcolm Young and the [C] guitar that was [E] so much a part [C] of him.
And it gives me the chills when I think [A] about that. _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ [E] _ I've got these guys tattooed on me.
These guys as a guitar player mean everything to me.
And that's why I really wanted them on me
because it makes me happy to be able to go like this and look at them every day.
There's just an instant rush anytime I hear ACDC.
It's like mainlined into my brain.
As soon as I hear him playing chords, I just get excited still after all these years.
If I put on Let There Be Rock, I feel the same now as I did 40 years ago.
It moves me in exactly the same way. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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