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Why AC/DC Matters
Australian rock giants AC/DC have sold more records in the U.S. than Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, and than the Rolling Stones, yet have always been undervalued and unappreciated by mainstream rock music critics. In Why AC/DC Matters , former Rolling Stone staff writer and New York Times bestselling author Anthony Bozza addresses this inequity, penning a just tribute to these monsters of rock. Brimming with fascinating stories and insights from musicians, fans, music scholars, and the author himself, Why AC/DC Matters is an overdue homage to arguably the greatest rock and roll band of all time.
- GenresMusicNonfictionBiography
137 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
9 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Bozza
22 books28 followersAnthony Bozza is living the life many only dream about. As the bestselling author of seven books, including the autobiographies of Slash, Tommy Lee, Artie Lange and Tracy Morgan, Bozza has both the ear and the trust of rock and pop culture royalty. He is currently co-writing Wyclef Jean’s autobiography as well as publishing up-and-coming authors and cutting edge non-fiction via his Igniter Literary Group, an imprint of Harper Collins’ It Books. Bozza co-founded Igniter with fellow bestselling author Neil Strauss.
Bozza’s writing career began with an internship at Rolling Stone, where he did the usual fact-checking and assistant work that comes with the job. But his knowledge and love of music quickly let to his big break after a friend turned him on to a then-unknown white rapper called Eminem. Bozza championed Eminem, singing his praises to his editors a year before he was even signed to a record deal. In 1999, when Rolling Stone decided to do a cover story on Slim Shady’s debut release, they assigned Bozza, who made the most of the opportunity. That defining portrait of Eminem led to six other cover stories, numerous features and countless articles over Bozza’s seven year tenure at the iconic magazine. During that time he also wrote and edited the “Random Notes” section, following in the footsteps of legendary culture critics like writer-director Cameron Crowe as well as MTV’s Kurt Loder. By 2002, Bozza had done it all, so he left Rolling Stone to focus on writing books, but by no means has he lost his love for the music scene and how it speaks to and reflects the state of our society.
His cover stories and multiple features on Eminem evolved into Bozza’s first book, Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem. It was deemed a “compelling” investigation of the “Shadyification of America” by New York Times’ critic Janet Maslin and became an international bestseller. The book wisely focused not only on Eminem himself, but on how his success as a white rapper spoke to the state of race and culture in America. From there, Bozza has never looked back. He collaborated with Mötley Crüe drummer, Tommy Lee, then Guns n’ Roses guitarist, Slash, on their respective autobiographies, Tommyland and Slash - both bestsellers. He went on to work with comedian Artie Lange, whose autobiography Too Fat to Fish debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and remained on the list for 22 weeks. Bozza’s next two books were Why AC/DC Matters and I Am the New Black, the autobiography of 30 Rock and SNL star Tracy Morgan. Bozza has written for magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Spin, Maxim, The New York Times, The Guardian/Observer (U.K.), Q, Mojo, Paper, Nylon, Blender and Radar, and continues to do so as often as possible.
Never one to rest on his past success, Bozza is in the midst of his next collaboration, this time with Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, a story that will be both uplifting and heartbreaking in light of the recent tragedy in Jean’s home country of Haiti. Bozza has also sought out new and exciting challenges as co-publisher of Igniter Literary Group, which will be distributed by Harper Collins’ It Books. The imprint’s first release, The Last Living Slut: Born in Iran, Bred Backstage, will redefine the rock groupie memoir upon its release in June 2010. Igniter’s next title, The Man Behind the Nose, is the autobiography of Larry “Bozo the Clown” Harmon and will be released in August 2010. And as if all that weren’t enough, Bozza is shopping a TV show that will feature him in the field, chasing down interviews with pop culture’s most notoriously elusive and difficult subjects.
Bozza lives in New York City.
Bozza’s writing career began with an internship at Rolling Stone, where he did the usual fact-checking and assistant work that comes with the job. But his knowledge and love of music quickly let to his big break after a friend turned him on to a then-unknown white rapper called Eminem. Bozza championed Eminem, singing his praises to his editors a year before he was even signed to a record deal. In 1999, when Rolling Stone decided to do a cover story on Slim Shady’s debut release, they assigned Bozza, who made the most of the opportunity. That defining portrait of Eminem led to six other cover stories, numerous features and countless articles over Bozza’s seven year tenure at the iconic magazine. During that time he also wrote and edited the “Random Notes” section, following in the footsteps of legendary culture critics like writer-director Cameron Crowe as well as MTV’s Kurt Loder. By 2002, Bozza had done it all, so he left Rolling Stone to focus on writing books, but by no means has he lost his love for the music scene and how it speaks to and reflects the state of our society.
His cover stories and multiple features on Eminem evolved into Bozza’s first book, Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem. It was deemed a “compelling” investigation of the “Shadyification of America” by New York Times’ critic Janet Maslin and became an international bestseller. The book wisely focused not only on Eminem himself, but on how his success as a white rapper spoke to the state of race and culture in America. From there, Bozza has never looked back. He collaborated with Mötley Crüe drummer, Tommy Lee, then Guns n’ Roses guitarist, Slash, on their respective autobiographies, Tommyland and Slash - both bestsellers. He went on to work with comedian Artie Lange, whose autobiography Too Fat to Fish debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and remained on the list for 22 weeks. Bozza’s next two books were Why AC/DC Matters and I Am the New Black, the autobiography of 30 Rock and SNL star Tracy Morgan. Bozza has written for magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Spin, Maxim, The New York Times, The Guardian/Observer (U.K.), Q, Mojo, Paper, Nylon, Blender and Radar, and continues to do so as often as possible.
Never one to rest on his past success, Bozza is in the midst of his next collaboration, this time with Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, a story that will be both uplifting and heartbreaking in light of the recent tragedy in Jean’s home country of Haiti. Bozza has also sought out new and exciting challenges as co-publisher of Igniter Literary Group, which will be distributed by Harper Collins’ It Books. The imprint’s first release, The Last Living Slut: Born in Iran, Bred Backstage, will redefine the rock groupie memoir upon its release in June 2010. Igniter’s next title, The Man Behind the Nose, is the autobiography of Larry “Bozo the Clown” Harmon and will be released in August 2010. And as if all that weren’t enough, Bozza is shopping a TV show that will feature him in the field, chasing down interviews with pop culture’s most notoriously elusive and difficult subjects.
Bozza lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 13, 2021
The short answer is - they don’t. In another two generations, rock and roll will be seen as degenerate clown music, as quaint as Victorian music hall or Tin Pan Alley, only funnier.
Rock won’t outlast Bach and Wagner, but someday even Bach and Wagner will be forgotten, perhaps sometime after the death of the sun. For nothing lasts forever except forever (see The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson) as Bon Scott might have agreed, perhaps on his way back from the gonorrhoea clinic.
This entire book seems to have written, in 2009, as a rejoinder to hipsters who take the White Stripes seriously but despise AC/DC as bogan music.
But in 2018, hardly anyone remembers the White Stripes, yet ‘Powerage’ and ‘Back in Black’ are still widely listened to, so who cares what hipsters think?
Hipsters are dumb anyway…they latched onto black metal ten years after it lost its relevance, then pretended it was a rebellion against the ‘right wing church’, when in fact it was a rebellion against the left wing church and PC death metal bands like Napalm Death.
Also, if music critics called Altman and Fine despise AC/DC then it says something in the band’s favour, n’est-ce pas? ; )
Rock won’t outlast Bach and Wagner, but someday even Bach and Wagner will be forgotten, perhaps sometime after the death of the sun. For nothing lasts forever except forever (see The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson) as Bon Scott might have agreed, perhaps on his way back from the gonorrhoea clinic.
This entire book seems to have written, in 2009, as a rejoinder to hipsters who take the White Stripes seriously but despise AC/DC as bogan music.
But in 2018, hardly anyone remembers the White Stripes, yet ‘Powerage’ and ‘Back in Black’ are still widely listened to, so who cares what hipsters think?
Hipsters are dumb anyway…they latched onto black metal ten years after it lost its relevance, then pretended it was a rebellion against the ‘right wing church’, when in fact it was a rebellion against the left wing church and PC death metal bands like Napalm Death.
Also, if music critics called Altman and Fine despise AC/DC then it says something in the band’s favour, n’est-ce pas? ; )
June 9, 2025
"Considering the band's entire catalog is built on four or five basic, frequently used rock and blues chords, it is impressive that they've managed to pen [an inventory] that never sound like anyone else while remaining less repetitive than logic would predict . . . AC/DC's contribution to rock is gracefully zen: the band has made, and remade, iconic anthems from the most fundamental ingredients of the genre. They have not reinvented the wheel -- they've just spun it like a motherf***er." -- on pages 4-5
Legendary multi-genre music producer Rick Rubin is quoted at the very beginning of author Bozza's Why AC/DC Matters with the succinct, almost 'fight me' quote of "I'll go on record saying that AC/DC is the greatest rock and roll band of ALL time." This opinion, along with some detailed testimonies from axe-slinger Slash of Guns N' Roses, drummer Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, and . . . Professor Robin Stone of Boston's Berklee College of Music (whoa!) provide a lot of the grist and backbone for this surprisingly informative little book. At a compact 130 pages, Bozza - who had previously penned biographies on the aforementioned Slash and Lee, likely engendering the goodwill that lent to their freewheeling yet sincere praise here for the group - delivers part biography and part fun yet semi-serious musical discussion on the Australian act (although only one of the original and/or long-running members was actually born there) who are still one of the top-selling rock bands of all time, with only the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd standing ahead of them in the same arena. While losing and/or changing a front man would doom lesser groups, AC/DC - founded and anchored by guitarist brothers Angus and Malcolm Young - survived the loss of cheeky Bon Scott by wisely procuring the blistering vocals of Brian Johnson to continue warbling their pounding, party-ready anthemic tunes. Beer-drinking, fist-pumping, head-banging, air guitar-playing and/or highway-driving music of the very best kind (just in my opinion - can you tell that I'm a fan? 😎), their albums - such as Let Their Be Rock, Back in Black, and my favorite Highway to Hell - are core tenants of late 70's / early 80's hard rock. Is it great art? Who cares? For those about to rock, I salute you. 🫡
Legendary multi-genre music producer Rick Rubin is quoted at the very beginning of author Bozza's Why AC/DC Matters with the succinct, almost 'fight me' quote of "I'll go on record saying that AC/DC is the greatest rock and roll band of ALL time." This opinion, along with some detailed testimonies from axe-slinger Slash of Guns N' Roses, drummer Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, and . . . Professor Robin Stone of Boston's Berklee College of Music (whoa!) provide a lot of the grist and backbone for this surprisingly informative little book. At a compact 130 pages, Bozza - who had previously penned biographies on the aforementioned Slash and Lee, likely engendering the goodwill that lent to their freewheeling yet sincere praise here for the group - delivers part biography and part fun yet semi-serious musical discussion on the Australian act (although only one of the original and/or long-running members was actually born there) who are still one of the top-selling rock bands of all time, with only the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd standing ahead of them in the same arena. While losing and/or changing a front man would doom lesser groups, AC/DC - founded and anchored by guitarist brothers Angus and Malcolm Young - survived the loss of cheeky Bon Scott by wisely procuring the blistering vocals of Brian Johnson to continue warbling their pounding, party-ready anthemic tunes. Beer-drinking, fist-pumping, head-banging, air guitar-playing and/or highway-driving music of the very best kind (just in my opinion - can you tell that I'm a fan? 😎), their albums - such as Let Their Be Rock, Back in Black, and my favorite Highway to Hell - are core tenants of late 70's / early 80's hard rock. Is it great art? Who cares? For those about to rock, I salute you. 🫡
April 9, 2010
An interesting look into the structure of the music of AC/DC. The author, who has written for Rolling Stone magazine, has written a book attempting to justify to all the rock n roll arty snobs why this music matters. As if AC/DC needs justification. For those about to rock, we salute you!
September 8, 2010
I've been sitting on this review for a while and even re-read the book to see if my first impressions were still the same. They are. I think this is a terrific little book, so why I am having trouble with the review. Well, I want to tell you that this book reads just like an academic thesis. No, its not stuffy and long winded, rather Mr. Bozza states his thesis, that "AC/DC is the greatest living rock band" and then he sets out to prove it.
First he starts with Angus and Malcolm Young and how they learned together to play guitar. He feels that is the main reason why they perform so well together. They know each other's techniques intimately.
He methodically goes on to consider lead singers Bon Scott and Brian Johnson and their "perfectly eroded yet robust vocal cords" and that these two unique voices were/are something that could stand up to Angus' antics onstage. The examination of each member of the band continues to provide support to Mr. Bozza's initial premise.
In the end, this all convinced me that AC/DC set out to play music the way they wanted to and were best equiped to and they did it and kept doing it and it looks like they plan to keep doing it for many years yet Following is a quote from J3, a guitarist who toured with Tommy Lee, which I think sums it up perfectly:
"They weren't going to change the style of music or try drum machines just becaue that was what other people were doing. They are one of those bands that live outside of the bubble, ... it doesn't matter what any body else is doing, they're just going to do what they do."
This is not your flashy picture filled fan book, it's a back to basics arguement of why AC/DC has earned their reputation and our respect. Can be read and enjoyed by fans and casual listener alike.
First he starts with Angus and Malcolm Young and how they learned together to play guitar. He feels that is the main reason why they perform so well together. They know each other's techniques intimately.
He methodically goes on to consider lead singers Bon Scott and Brian Johnson and their "perfectly eroded yet robust vocal cords" and that these two unique voices were/are something that could stand up to Angus' antics onstage. The examination of each member of the band continues to provide support to Mr. Bozza's initial premise.
In the end, this all convinced me that AC/DC set out to play music the way they wanted to and were best equiped to and they did it and kept doing it and it looks like they plan to keep doing it for many years yet Following is a quote from J3, a guitarist who toured with Tommy Lee, which I think sums it up perfectly:
"They weren't going to change the style of music or try drum machines just becaue that was what other people were doing. They are one of those bands that live outside of the bubble, ... it doesn't matter what any body else is doing, they're just going to do what they do."
This is not your flashy picture filled fan book, it's a back to basics arguement of why AC/DC has earned their reputation and our respect. Can be read and enjoyed by fans and casual listener alike.
March 15, 2018
Written by AC/DC’s ultimate fan I think. While I love AC/DC and agree that they do matter, there are many other bands that matter as well. There were plenty of other bands doing similar heavy stuff in Australia during the early 70’s that never got the recognition they deserved.
May 10, 2020
Not a fun read at all and extremely boring. I have to admit I am not a die hard fan of AC/DC but I respect them as one of the greatest rock bands of all time. But the wait this book was written and the pacing it just makes it a very boring read and I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for this.
March 13, 2018
An informative and fun read.
A must for AC/DC fans.
We salute you!
A must for AC/DC fans.
We salute you!
July 24, 2019
Fast and easy read into the background of one of my favorite bands. Some dry reading but a quick look behind some of the songs
February 9, 2026
Good crash course on a band I knew nothing about, but doesn’t go super deep and felt kind of repetitive. Great palette cleanser after JG Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition.
July 20, 2014
If you, like me, are a big AC/DC fan who has grown tired of defending the band, this is THE book to keep nearby to back up your argument, or better yet, have your foils read for themselves. In Why AC/DC Matters author Anthony Bozza brazenly asserts, and I agree with him, that AC/DC is the greatest living rock band, end of story. He also invites anyone who disagrees to debate him on his website www.anthonybozza.net. Though the author is obviously a fan of the band, he elevates his work well beyond the railings of a fan by backing up his claim with lots of nifty quotes from Slash, Tommy Lee and professors from Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music. He further supports his points by delving into how and why the band was never embraced by mainstream media or high profile magazines despite their success. The only reason I gave this four stars instead of five, is because it would have benefited from a few more additional artists being quoted, and perhaps a chart or two illustrating some facts and figures such as album sales or tour revenue that really underscores popular fan support.
Currently reading
December 11, 2013I think: The book is about AC/DC, their sound, where they came from, who they are, and stories about them. Anthony Bozza has shared some personal stories about the band. like when he had his first encounter with the band. AC/DC is a working class band that formed in 1973 in S ydney Australia. Formed by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young. This book breaks down what AC/DC is by explaining their personality's, influences, and musicianship. It helps people understand them. I would prefer this book to any musician or a guitar player. I like the book but
I wish AC/DC themselves had some input into it.
I wish AC/DC themselves had some input into it.
June 27, 2011
Ok let me start off by saying AC/DC rocks!!! haha When i started reading this book i had just started listening to AC/DC so of course this is a really good book for more background information on the rock band, but it's also a book about storys that the band encountered on their way to sucess. Me personally i love the book, the person who wrote this i give them props, because not only is this a book about the band members live's but it's a book that says more than the words written on the pages. This is something that will be remembered for generations to come :)
August 2, 2011
A short, informative read about a band who has shaped the landscape of rock and roll for decades. I enjoyed reading about a band that I have not only seen 3 times but have grown up with for years. And while you can tell the author is a die hard fan, he does mix in nicely some well founded criticism of the band. He called the bad CD's what they were, and I appreciate the honesty.
For anyone who grew up with this music, and enjoys reading about the history of the music of this time, this is a book for you.
For anyone who grew up with this music, and enjoys reading about the history of the music of this time, this is a book for you.
January 3, 2019
Anthony Bozzan "AC/DC - tulkoon rock" (Like, 2010) on pieni kirjanen siitä miksi AC/DC on tärkeä. Aihe on kiinnostava, mutta sisältö ei aiheuta suurempia riemunkiljahduksia: aika lailla tunnettuja musiikkifaktoja kerrataan, paria rocktähteä siteerataan ja lopuksi muutama fanikin pääsee ääneen. Kovin kiinnostavasta tai persoonallisesta rakkaudentunnustuksesta ei ole siis kyse.
October 25, 2011
This neat little hardback talks music without fashion and rock with passion. Did you know only one ongoing member of the band was Australian? And that Bon Scott described playing the bagpipes as like 'making love to an octopus.' Yabba-dabba-awesome.
September 4, 2011
I LOVE LOVE LOVE AC/DC so I love this book! It explains alot musically of what is going on in the band, and while I don't play any instruments it made me appreciate the music even more!! I think everyone should read this and listen to AC/DC!!!
November 5, 2011
I've always loved AC/DC, but my literacy in music is too limited to explain why I like any music. Bozza's tribute to the band has helped me to understand and articulate why AC/DC is such a great rock band.
January 6, 2011
Great biopgraphy divided into pertinent parts, easy to read, read it in about 3 hours.
December 11, 2014
Required reading. Period.
July 22, 2015
Yea pretty good
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews