Angus Young Never Forgot AC/DC’s Chaotic 1975 Encounter With Deep Purple and Years Later He Delivered a Brutal Verdict on the Rock Giants
Long before AC/DC became one of the biggest rock bands in the world, a chaotic encounter with Deep Purple at Australia’s Sunbury Music Festival helped put the young group in the headlines — without AC/DC even getting to perform.
The incident unfolded in 1975, when AC/DC were still establishing themselves in Australia. Deep Purple, meanwhile, were already international stars and had reportedly been paid $60,000 to headline a festival struggling with ticket sales.
What followed was an altercation involving members of the bands’ entourages, conflicting accounts of exactly what happened and a memory that apparently stayed with Angus Young for years.
By 1984, the AC/DC guitarist was offering an unmistakably harsh assessment of Deep Purple, describing them as a “poor man’s Led Zeppelin.”
AC/DC Arrived at Sunbury to Find Deep Purple Already in Control
AC/DC had developed a growing reputation through their energetic live shows, enough to earn an invitation to the troubled 1975 Sunbury Music Festival.
According to Young, the group arrived to an unmistakable display of Deep Purple’s status.
“This was Deep Purple and they’d decided that they were gonna go on,” he recalled after seeing a fleet of Rolls-Royces at the festival site.
Initially, Young said, AC/DC believed everything was fine.
Then the situation suddenly deteriorated.
“Everything was cool as far as we knew,” he recalled. “Then, at the last minute, something happened … somebody said somebody threw a punch at our manager – one of Deep Purple’s tour guys.”
AC/DC were inside a caravan changing when they heard about the confrontation.
“We were all bunched up in this caravan, changing,” Young said. “I remember we all came running out.”
AC/DC ultimately never performed.
The band was also reportedly among the local acts that did not receive the money they had been promised.
David Coverdale Remembered the Incident Differently
Years later, former Deep Purple frontman David Coverdale offered another version of the events.
Speaking about the incident in 2007, Coverdale said Deep Purple had departed following what he described as a “less-than-satisfactory performance.”
According to the account he was subsequently given, a young Australian group then took matters into its own hands.
“A young Aussie band had jumped onstage, plugged into our gear and started playing!” Coverdale recalled.
That band was AC/DC.
Coverdale said Deep Purple’s road crew reacted immediately.
“Our roadies – big buggers to a man – wrestled with the young band to get them off our equipment and off the stage.”
The differing recollections leave some uncertainty around exactly how the confrontation developed, but the episode became an important early chapter in AC/DC’s history.
Angus Young’s Opinion of Deep Purple Never Improved
Time apparently did little to soften Young’s feelings toward Deep Purple.
Speaking to Guitar World in 1984, he recalled seeing the band live and being thoroughly unimpressed.
“I saw Deep Purple live once and I paid money for it, and I thought, ‘Geez, this is ridiculous,’” Young said. “You just see through all that sort of stuff.”
It is unclear whether Young was specifically referring to Sunbury or another Deep Purple concert.
But his broader assessment was even more severe.
“I never liked those Deep Purple or those sort of things,” he said. “I always hated it.”
Then came his comparison with another British rock powerhouse.
“So I always thought it was a poor man’s Led Zeppelin.”
Led Zeppelin Didn’t Escape Young’s Criticism Either
Calling Deep Purple a lesser version of Led Zeppelin did not mean Young was completely enamored with Zeppelin’s live performances.
After seeing the band perform, he offered another characteristically direct assessment in 1977.
“I’ve seen that band live,” Young told Classic Rock. “They were on for three hours. For two-and-a-half hours, they bored the audience.”
Young claimed the atmosphere only changed toward the end of the performance.
“Then at the end they pull out old rock ‘n’ roll numbers to get the crowd movin’. That’s sick,” he said. “They’re supposed to be the most excitin’ rock ‘n’ roll band in the world.”
Yet despite that criticism, Young clearly placed Led Zeppelin on a different level from Deep Purple.
His comments suggest that while Zeppelin could disappoint him onstage, Deep Purple represented a style of rock he simply never connected with.
The Brawl Ultimately Helped AC/DC
Ironically, the Sunbury confrontation may have done more for AC/DC’s emerging reputation than an ordinary festival performance would have.
At the time, the group was still largely unknown outside its growing Australian audience.
But the clash with an internationally established band created an irresistible story for the local press.
Young later remembered seeing headlines about the confrontation everywhere the following day.
“The next day that was all you read about: ‘AC/DC in brawl with Deep Purple’,” he recalled.
Suddenly, people who might never have heard AC/DC perform knew their name.
“So in the end, it actually elevated us,” Young admitted, “and more people came to see us.”
The irony is difficult to miss.
The 1975 encounter apparently did nothing to improve Young’s opinion of Deep Purple, and his later comments made clear just how little he admired their music. Yet the very confrontation that helped cement that dislike also gave the young AC/DC a burst of publicity at a crucial stage in their career.
They never played their scheduled Sunbury set — but the resulting headlines ensured plenty more people wanted to see what AC/DC could do the next time they reached a stage.