In a new interview with Mexico’s Rock111, original AC/DC frontman Dave Evans was asked why he thinks rock has taken a backseat to mainstream pop and rap music in recent years, especially in the U.S. He responded in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I could go into detail about it. But it’s about the people who buy the records. And they’re not playing it. The reason why it’s not big is ’cause they’re not playing it on the radio. The last rock band signed by a major label was about 20 years ago… I’m not talking about metal; I’m talking about rock and roll, rock music. There hasn’t been a rock act signed for 25 years. So if people are not hearing it, how can they like it? You play it to them, they love it. But in Latin America, they’re still playing rock on the radio. They’re still playing rock on the radio in Latin America. So the people still love it.”Dave continued: “Rock and roll is an attitude — a real attitude, not a pretend one. Metal is a pretend attitude… They get up there with painted faces and go, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ And they go home to their mamas: ‘Mama, what’s for dinner?’ But rock and roll is real.”Evans went on to say that much of the rock music recorded nowadays sounds soulless compared to the albums that were released in the 1970s and 1980s.”A lot of music’s pretty clinical — it’s very clinical,” he said. “You go back and listen now to bands like LED ZEPPELIN and FREE — that’s when you’re feeling it, man. Really feeling it. This music today, it’s boring to me because there’s no humanity. There’s no humanity with that music… It might be clever and dexterous and [they might] play all the chords and all that sort of stuff, but there’s no feel. That’s the humanity, the humanity of music. And those guys that do all that [busy shredding] stuff, there’s no humanity in that whatsoever. It’s just a fact. Like [Carlos] Santana — he plays one note… That’s the humanity in music. Not [playing a lot of notes at high speed]. That’s what you’re supposed to do at home so you can play melody. That’s scales. That’s not music. But people like watching it and think that’s clever. After two or three songs, you’re bored shitless. Then you wanna go home. So humanity in music is really important. The feeling, the soul, that’s what music is about.”Dave recorded AC/DC’s first two singles, “Can I Sit Next To You Girl” and “Baby, Please Don’t Go”. But in October 1974, less than a year after AC/DC’s first gig, Evans was out of the band. He was replaced by Bon Scott, who sang on AC/DC’s first six studio albums and became a legend himself after his death in 1980.Following his departure from AC/DC, Evans formed the wild hedonistic rock band RABBIT, Melbourne ’80s rock outfit DAVE EVANS AND THUNDER DOWN UNDER, and later DAVE EVANS AND HOT COCKEREL. For the past couple of decades, he has toured as a solo act.In May 2021, Evans released a new compilation album called “BADASS Greatest Hits”. The effort contained “20 massive hits on one album,” including Dave’s version of “Rockin’ In The Parlour”, the song that originally appeared as the B-side of the “Can I Sit Next to You Girl” single.A typical Evans show includes AC/DC songs originally recorded by him and Scott, as well as other material spanning his entire career.[embedded content][embedded content]
