Young talked to the Free Press about running the rock 'n' roll marathon.

Q: You're 45 now. Is there anything that's tougher about being onstage than it used to be?

A: No, not really. When you look at it, I don't think I ever held that I was some kind of beauty prize. (Laughs) So nothing's changed in that department. I wasn't the one girls were gonna dive over each other for. Like you see them do with the dancing groups.

Q: Yes, what does AC/DC's guitarist think about 'N Sync and the others?

A: Hell, good luck to all of them. Anyone that's brave enough to go up there and say, 'OK, here I am,' who's brave enough to duck the apples and cabbages, then good luck.

Q: You guys were recently spotlighted on VH1's "Behind the Music" -- did you get to enjoy the show's famous sales bump?

A: Our first albums, there were a lot of sales, which was surprising. But you know, we've always sold our older albums. Like "Back in Black" -- a guy in the record company told me it keeps selling big, week after week.

Q: What is it about the music that sustains that kind of endurance?

A: We always try to make records that five or 10 years down the road, you won't cringe. If you're plugged into what's happening at that time, that's when you (later) get that thing of "Oh, geez." When you're working with different people and different producers, sometimes they get caught up in what's happening now commercially and try to sprinkle that on you. We try to hose it off.

Q: If there's any period in your catalog where the pop influence seemed to slip in, it was the late '80s.

A: Yeah. Even "Back in Black" (1980) at one point was starting to sound pretty. We had to sit down with (producer) Mutt Lange. Mutt was always a fan of commercial things. We said, "Hey, that's more your thing, but we're the ones who go out and tour and play it. We don't wanna be stuck with a love song." You gotta have that youthful, rugged Clint Eastwood look to get away with that.

Q: Is there anything from your musical past that makes you squirm now?

A: Well, I've been wearing a school suit all these years -- it's hard to get embarrassed by many things. (Laughs)

Q: How is Brian Johnson's voice?

A: It's good. He still gargles with sandpaper.... But you know, they built 'em hardy in those days. That's when men were men, and sheep were nervous.

Q: Is there a place for rock 'n' roll in the 21st Century?

A: There's a kind of thing that I've noticed all through the world. They have a trend, then one day you wake up and say, "Enough of that. What do we look for? We'll go back to the rock thing." It's probably like a good pair of shoes. You feel comfortable in them.