Dave Evans, the original singer of world-famous rock band AC/DC, says he will never forget what happened last week on the outskirts of Buenos Aires: a 5-year-old fan ran across a concert hall after a show and threw his arms around him with a loving hug.
“I make people happy. That’s what I do for a living,” he says with a huge smile..
“People of all ages love me down here,” he tells the Herald. “They really love rock. I’ve been all over the world many, many times, probably visited more countries than most artists, because I just love travelling since I was a niño, and here they rock more than anywhere else in the world.”
At 73, Evans has traveled the globe countless times, but few places have captured his heart quite like Argentina, he claims.
Since his first visit in 2016, he has returned repeatedly, toured from Patagonia to Buenos Aires, embraced the local football culture and marveled with audiences whose passion for rock continues to amaze him.
“I feel free in Argentina,” he says. “It’s sort of like Australia used to be back in the 1950s and 1960s, even the 1970s. You can do virtually what you want, walk anywhere. I feel absolutely free.”
A chance encounter
Evans’s connection with Argentina began unexpectedly. In 2016, a fan invited him to Brazil and helped finance the trip, but Evans arrived in South America with limited expectations.
“I don’t know anything about South America except for anacondas, the jungle, piranha and the Amazon River in Brazil, or tango and cattle in Argentina,” he recalls.
After discovering the enormous city of São Paulo, Evans was invited by an Argentine promoter to perform in Buenos Aires. When he arrived, guitarist Germán Catelli was there to meet him and play in his local band.
That encounter marked the beginning of a lasting musical partnership. Over the years, he has spent months at a time living in Argentina, using Catelli’s hometown of Temperley as a base for tours across South America.
Together, they played around Argentina extensively, discovering towns far beyond the capital. For Evans, the Argentine audience stands out for its intensity and devotion, qualities that have made every visit memorable.
In addition, his affection for Temperley extends to football: after living in the area, he began attending matches and eventually received honorary lifetime membership at Club Atlético Temperley.
From Australian clubs to AC/DC
Born in the UK, Evans soon moved to Australia and began playing music at the age of 17 in Charters Towers, a small town in northwestern Queensland, performing with his first band. Their repertoire included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
He later moved to Sydney, where he joined one of the city’s leading cover bands, Velvet Underground (unrelated to the famous American band of the same name). After the group split, Evans became part of the story that led to AC/DC’s formation, launching a new chapter in rock history.
He describes AC/DC’s early sound as a combination of blues and heavy metal rather than glam rock, as some biographers have characterized it.
The band’s distinctive stage image evolved through experimentation. In its early days, that included costumes designed “to stand out, because everyone needs a gimmick,” he says.
Evans remembers guitarist Angus Young dressing as Zorro, wielding a plastic sword and pretending to play his guitar like a violin.
“I liked it better than the schoolboy outfit that came afterwards and became a staple,” he adds.
The music industry was vastly different then. Without social media, bands depended on live performances, record labels and radio to reach audiences. “There weren’t many record labels and there were thousands of bands. So to get a record was like being touched by God,” Evans recalls.
“And then to hear it on the radio was like a dream, an impossible dream come true.”
New music and an endless road
Evans sang with AC/DC until 1974, but continued making music with the rock band Rabbit, and as a solo artist. His latest album, Justice, was released just a few weeks ago, and a new Rabbit album is planned for early next year, reuniting him with longtime bandmate Mark Tinson, with whom he has been writing songs for more than 50 years.
His approach to recording remains uncompromising: “Every song a killer, no song a filler.”
Argentina has also become part of his recording career. Evans and Catelli recorded a live album during a tour, while his 2020 single “Bad Ass Boy” was recorded in the United States, with vocals completed in Buenos Aires and a video filmed in Colombia.
Always looking toward tomorrow
Asked whether he feels like one of the last survivors of rock’s earlier generation, Evans admits that the thought has crossed his mind. Still, he refuses to dwell on the past.
“I’m the past, I am the now, and I am the future,” he says.
After many months of touring nonstop, he plans to leave Argentina shortly after his October 23 concert at Buenos Aires’ Teatro ND Ateneo. The concert will offer another chance for Evans and his Argentine fans to celebrate the connection that keeps bringing him back.
For Evans, the attraction is simple: Argentina is a place where rock is embraced, friendships endure and he feels genuinely at home.
As he puts it: “I do it because I love it.”
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