In search of a follow-up to their previous music video for their cover of “Highway to Hell,” the Los Angeles AC/DC tribute band GayC/DC picked a deeper cut they’ve been playing live for years. After some lyrical tweaks, AC/DC’s “Bad Boy Boogie” took a gayer spin as “Gay Boy Boogie.”
Originally released on AC/DC’s fourth album, Let There Be Rock, in 1977, “Bad Boy Boogie” is a doctrine of promiscuity with womenwritten by late vocalist Bon Scott and guitarists Malcolm Young and Angus Young—All you women, come along with me / And I’ll show how good a bad boy can be.
Mixed by Heath Ripplinger, “Gay Boy Boogie” turns the original into full-on GayC/DC glam metal queer rock. Unlike the band’s previous cover of the AC/DC classic “Highway to Hell,” which had minimal updates to the lyrics, and “Big Balls,” which had none, the first verse and chorus of “Bad Boy Boogie” remain intact before getting more of a lyrical overhaul by the second verse on “Gay Boy Boogie.”
Reinterpreting AC/DC in a way that’s never been heard before, the “Bad Boy Boogie” Being a bad boy ain’t that bad / I had me more dirty women than most men ever had takes on an entirely new meaning with GayC/DC’s Being a gay boy ain’t that bad / I had more dirty daddies than most women ever had / All you straight boys, come along with me / And I’ll show how good a gay boy can be.
Adding to their previous queer tributes to the rock masters of double-entendres with songs like “Whole Lotta Jose,” “Bottom Child,” and “Let There Be C–k, “Gay Boy Boogie” beckons the question: Can GayC/DC get any gayer? Absolutely.
They say “p—y” and I say “no way” / They say “c–k’ and I say hey, sings GayC/DC’s Chris Freeman, flipping the chorus the second time, around and adding a third, more explicit verse.
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“For me, I feel like the lyrics to most of AC/DC’s songs are not as important as the music, even to them,” Freeman tells American Songwriter. “Mostly, they feel like personality pieces, the means to convey an attitude or storytelling by train-of-thought. So, I adopted that same foundation and use rewrites to fortify our band’s attitude and sense of outrageous fun. On this one, I really let it loose; some lines are a bit shocking.”
At first, Freeman says “Bad Boy Boogie” was a “tricky” song for the band to deliver, musically. “That’s the root of our mission as a band,” he adds. “The music has to be right first, everything else comes after. Since I’m only the singer, I get to admire the musicians in this band and they’re ability to capture that AC/DC swing.”
Since the song was already recorded, it made sense for the band to also bring it to life on the small screen. “It’s one of the more raunchier ones we do as far as changing up the lyrics, and I thought ‘Why not do something fun for us?’ says GayC/DC drummer Brian Welch. “After all, people come to our shows expecting an R-rated show, so let’s give ’em a video too.”
Directed by FEAR and Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs guitarist Frank Meyer, who also shot the band’s “Highway to Hell” video, “Gay Boy Boogie” catches up with some familiar characters from the former video with a more outrageous storyline.
For the video, Meyer also pulled in a cast of special guests, including L.A. Guns’ Johnny Martin, who returns in his recurring role as “Waldo.” Set up as a prequel to the band’s “Highway to Hell” video, Waldo is seen at home with his parents, including Joanie Pimentel, bassist of LA band No Small Children, who plays his mom.
“On stage, she makes the best faces when she’s playing, so I knew she would be hilarious,” says Freeman. Waldo’s dad is played by Don Speziale, whom Freeman has known since his film school days. In 2009, Speziale also wrote the scripts for Freeman’s queercore band Pansy Division’s That’s So Gay video series.
In the video, Meyer also suggested turning it into a parody of the iconic Twisted Sister‘s iconic video for “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” where in GayC/DC morph into the band, circa 1984, and Waldo comes out to his parents. Mimicking Mark Metcalf’s iconic fatherly figure in the original Twisted Sister video, Sepziale asks Waldo, “What are you going to do with your life?” His response: “I want the c–k.’
Welch calls the video “Our love letter to Twisted Sister … with a GayC/DC twist.” It’s also a tribute to Marty Callner, who directed the original “We’re Not Gonna Take It” music video. Callner, who died in March 2025 at 78, was also behind videos for Diana Ross, Bon Jovi, Stevie Nicks, KISS, Whitesnake, and many others.
“We love Twisted Sister, who took rock and drag further than anybody at the time, and we love their video for ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It,’” Welch says.” This is our homage and ‘Thank you’ for giving us as young gay kids the opportunity to see fully grown men in drag every day on MTV decades before ‘Drag Race’ was a thing.”
After GayC/DC help set things straight in Waldo’s household, everything links to the beginning of the band’s “Highway” video, which was dedicated to the band’s late rhythm guitarist Clint Yeager, who died in 2023 at age 53; Patrick Goodwin later took on the Malcolm Young role in the band.
“After such a great reception to our ‘Highway’ video, we knew we had to take it up a notch for this one, and I think Frank really got it right again,” says Freeman. “We can’t wait to hear what people think of it.”
Photo: Alex Solca
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