Before Javier Bardem became an Oscar-winning Hollywood superstar, terrifying audiences, charming cinema-goers and building one hell of an acting career, there was another force shaping his life: loud guitars. And apparently, AC/DC’s legendary Highway to Hell played a massive part in turning him into a lifelong metalhead.
There are albums you like.
There are albums you love.
And then there are albums that crash through the front door of your brain, rearrange the furniture, nick the good biscuits and leave you permanently obsessed with distorted guitars.
For Javier Bardem, one of those records was AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.
Yes, mun. That Javier Bardem. 🎬🤘
The Academy Award-winning Spanish actor, known for films including No Country for Old Men, Skyfall, Dune and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, also happens to have some seriously heavy musical taste lurking behind that Hollywood exterior.
And his journey towards the heavier side of music can be traced back to one absolutely monumental slab of Australian hard rock.
🎸 ENTER AC/DC…
Released in 1979, Highway to Hell was the album that launched AC/DC into another dimension.
The band’s sixth internationally released studio album and the final AC/DC record to feature the late, legendary Bon Scott, it contained enough riffs to flatten a small village.
The title track alone has become part of rock ‘n’ roll DNA.
That opening guitar riff.
That swagger.
Bon Scott sounding like he’d just been thrown out of three pubs and was already looking for a fourth.
Angus Young attacking his Gibson SG like the electricity bill had personally offended him.
It was dangerous, uncomplicated and absolutely bloody brilliant.
And for a young Javier Bardem, it proved to be something of a musical gateway drug.
One riff leads to another, mun. 😈
🔥 THE ALBUM THAT OPENED THE DOOR
Bardem has spoken about his love of heavy music over the years, with AC/DC forming an important part of his early musical education.
Highway to Hell wasn’t simply another record in the collection.
It helped open the door.
Once that door had been kicked off its hinges, there was no going back.
And anyone who discovered rock and metal in their younger years will know exactly what that feels like.
You hear something heavier than anything you’ve encountered before and suddenly everything changes.
The guitars sound bigger.
The drums hit harder.
The vocals have attitude.
Your parents probably wonder what the hell has happened.
And somewhere in the distance, a denim jacket spontaneously grows a patch.
Welcome aboard. 🤘
😈 FROM AC/DC TO HEAVIER TERRITORY
Bardem’s musical tastes didn’t stop with AC/DC either.
Over the years, the actor has revealed an appreciation for heavier bands, including some proper metal royalty.
And that’s the wonderful thing about gateway records.
Someone hears AC/DC.
Then perhaps they discover Black Sabbath.
Then Metallica.
Then suddenly they’re six months deep into metal, debating guitar tones and wondering whether buying another black T-shirt technically counts as buying new clothes.
It absolutely does, by the way.
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
AC/DC might sit more comfortably beneath the hard rock banner than outright heavy metal, but their importance to generations of metal fans is enormous.
For countless listeners, bands such as AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple provided the bridge into heavier territory.
And Highway to Hell remains one of the greatest gateways imaginable.
🎬 HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHT, METALHEAD HEART
There’s something wonderfully satisfying about discovering that someone associated with enormous Hollywood productions can also geek out over heavy music.
Because metal fandom doesn’t care what your day job is.
Builder?
Metalhead.
Teacher?
Metalhead.
Accountant?
Probably listening to Slayer while doing your tax return.
Oscar-winning actor?
Apparently also metalhead.
Bardem’s career has taken him from Spanish cinema to becoming one of the most recognisable actors on the planet.
His chilling performance as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, while his career has included everything from intense dramas to massive blockbusters.
But beneath all those characters is somebody who understands the simple joy of turning up a massive guitar riff.
And frankly, we respect it.
⚡ WHY HIGHWAY TO HELL STILL HITS SO HARD
Here’s the truly ridiculous thing.
Highway to Hell arrived in 1979.
And it still sounds enormous.
More than four decades later, put that title track on at a rock night, wedding, festival campsite or questionable family barbecue and watch what happens.
Heads start nodding.
Air guitars appear.
Someone who claimed five minutes earlier that they “don’t really listen to rock music” suddenly knows every bloody word.
That’s the power of AC/DC.
And the album isn’t simply one legendary title track surrounded by filler either.
You’ve got:
🎸 Highway to Hell
🔥 Girls Got Rhythm
⚡ Walk All Over You
😈 Touch Too Much
🤘 Beating Around the Bush
🎤 Shot Down in Flames
💥 Get It Hot
🎸 If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)
🔥 Love Hungry Man
⚡ Night Prowler
That’s a filthy collection of riffs.
Producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange helped sharpen the band’s sound without sanding away the danger that made AC/DC so exciting in the first place.
Everything sounded bigger.
Cleaner.
Punchier.
Ready for arenas.
And the world responded.
🖤 THE FINAL BON SCOTT ALBUM
Of course, Highway to Hell carries additional emotional weight because it became the final AC/DC studio album recorded with Bon Scott.
Scott died in February 1980, aged just 33.
His death could easily have brought AC/DC’s story to an end.
Instead, the band eventually continued with Brian Johnson, releasing Back in Black later that year — an album that would become one of the biggest-selling records in music history.
That makes Highway to Hell an extraordinary moment frozen in time.
It’s the sound of the Bon Scott era reaching its absolute peak.
The band were becoming international superstars.
The songs were enormous.
The chemistry was undeniable.
Nobody listening in 1979 could have known what was coming.
That gives the record an emotional punch beneath all the booze-soaked swagger and enormous riffs.
🤘 EVERY METALHEAD HAS THAT ALBUM
That’s probably the best part of Bardem’s story.
Strip away the Hollywood fame and Oscar ceremonies and it’s incredibly relatable.
Almost every rock and metal fan has that album.
The one that started everything.
Maybe yours was Highway to Hell.
Maybe it was Metallica’s Master of Puppets.
Black Sabbath’s Paranoid.
Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast.
Slipknot’s self-titled debut.
Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory.
System of a Down’s Toxicity.
Or perhaps somebody handed you a battered compilation CD containing 19 completely unrelated bands and changed your life forever.
For an entire generation, discovering music wasn’t an algorithm politely suggesting what to play next.
It was your mate’s older brother.
Your parents’ record collection.
A dodgy copied cassette.
Kerrang!
MTV.
A random CD somebody brought into school.
Or hearing one enormous riff and thinking:
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!”
Then everything changed.
🎸 AC/DC: CREATING METALHEADS SINCE FOREVER
That’s part of AC/DC’s incredible legacy.
Of course, there are the stadiums.
The millions upon millions of records.
The Angus Young school uniform.
The Gibson SG.
The giant bell.
The cannons.
The inflatable Rosie.
The riffs.
So. Many. Riffs.
But perhaps their greatest achievement is the number of people they’ve pushed towards rock music.
You hear Highway to Hell.
Then Back in Black.
Then Whole Lotta Rosie.
Then Let There Be Rock.
Before long, you’ve fallen headfirst into the glorious rabbit hole that is rock and metal.
And apparently even Hollywood superstars aren’t immune.
🔥 THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
Javier Bardem might have an Academy Award sitting somewhere at home, but discovering that Highway to Hell helped turn him into a lifelong lover of heavy music might actually earn him something even more prestigious around these parts.
Honorary Riff Report approval. 🤘😂
Because great riffs don’t care whether you’re standing in a muddy Welsh festival field with a pint in your hand or walking down a Hollywood red carpet.
When Angus Young hits that opening chord, we’re all the same.
We’re nodding.
We’re grinning.
And we’re probably turning the volume up another notch.
More than four decades after its release, AC/DC’s Highway to Hell is still doing exactly what it did to a young Javier Bardem:
creating rock fans.
One filthy great riff at a time.
And that, butt, is the power of rock ‘n’ roll.
🤘🔥 So here’s the question: what was YOUR gateway album into rock and metal? Was it AC/DC, Sabbath, Maiden, Metallica — or something completely unexpected? Let us know, because we want to hear the record that started your journey down the highway to riff-filled hell.
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero Apologies. 🤘🏴
