 The song and the name of the album were inspired by a book Angus Young read, entitled "For Those About to Die, We Salute You", about Roman gladiators.The gladiators' final words to the emperor were "Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant" – or, "Hail Emperor, those who are about to die salute you".Angus Young explained to "Kerrang" magazine (reprinted in Mark Putterford's AC/DC bio "Shock to the System"), "We had this chorus riff, and we thought, 'Well, this sounds rather deadly.'