There is a troupe in rock stardom during the 1970s and 1980s about living fast and dying young. Especially with the lead singers of bands, we see examples of this countless times, Jim Morrison with The Doors, Janis Joplin, etc. Most of them are straightforward, Singer X in band Y drinks too much and/or takes too much and overdoses or chokes on their vomit, there are some, however, that raise more questions than answers, this week’s story is much like that, it seems straight forward but look into the details and more is unveiled. This week The Beat Marches On to the 19th February 1980, when Bon Scott is found dead in a car.
In his first television appearance with AC/DC, Bon Scott decided to dress up as a schoolgirl to match his guitarist Angus Young, who famously has dressed up as a schoolboy for every AC/DC performance. This describes the singer’s charisma perfectly. His machismo, his love of life and his work hard/play hard attitude gave AC/DC their reputation.
Slightly older than the rest of the band, Scott joined the band in 1974 after recovering from a motorcycle crash that left him in a coma. Originally a chauffeur for the band, when it wasn’t working out with their singer, Dave Evans, Bon took his shot and became the singer.
They rose quickly through the Australian music scene with a hard work ethic; however, their home country would only bring them so far. To conquer the world, they would need to venture out to the UK and USA.
AC/DC’s star rose quickly once they got to London with hard rocking songs such as Whole Lotta Rosie (a song written after Bon had an encounter with a larger girl) and Let There Be Rock. By 1979 they were about to release the breakthrough album Highway to Hell.
The first single from the album which was also titled Highway to Hell, was the breakthrough single for the band. An iconic riff, great lyrics, and sounds simplistic but powerful. They hit the charts in multiple countries including the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time. Their stock was rising.
They toured the UK and the US supporting the album and to carry on the momentum they planned to go back to the studio to record new songs for a follow-up in early 1980. The band were in the studio recording ideas, but most were unfinished, this left Scott to have some fun while the band were putting the songs together.
On the night in question, Bon wanted to go out and check out a band in the famous Camden club Dingwalls. He phoned a couple of friends to accompany him including his ex-girlfriend fellow Australian and drug dealer Margaret ‘Silver’ Smith, who declined but recommended a friend to join him, Alistair Kinnear.
It’s unsure why Kinnear went to join Scott, whether Smith coerced him or if he just wanted to become a hanger-on of the singer. They didn’t make it to Dingwalls but went to Music Machine, also in Camden. He told the Evening Standard on 21st February (two days after) ‘I met up with Bon to go to the Music Machine but he was pretty drunk by the time I picked him up. When we got there he was drinking four whiskies straight in a glass’
Everyone knew that Scott was a heavy drinker. He dabbled a little bit in drugs, including a heroin overdose in 1975, that scared him off the drug, but his main vice was alcohol. This reputation would probably lead to the lack of a toxicology report upon his death.
Back to the unfortunate night, the two stayed at the club until the early hours of the morning and Kinnear tried to drop off Bon at his home in Victoria, where he lived with his current girlfriend Anna Baba. However, on the drive back the singer passed out in the passenger seat. Given his reputation for heavy drinking, this was a common thing for him to do.
Kinnear couldn’t move Scott from the car when they arrived at his flat, so decided to drive Bon back to his flat in East Dulwich. Still unable to move him, the hanger-on decided to leave him in his small hatchback and left a note for the singer.
The next evening Kinnear went back to his car to check on his new cohort. As soon as he looked in the window, he knew something was wrong. Scott was unresponsive and his throat was close to the gearstick. The singer’s throat was blocked by the lever and he ended up choking on some bile.
An ambulance was called but it was too late. Bon Scott was declared dead at the hospital. The cause of death was alcohol poisoning but on the coroner’s report, it was classed as death by misadventure.
After the interview with the Evening Standard, Kinnear was never heard of again. According to reports, no one in his clique heard from him again. It started to raise some questions about what actually happened that fateful night.
Why had Kinnear disappeared? Where did he go? Who helped him? Could he know more than what he was letting on? Did someone want him gone? All these questions led to whether more than just a misadventure was the cause of the death of Bon Scott. It may be someone who was in Kinnear’s clique.
To add to the mystery of these the question led to an unlikely source. The band UFO. They toured with AC/DC a few times throughout the 1970’s and befriended the members, especially Bon Scott. As the band liked to party and so did Bon.
UFO liked to party to more extremes than Scott did, experimenting with hard drugs, so much that their manager scorned singer Phil Mogg and bass player Pete Way for being a bad influence on the AC/DC singer. One of Bon’s last photos is with Way when they met backstage in February 1980.
In an interview with Classic Rock magazine, Way and UFO guitarist Paul Chapman, claimed that Scott was dabbling in Heroin. They both claimed they never did the drug with him but there was a tell among fellow users. Although there is no confirmation anywhere that Scott was at this time taking the drug, if he was dating a known heroin dealer, who was the supplier to the boys in UFO, then it wouldn’t be shocking if his curiosity got the best of him. The aforementioned overdose in 1975 almost got him chucked out of the band.
There’s also a claim that Chapman called Way on the morning of the fateful day, several hours before the discovery of Scott’s body by Kinnear. He asked for a number for someone in the band to tell them the bad news.
The guitarist claims that he and Bon were together the night he died. Along with an ex-guitar tech of Chapman’s, Joe Bloe who later changed his name to Joe King, they were running low on heroin and Scott volunteered to get some more. He left and never returned. They were still up until the early morning when King left. Chapman went to sleep then a few hours later at around 10 or 11, he got the phone call from Joe that Scott had passed away.
There’s also a claim the body was moved to East Dulwich as Chapman’s phone call from King was from Scott’s flat in Victoria. The apartment was also ransacked, like someone was looking for something. However, there isn’t any proof of this as well as Chapman’s story other than from the man himself.
The truth is we will never know what happened to Bon Scott. Was it a bad drug deal? Was it just too much alcohol? Or was it something entirely different that hasn’t seen the light of day? The autopsy said there weren’t any drugs in his system but no toxicology report to know for sure.
AC/DC became one of the world’s biggest bands after the singer’s death hiring Brian Johnson as the replacement, who coincidently met his predecessor before either joined the band. The follow-up album, Back in Black, became one of the world’s biggest-selling albums and they were working on the album when Scott died. There is a rumour that the singer did contribute towards the album before his death but no confirmation.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for eight years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Bon Scott: What happened the night he died | Louder
The book Highway to Hell: The Life and Times of Bon Scott by Clinton Walker was used in research, as well as YouTube videos from rock n roll true stories as well as ABC News in-depth links below:
AC/DC: The Mysterious Death of Bon Scott
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