On February 19, 1980, Bon Scott died from acute alcohol poisoning after being left in a car in the middle of February (in Britain) to "sleep it off". While temps did not reach freezing, the human body only has to drop below 95 degrees for hypothermia to occur.
This can happen when exposed to temps of as high as 50 degrees for long periods without adequate clothing or insulation.
On March 29, Brian Johnson, formerly of the UK band Geordie, was officially named AC/DC's new singer.
AC/DC released Back In Black on July 25, 1980, a little more than five months after Bon Scott's death.
At the time, yours truly was but a teenage kid stuck in a flyover state who had just about played the grooves off 1979's Highway To Hell. While a popular album that finally put the band on the map in the States, Hell was but the beginning of a fruitful relationship with producer Robert John "Mutt Lange that, barring any unforeseen interruptions, would continue to bear sonic fruit.
If history was any indication, their next album could very well be the one that would finally catapult them into the upper echelons of the U.S. charts.
Obviously, the death of such an identifiable and popular front man threw the band's future into complete uncertainty, but, years later, when I, myself, was briefly courted by Atlantic Records, a member of the label's A&R staff showed me a series of frantic faxes between the label and AC/DC management pertaining to Bon Scott's proposed removal from the band as recently as the fall of 1979.
The reason: Bon Scott's increasing alcoholism had gotten the popular frontman into some precarious positions during their Highway To Hell tour and the band's management was rightfully worried that, if left unchecked, Scott's behavior would put the band and Atlantic Records in a position of culpability.
As I sat there gazing at the collected memos, it dawned on me all over again that the lyrics to the song "Highway To Hell" had not been hyperbole at all, but fact. Bon Scott was simply being factual in penning the lyrics he had been seemingly born to write. In his last days, he had been a man driven to outdrink anybody in any bar he ventured into and if there happened to be any ladies wishing to party with a real-deal rock star, they were more than welcome to come along for the ride.
Those hoping for the glamorous rock star experience, unfortunately found themselves in the company of someone who may have begun the evening as a charming, fun-loving spirit who, after a few drinks, became a tad irascible and unpredictable. Of course, as the drinks kept coming, the rapier wit turned into a semi-conscious stupor, leaving those he'd befriended to seek assistance or abandon him entirely, as happened the night he died when a supposed friend left him to "sleep it off" in his car rather than help the singer inside.
The photo-copied faxes were the first that I had read about Bon and the rest of the band not being close.
Scott, I learned, was quite a bit older than the Young brothers and, thus, they had little else in common beyond being in the same band. It also became crystal clear that AC/DC was Malcolm and Angus's band and anyone not named "Young" could be replaced at any time.
In fact, a couple memos from late '79 caught my eye because they contained suggestions for replacements for Scott, with Atlantic staff suggesting a number of singers already signed to the label.
Some of the names mentioned were downright hilarious:
Peter Wolf from J. Geils and Kim "Go For A Soda" Mitchell, then of Max Webster, were two names that caught my eye. The third made me laugh out loud: Cliff Johnson from Chicago's own Off Broadway!
Long story short(ish), prior to Bon's death, the Young brothers had already begun informally searching for a new singer.
That, my friends, is how a band that was supposedly mourning the death of their close friend came to find his replacement and record the most important album of their career in only five months.
Tags:
bon voyage