Highway to Hell

by Clinton Walker

  Ted Albert himself had just bought into a promising stage musical called Strictly Ballroom when he died in 1990. The film version of Strictly Ballroom became a phenomenal success, and propelled John Paul Young back into the charts with a remixed version of “Love Is in the Air” from the soundtrack—but with Ted’s death a cloud descended on what was left of Alberts.

  In the 1990s, AC/DC’s work rate slowed dramatically, as befitting a band whose members were all at least in their forties by now. Malcolm had already had to take time off to dry out in the late eighties. The official line was that he was suffering from “nervous exhaustion”; nephew Steve Young replaced him on the Blow Up Your Video tour and few people seemed to notice. Malcolm bought a house back in Australia, a palace in boho Sydney harborside suburb Balmain. Soon enough Angus also bought a property “back home”; both brothers divided their time between Europe and Australia.

  It would be five years before the band followed up The Razor’s Edge with the Rick Rubin-produced Ballbreaker in 1995, by which time a clean and sober Phil Rudd was back in the fold. “The best thing was the return of Phil,” Rubin told Rolling Stone. “To me, that made them AC/DC again. You can hear it in how he drags behind the beat. It’s the same rhythm that first drew me to them in junior high. That groove is timeless.”

  It would be another five years again before 2000’s Stiff Upper Lip. Stiff Upper Lip was AC/DC’s seventeenth album, produced by none other than big brother George. The family ties are still strong, and some of the touch is still there.

  Of course, AC/DC could never be the same after Bon died. Not since the first rush of hits off Back in Black have they produced much to equal their best earlier songs. But while the Young brothers’ suspicion that they were regarded less highly post-Bon fed their paranoia for a long time, with the continuing success they have had, Malcolm and Angus are today much more comfortable with who they are. Like a vintage bluesman, AC/DC deserve the respect and success they enjoy. The energy and commitment they display is the least the punters should expect from any rock’n’roll band. But AC/DC have always been distinguished by their sense of humor and lack of pretension, too, and these are qualities they still retain.

  Bon was contemptuous of the critics who misunderstood AC/DC, but the band’s critical reputation improved over time as it became clear not only that they weren’t going to go away, but that what they’d started had influenced the course of rock’n’roll history. They’re now a touchstone, and Bon himself is recognized as one of the great lost figures of rock.

  Calling AC/DC a heavy metal band in the seventies was as inaccurate as it is today. To start with, they’ve never looked like a heavy metal band. Forgetting AC/DC’s glam-rock origins, Malcolm once commented, “It’s disgusting to see men prancing around with make-up on and hairspray wafting around them.” But AC/DC were never anything more or less than a straight rock’n’roll band. The confusion arises today because of the enormous influence they’ve had. The headbangers loved AC/DC from the very first, because—like Led Zeppelin—they could be embraced as a heavy metal band, even if they transcended the genre. AC/DC were a rock’n’roll band that just happened to be heavy enough for metal—and, as it also turned out, funky enough for hip-hop!

  “The other thing that separates AC/DC as a hard rock band is that you can dance to their music,” says Rick Rubin. “They didn’t play funk, but everything they played was funky. And that beat could really get a crowd going. I first saw them in 1979, before Bon Scott died, opening for Ted Nugent at Madison Square Garden. The crowd yanked all the chairs off the floor and piled them into a pyramid in front of the stage.”

  Before grunge, there was thrash; before thrash, there was hardcore; and before hardcore, there was punk. Before punk, before metal, there was heavy rock, as it was called in the early ’70s. AC/DC never fitted the punk stereotype, but as soon as hardcore came along they were recognized as an influence. And by the time thrash emerged—and remember that Metallica, for example, were called a thrash band when they first appeared in the mid-eighties—AC/DC’s influence was pervasive. (And who managed Metallica? And, for that matter, Def Leppard? Peter Mensch . . .) When Henry Rollins guested with Australian trio the Hard-Ons on a 1991 single version of “Let there Be Rock,” it was but one of a stream of tributes that continues to this day. The 2004 Australian feature film Thunderstruck makes a pilgrimage to Bon’s grave, which has become such a tourist attraction that it’s now protected by the National Trust.

  AC/DC was a band that made their own path, and it was Bon who gave them the character and spirit they’ve only ever been able to approximate since he died.

  “I don’t think there would have been an AC/DC if it hadn’t been for Bon,” says Angus today. “You might have got me and Malcolm doing something, but it wouldn’t have been what it was. Bon molded the character and flavor of AC/DC. He was one of the dirtiest fuckers I know.”

  For all his flesh and blood reality, Bon lent AC/DC a mystique that the band now sorely lacks. Angus still parades in the school uniform he should have grown out of years ago, a cartoon character who comes off stage and admits it’s a role he plays. The band has become two-dimensional. They’re no less pudgy-faced and red-eyed, no less obviously, honestly human—which is admirable when one of the great failings of so many rock bands is patent, show-business phoniness—but they seem to be set on autopilot. Angus should cut that blues album Atlantic was always pestering him to do.

  Bon provided the spark—sweet inspiration!—that ignited the fire, that elevated Malcolm and Angus above mere guitarsmiths, churning out riff after riff in a rote fashion. Malcolm and Angus patched up the band as best they could, and carried on. What else could they do?

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This book started life as a film proposal. It was my friend Tim Ferrier’s idea, and he’s the first person to whom I owe thanks. Tim was already in the film business, and as an old AC/DC fan, he could see the potential in Bon’s story. He asked me, as a writer, to help him, and I shared his enthusiasm for the idea. I remember the summer we spent writing a treatment. Even after only cursory research, Tim and I got it right enough to arouse terrific enthusiasm on the part of a producer and potential investors.

  But the project went no further than that. The reason was that Alberts Productions, which owns the rights to AC/DC’s songs, and with whom we had initially had agreeable meetings, simply stopped taking our calls. We could only assume they weren’t going to grant us permission to use AC/DC’s music, and this effectively killed the film. With great disappointment, Tim and I shelved the thing. I still believe Bon’s story would make a great film.

  I refused to let go of the subject, though. Bon’s story was such a good one and, I believed, an important one, that I remained determined to tell it in some form. This book is the result.

  My intention was only ever to portray Bon through the eyes of the people who knew him best, so I had to seek all these people out. As a result, I got to know a great many people I would otherwise never have met; this was an experience I mostly enjoyed and learned a lot from. I figure I would have liked Bon myself, because I liked so many of his old friends. I have relied on these people, and I extend to them my sincere gratitude for the faith and trust they extended to me, for their time and emotion, and the precious memories and mementos they shared so generously.

  Of course, I went to Bon’s family first, his mother and father, Isa and Chick, in Perth. “Ron would have loved this,” Isa kept saying, rolling her r’s in a still strong Scottish brogue. She and Chick both gave me every assistance they could, and to them I extend my special thanks.

  I went back to Alberts in the hope that they might now want to join the party, but my hopes were in vain. I still don’t know why—they won’t tell me—they simply refuse to talk about their fallen comrade. Even after we agreed that it was in no one’s interest that I get the facts wrong, they would not help me check facts. They denied permission to quote from Bon’s lyrics. Their lack of grace is astonishi
ng.

  Curiously, it was only people who had a purely professional relationship with Bon who were reluctant to talk to me. Plenty of them were keen, but just as many weren’t. Is this book authorized? they all asked. Knowing what they were really getting at—whether or not Alberts approved of it.I would reply, Well, it depends what you mean by authorized.

  I would think, I would go on, that only Bon’s family have the right to authorize a book about him, and certainly I have their blessing. At which point they would all say, No, no, is Alberts going along with it? I would say, No—and they would back off. Alberts seems to generate an atmosphere bordering on fear.

  Almost without exception though, Bon’s personal friends were delighted that an appropriate tribute was at last being paid to him, and they were unequivocal in their enthusiasm to help.

  I am indebted first and foremost to Vince Lovegrove, who not only opened quite a few doors for me—to people, like himself, who were Bon’s oldest friends—but also encouraged and inspired me all the way along the line. That he did so during a time when he was under great personal duress is all the more humbling.

  Mary Renshaw and Irene Thornton, Bon’s wife, let me into their lives, and if a man can be measured by the women in his life, Mary and Irene prove Bon was a fine man. Great thanks also to Mark Evans, Michael Browning, Bruce Howe, and Silver Smith. I kept going back to all these people with questions, and to use them as sounding-boards, and their patience never flagged.

  I am also indebted to Pat Pickett, Pam Swain, Chris Gilbey, Anthony O’Grady, Christie Eliezer, Juke, Rolling Stone, Mick Cocks, Joe Furey, Peter Head and Mouse, Uncle John Ayers, John Freeman, Helen Carter, Dave Jarrett, Molly Meldrum, Wyn Milson, John Darcy, Doris Howe, Peter Noble, Adrian Driscoll, Terry Serio, Sam See, Maria and Jim Short, Rob Bailey, Hamish Henry, Dennis Laughlin, Anna Baba, Graeme Scott, Keith Glass, Ian McFarlane, Richard Griffiths, Perry Cooper, Coral Browning, Paul Stewart, Chris Sturt, and Dave Baxter. And to the photographers Philip Morris, Bob King, Peter Carrette, Roger Gould, and Graeme Webber. And to a few people who preferred to remain nameless—they know who they are.

  I am indebted, too, to other writers whose research I have plundered, particularly Glenn A Baker, who seems to be the only journalist ever to have “penetrated” Alberts. For months, I went back and forth to the Mitchell Library in Sydney and the Victorian State Library to rifle through old issues of Go-Set, RAM, Juke, Rolling Stone and Digger, and I salute their creators and often nameless contributors. I also referred continuously to Noel McGrath’s Australian Encyclopaedia of Rock & Pop, Peter Beilby and Michael Roberts’ Australian Music Directory, Chris Spencer’s Who’s Who of Australian Rock, and David Day and Tim Parker’s It’s Our Music.

  Naturally, I read the two previously published AC/DC biographies—Hell Ain’t No Bad Place To Be by Richard Bunton, and Shock to the System by Mark Putterford—and I only hope I’m not found out repeating any of their mistakes!

  In general, quotes presented oral history style I obtained myself through first-hand interviews; those presented otherwise were derived from other sources, usually cited.

  Of course, there are also my own friends and associates who have helped in different ways, among them Tony Hayes and all the people we met in Scotland, David McClymont, everyone in Adelaide (the Herzs, the Norwoods, the Harrises), Bleddyn Butcher and Jude Toohey in London, Richard Guilliatt and Susan Bogle in New York, Ken West, Bruce Milne, Robert Forster and Karin, Dave Graney and Clare Moore, Steve and Helen, Matthew and Dianne, Peter Blakeley, and Stuart Coupe and Julie Ogden. Thanks also to my family, especially my mother. And last but most of all, my wife Debbie, who means more to me than words can express.

  Special thanks to Penguin Books Australia Ltd for permission to reproduce passages from William Dick’s A Bunch of Ratbags; and the Boston Globe for permission to quote from an October 7, 1970 column by George Frazier. And finally, thanks to Katherine Spielmann and Steve Connell for getting this US edition out.

  BIOGRAPHIES

  TED ALBERT: Head of J Albert & Son, the music publishing company that became a record label, too. In its 1970s heyday, the label was headed by the Vanda/Young production team and included not only AC/DC but also John Paul Young and the Ted Mulry Gang. Ted Albert died suddenly in 1990 … ANGELS: They formed a triumvirate at Alberts with AC/DC and Rose Tattoo, and are an Australian pub rock institution … “UNCLE” JOHN AYERS: Harmonica player in Fraternity. He subsequently formed Adelaide R&B outfit Mickey Finn … ANNA BABA: Lived with Bon in London for the last few weeks of his life. After he died, she returned to Japan and went to work in medical publishing … ROB BAILEY: AC/DC’s original bassist. He was sacked after the recording of the band’s first album. Later involved in new age music … BLACKFEATHER: Archetypal progressive rockers of the early ’70s. Bon plays recorder on their classic 1971 album At the Mountains of Madness … CORAL BROWNING: Michael Browning’s sister, who worked for him and AC/DC in London, then America, until Peter Mensch took over management of the band in mid-1979. She later worked for Virgin Music in Los Angeles … MICHAEL BROWNING: Managed AC/DC from late 1975 to mid-1979. He’d previously run clubs (Sebastians, then the Hard Rock Cafe), and managed Doug Parkinson and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Australia’s biggest band in the early ’70s. When he was sacked by AC/DC, he returned to Australia and set up Deluxe Records, which gave INXS, among others, its first recording deal. He went on to manage more bands, the most successful of which was Noiseworks … PHIL CARSON: General manager of Atlantic Records in London in 1976, and responsible for signing AC/DC to the label. Now based in Los Angeles, where he heads Victory Music, he was reluctant to be interviewed for this book … HELEN CARTER: Girlfriend of Bon’s in Sydney in 1975/76. She went on to become a musician, initially as bassist/songwriter with Do-Re-Mi, who enjoyed Australian hits such as “Man Overboard” in the ’80s … MICK COCKS: Rhythm guitarist in Rose Tattoo. After leaving the band in 1979, Mick landed in London, where he saw a lot of Bon before his death. He subsequently returned to Australia and rejoined Rose Tattoo … COLD CHISEL: Fronted by Jimmy Barnes—Bon disciple, fellow Scot and replacement for Bon in the last Fraternity lineup—Cold Chisel defined Australian pub rock in the late ’70s/early ’80s. As if punk never happened. When he went solo, Barnes became an Oz stadium rock icon … PERRY COOPER: A newcomer at Atlantic Records in New York in 1977 when AC/DC had just joined the label, as director of special projects he became one of the band’s first champions there. He often went out on the road with them, and always roomed with Bon … JOHN DARCY: A roadie for the Valentines in 1969, he remained friends with Bon for years afterward. He later worked with numerous other bands before getting out of the business, and today lives with his family in the hills outside Melbourne … MAL EASTICK: Lead guitarist in Adelaide band Stars, who supported AC/DC on their controversial return Australian tour in 1976. Today, he plays the blues … EASYBEATS: After the Seekers and the BeeGees, Australia’s most successful ’60s pop export. But the band could not follow up its one international hit, “Friday on My Mind,” leaving songwriting/production partnership George Young and Harry Vanda to fend for themselves … MARK EVANS: AC/DC’s bass player from 1975 to 1977. Went on to play with other bands, including Finch and Heaven, before retiring from the stage gracefully and working in a music shop, which only interrupts his golfing schedule. Some ten years after being dismissed from AC/DC, won an out-of-court settlement with Alberts over unpaid royalties … FLYING CIRCUS: Classically schizophrenic Australian act of the late ’60s: as a singles band they were pure bubblegum but as a live act/album band were progressive folk-country-rock. Found some success in Canada in the early ’70s … JOHN FREEMAN: Drummer in Fraternity, went on to play with Uncle and Bruce Howe in Adelaide R&B institution Mickey Finn, and today performs as an acoustic delta-blues guitarist … JOE FUREY: Met Bon and Silver Smith in Sydney in the summer of 1977/78 and, living in London thereafter and working for UFO, remained friends with both of them … CHRIS GILBEY: Worked at Alberts as a promoti
ons man and later general manager between 1973 and 1977. Went on to become one of the most powerful figures in the Australian music industry … RICHARD GRIFFITHS: AC/DC’s first booking agent in Britain, now CEO of Epic Records in New York … PETER HEAD (né Beagley): Keyboardist for Headband, and a contemporary and friend of Bon’s in Adelaide in the early ’70s. Under the name the Mount Lofty Rangers, he cut a number of tracks with Bon in 1974 … MAUREEN HENDERSON: Lived around the corner from the Scotts in Fremantle when Bon was growing up. She taught Bon to kiss … HAMISH HENRY: A wealthy Adelaide patron of the arts who acted as benefactor to Fraternity, and managed the band. He later went back to the family business, but then up and moved to Queensland, where he is now a successful manufacturer of children’s playground equipment … BRUCE HOWE: Leader of Fraternity. He steered the band on after Bon left, with Jimmy Barnes as singer, but not for long. Later rejoined Uncle in Mickey Finn, an R&B outfit which later also numbered John Freeman. Summoned by Jimmy Barnes to join his band after Cold Chisel split, he soon returned to Adelaide. He still lives on the Peninsula, just down the road from the Largs Pier Hotel, and plays with the Mega Boys … DAVE JARRETT: Promotions man for WEA Records in London in the late ’70s, his responsibilities included AC/DC. Worked for Hot Records in Sydney in the ’80s, before moving to Adelaide, where he died in his sleep in 2000 … IAN JEFFERY: AC/DC’s tour manager for many years, from 1977 until the mid-’80s, he later went back to work for Peter Mensch, with Metallica. He lives in Japan, and eluded being interviewed for this book … ALISTAIR KINNEAR: Was with Bon on the night he died. After one interview, he faded from public view and moved to Spain’s Costa del Sol, where he still lives and plays music. He resurfaced in 2005 and gave a public statement that finally put to rest the conspiracy theories surrounding Bon’s death … HERM KOVAC: Played drums in the Ted Mulry Gang. Today, he runs Ramrod Recording Studios in Sydney … DENNIS LAUGHLIN: Original lead singer in Sherbet, and AC/DC’s first, short-lived manager. Today, manages a hi-fi store in Geelong … LOVED ONES: The most mercurial of ’60s Australian bands, Melbourne’s Loved Ones exploded with a handful of classic hits, then fell apart … VINCE LOVEGROVE: Met Bon in Perth in the early ’60s, and with him formed the Valentines. They remained friends and both lived in Adelaide in the early ’70s, Vince working as a journalist and later an agent, in which capacity he was instrumental in Bon joining AC/DC. Went on to manage Cold Chisel briefly, before moving into TV as a producer, and then back to rock’n’roll, as manager of the Divinyls. In the mid-’80s, his second wife Suzie and son Troy, were stricken with AIDS, and he devoted himself to nursing them—they both subsequently died—and to documenting the experience in films and a book in the hope of raising awareness and understanding of the disease. After working as a journalist in London for some years, has now returned to Australia … LOBBY LOYDE: Australia’s Godfather of Punk, guitar anti-hero Lobby Loyde started out in Brisbane blues-boom band the Purple Hearts, went on to help rebuild Billy Thorpe’s Aztecs and then formed the Coloured Balls, the missing link between the Aztecs and AC/DC. He died in 2007 … MASTERS APPRENTICES: Led out of Adelaide by Scottish immigrant Jim Keys, the Masters Apprentices were one of the great Australian ’60s bands, a chameleon-like act who went from raw R&B through psychedelia and bubblegum back to country-rock and heavy metal, before breaking up in 1971 and giving AC/DC its first drummer, Colin Burgess … IAN “MOLLY” MELDRUM: Media personality, creator of Countdown, “the oldest teenager in Australia,” and someone whose enthusiasm for rock’n’roll—particularly Australian rock’n’roll—shows no sign of abating … PETER MENSCH: As part of New York management company Leber & Krebs, usurped Michael Browning’s position as manager of AC/DC in 1979. Was himself subsequently sacked, but since his other charges have included Def Leppard and Metallica, he has remained successful. He declined to be interviewed for this book … WYN MILSON: Played guitar alongside Bon in his first band, the Spektors, and went on with Bon to join the Valentines. Later became a live sound engineer, a job he still performs at the highest level … TED MULRY: Leader of the Gang, a hitmaker for Alberts throughout the ’70s. He died in 2001 … PAT PICKETT: A wicked friend of Bon’s who managed to attach himself to both Fraternity and AC/DC. He learnt the ropes as a roadie and today enjoys almost legendary status as one of that breed’s elder statesmen … ROSE TATTOO: Recommended to Alberts by Bon, Rose Tattoo were among the most ferocious white blues-rock bands the world has ever seen … PHIL RUDD: The drummer in AC/DC initially between 1976 and 1983. After running a recording studio in New Zealand, he rejoined AC/DC in 1994. He politely declined to be interviewed for this book … CHICK & ISA SCOTT: Bon’s parents, who long outlived their oldest boy … GRAEME SCOTT: Bon’s youngest brother, left home to go to sea in the late ’60s, and dropped in and out of Bon’s life according to where either of them was around the world at any one time. Eventually settled in Thailand, where, with his Thai wife, he ran a bar … SAM SEE: Guitarist/keyboardist in Fraternity, after he’d formed Sherbet and left the Flying Circus, and before he rejoined the Circus. He went on to play all around the traps, before recently taking up musical directorship of Australian television Channel 7’s Tonight Live … SHERBET: Australia’s biggest teenybop rock band of the mid-’70s, rivals of Skyhooks and Countdown darlings … MARIA SHORT: Bon’s first real steady girlfriend, whom he lived with on and off, in both Perth and Melbourne between 1965 and 1968, and with whom he always kept in touch. She lives in Perth with her family, and is highly successful in the rag trade … SILVER SMITH (née Margaret Smith): She and Bon lived together in London in 1976 and 1977, and they continued to see each other right up until Bon died. She eventually returned to Adelaide, where she lives in a small bungalow with a large garden, which she shares with her son and two German Shepherds. She has been drug and alcohol free since 1986 … PAM SWAIN: Met Bon in 1979 when she was working for radio station 2JJ, and enjoyed a brief fling with him. Today, she works for ABC-TV … IRENE THORNTON: Bon’s wife. They were married, in Adelaide, in 1972. They separated in 1974, when Bon joined AC/DC, and divorced in 1978, though they remained friends … BILLY THORPE AND THE AZTECS: Manchester-born Billy Thorpe was a show-business veteran by the time he migrated to Brisbane as a kid in the fifties. He went on to lead the Aztecs, who succeeded in traversing two distinct eras of Australian rock’n’roll, first as a ’60s beat sensation, then as ’70s “progressive” blues rockers. Thorpie later moved to the west coast of America where, after recording a few US albums, he became a soft toy manufacturer, before returning to Australia to reclaim his legacy. He published two volumes of memoirs and spearheaded 2002’s “Long Way to the Top” tour. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 2007 … TWILIGHTS: With dual lead singers Glen Shorrock and Paddy McCartney, the Twilights broke out of Adelaide as the Antipodes’ most slavish Beatles acolytes. Shorrock went on to front country-rock supergroup Axiom, then dabbled with the Mount Lofty Rangers, before joining the Little River Band … HARRY VANDA: Formerly of the Easybeats, the passive partner to George Young in the production team that shaped the success of not only AC/DC but also William Shakespeare, John Paul Young, Rose Tattoo, the Angels, and their own recording persona, Flash & the Pan. He refused to be interviewed for this book … MARY WALTON (née Wasylyk, now Renshaw): A dear friend of Bon’s, she met him initially in the ’60s, when the Valentines were based in Melbourne. Then a budding fashion designer, she went on to open her own boutique. Still works in the business, and lives with her kids in Melbourne … ROSS WILSON: A seminal figure in Australian rock, Ross the Boss’s first band, the Party Machine, spawned two early’70s standards, Daddy Cool and Spectrum. He himself went on to produce the ground-breaking Skyhooks, to found Oz Records, and to lead Mondo Rock … STEVIE WRIGHT: Former Easybeats frontman. “Little Stevie,” Bon’s role model in many respects, became one of Australian rock’s most infamous casualties. After following up the “Evie” single and Hard Roadi album with Black-Eyed Bruiser in 1975, he declined into hardcore heroin addiction … ANGUS YOUNG: Lead guitaris
t in AC/ DC, he refused to be interviewed for this book, although the author did interview him for a RAM cover story in 1990 … GEORGE YOUNG: Formerly of the Easybeats, he was the sixth member of AC/DC, the producer who guided the band from the very first. He refused to be interviewed for this book … JOHN PAUL YOUNG: Starting his singing career around the same time and place as Malcolm Young, the unrelated John Paul Young (aka “Mungy,” “Squeak,” “JPY”) almost replaced Dave Evans in AC/DC. He went on to become an Alberts labelmate and sang the unforgettable Vanda-Young disco-pop classic “Standing in the Rain” … JOHNNY YOUNG: No relation to the Young clan, he began as a ’60s singing sensation, and went on to success as a songwriter and producer (1969’s The Real Thing, most notably). He also fronted Australian television’s much-loved Young Talent Time between 1971 and 1986 … MALCOLM YOUNG: Rhythm guitarist, he formed AC/DC in 1973. He refused to be interviewed for this book.