Bon Scott: Highway to Hell

[Music] good evening lovely to see you all if I can kind of see you all lovely to have you here for the conversation around this book bond the last highway my name is just inter Parsons and I'm a broadcaster and the music director from ABC local radio and double J it's an enormous pleasure to welcome you here to the wheeler Center tonight for our in-depth discussion about this book and the story of the man who is the focus of this book bond the last highway with its author Jesse Fink but before we go into great detail here I'd like to respectfully acknowledge that we are meeting today on the traditional land of the Kulin nation I pay my respects to their elders past and present and the elders from other communities who may be here today Bon Scott the myth the legend he fronted one of Australia's most successful and important bands of our time ac/dc for six years between 1974 and his death in 1980 but there's much that we don't know about Bon Scott how he died and the life that he led according to our guest tonight has been obscured in myth-making and I need that Baath bond be the great Australian rock hero Jesse Fink is a London born author of now four titles he's no stranger to the tale of ac/dc his third book the Youngs the brothers who built ac/dc was a bestseller published in over 20 countries and now bond the last highway promises a similar response with Jesse writing and researching this book with an intention to finally get to the bottom of the Bon Scott story no matter how many feathers get my truffle welcome Jesse Fink thank you we're going to spend some time swim talking about the controversies of this book the questions around his death about his relationship to the band and the persistent belief by some that he was a significant contributor to back in black but I want to start off start off by finding out more about your process even the idea of this book let alone the content puts you in the bad books of a whole range of stakeholders fans some members of the music industry and undoubtedly the young family the Bon Scott story that we've had up until now it might be sanitized legacy friendly version but why not let sleeping dogs lie because you go anywhere in the world ac/dc is absolutely huge and I think we underestimate here just how big they really are and I would argue they're probably our most significant cultural export and they certainly changed my life the first time I really got into them and I don't really know why I've written two books about them but I think they're a fantastic subject you say and you just said then as a fan everybody's got a personal connection to this band what was it do you think that made them so appealing to people in such a personal way they were just very honest you know they were just normal guys they dressed like normal guys they you know didn't do anything sort of too fancy it was kind of the the sound of Australia's you know good Australian rock and and there's nothing like good Australian rock you so many bands overseas to try and replicate it but they kind of it's something that we do here that's just unique and I really just don't think we understand just how significant it is globally was this book for you as well a way to just go back into that time these two books that you've done is it the happy times for you musically and also obviously significant well I did you know I was listening to the Village People in 1979 every I think the Village People was the first album I ever bought or Devo actually you know I wasn't really until I think it's about 2011 I started getting into ac/dc in a serious way you know 2011 yeah like you know it was very late but I was really late I had gone a little bit late yeah so I never see I never saw one in concert or anything like that and no I was just going through a really bad divorce and I felt really suicidal one night and instead of you know walking in front of a garbage truck I just put on a a song from power rage called give me a bullet and it just was like this amazing antidepressant and it made me feel strong and vigorous and optimistic and I went out and started jogging to ac/dc the next day and I started lifting weights to back in black we could make a box yeah and and I just found that that sort of ac/dc helped me kind of get through this really dark period in my life and then of course you know the moment you start joining sort of ac/dc Facebook groups you start meeting people who have similar stories to yours about how this band helped them through some dark period in their life and that's what really good music does it's it's powerful and it's restorative and an ac/dc just you know incredible musicians and that the the best rock band in the world so I thought when I had the idea to do the young as it was really just a tribute to them but you know it surprised me how much flack I got for sort of painting the Youngs is ruthless businessman which they're at which they are you know I think that's been proven recently with what's happened to to Bryan Johnson but at the time there was a section of the ac/dc fan community who you know regarded me as public enemy number one well you tried to reach out to the band many times when you're writing the books about the Youngs but you couldn't get through you say the secrecy around the band is worse than the CIA worse than Scientology that's not a quote from me that's from someone else but the Youngs have long said that they don't trust the media they believe the media will always try and cook up a story that that wasn't there to begin with do you understand though why they've needed to shut up shop to a degree but I think that also serves them it kind of helps them build this mythology which they can control they control the narrative around the band and certainly there's this very powerful narrative around the death of Bon Scott and the triumph of back and black I mean it's the biggest story in certainly an ac/dc history but one of the biggest stories in rock history was the success of that album coming out of such a terrible tragedy and you know if you watch the you know vh1 documentary about back in black it's you know you you read no doubt you know what you're supposed to think and that is a bond had nothing to do with the writing for the album we are going to get onto that in this conversation whilst you've tried very hard to get in touch with the family all the work that you've done writing and researching about the band all these hours and years and then one day out of nowhere Malcolm young is just walking down the road in front of you what happened yeah one of the most bizarre moments of my life well you know it was debating whether just to walk up to and say hello but you know he has dementia and I didn't want to be accused of being exploitative or anything like that so I just ended up just staying in the car and just watching him but since that's how close I got yeah in time yeah but unfortunately you know the situation is as it is and there's nothing I can do about it you'd heard that they had read the book I I did have I well I was in I was in the bridge Hotel in Sydney and some sort of long-haired guy came up to me and said don't ever walk up to a guy that calls you over any number one come out the back don't go there either and Ross Young was Malcolm Sun was at the back and then he Ross was a very nice young guy and he said oh yeah I read the book and yeah I enjoyed it and you know my mum and dad you know they've seen the book yep look if you need any help next time let me know you know some things you know maybe not right but you know good book that was as close to really as I got to the Young's pretty close but you know that I felt good when you research a man like bonds got so meticulously over such a long period of time years you see his best side but you're also exposed to you know the worst I suppose that the human did your opinion of bond change over the course of the writing of this book well definitely because I you know like a lot of people I had this impression of bond just sort of being this hard drinking hard shagging rock and roll cartoon and certainly that's the image that's been built up of a fuming over the years and I got a very different impression of him by you know certainly talking to someone like silversmith who I regard as the most significant woman in his life who was a complete recluse and she died at the end of last year she lived in a town called Jamestown in South Australia she was very ill she was quite cranky but she was a very witty sharp intelligent woman very cultured and funny and over a period of months I sort of gained her trust and I had to actually send her a couple of copies of my earlier books for her to read you know before she would agree to talk to me for this and then after she'd read laid bare actually which was the book about my divorce she said oh yeah look yeah I'll do it and so we did probably over a dozen interviews and she really really opened up to me and in fact she sent me stories that she'd written she had so many things to say and I think she was actually planning to write her own book at the time and she was asking me for publishing advice how to get this sort of book her own book done and you know I was happy to kind of talk to her about that but of course you know she she sort of gave me an insight into what I probably regard as the the real bond spot and that was who he was a very [Music] complex man with a real duality there was the the on stage bond there was the rock-and-roll bond and then there was the private bond and you know the private bond listened to Steely Dan it's like that's the last band in the world you would think of Bon Scott the second II would have bought a Village People album it's Steely Dan stuff but no like almost Steely Dan fan and so to hear that from uh-huh from silver and it's like yes finally i can enjoy Steely Dan and we all can now yeah what's you know there's so many interesting aspects to this but when he died his name wasn't even mentioned in most of the headlines that you know rock singer dies what do you think he would make now of the bond Scott Legend that that exists in this kind of popular I think he'd be a little bit embarrassed but to be honest it's a little bit crazy in all the statues and you know the figurines on eBay and you know there's just this all this crap that's sold everywhere that's not the real bond you know look and a lot of people have claims on who the real bond is there have been other books about Bon Scott but you know I didn't want to rehash those stories for this book this was like a completely new investigation and really the the the idea really was to look at bond in America between 1977 and 79 because for me that was sort of the blank part of his story and it was where bond spent most of his time before he died and I figured that look if he died in you know that those circumstances that he did in London and 1980 there had to be a build-up to it it wasn't just like a like something that had happened in isolation what was the road that he was on that took him to that lonely street in the histology in London weren't you know where he's dying in a car and doing that alone and and being alone I mean it's a terrible terrible way to die what's your focus on that three-year period in America is fascinating and this is you know how much research and writing has gone into those three years in that though we do travel back through his life a little bit and we go back to him as you know a young man not very much or not deeply but there's obviously important aspects of that growing up to that led us to the man that himself in that car alone can we draw a line is there a cause and effect you know he's his heavy drinking and the life that he led for all accounts it was a happy it was a happy upbringing yeah I didn't go too much into the sort of the early years because that had been done pretty well by Clinton Walker and his book highway to hell you know and I absolutely paid credit to him you know he did that right back in 1994 before the internet would have been extremely difficult to put that book together so you know I admire Clinton for that but in terms of you know why bond rank I mean that was of course the question that I was really just trying to answer what what were his demons and you know in writing the book the idea of it was great but that you know the reality of you know what am I going to put down on the page and its new I mean that really was causing me great difficulty in anguish and it was like at a certain point I thought now I can't even finish this book it's just way too hard because my approach was I don't want to just rehash anything that someone else has written I mean there are so many books that just sort of paraphrase other writers you know and I'm not that kind of writer I want to do something that that's new there so that the word untold is on the cover of the book it actually means untold and so someone picks up a book and pays $35 for it that they're not gonna Facebook message you immediately and saying I think you ripped me off you know I didn't want that to happen so I put a lot of pressure on myself to to get a a news story and it really wasn't until you know I reached that sort of point of thinking I'm going to just chuckle in that I came up with this idea of you know getting a map of America and putting pins in it where ac/dc had played concerts and and then I'll get a list of FM radio stations that service those cities and then find the DJs who were actually on air at those stations and contact them and say hey dude ac/dc ever come through your station did you ever meet him and so many of those DJ's wrote back to me and said I'll look I really appreciate you contacting me our live ac/dc what a great band but sorry I don't have any stories to tell you and then one day I just got an email back from a guy called Neil Mirsky in Florida and Neil was probably most famous for being one of the first producers at MTV and Howard Stern and he said ah yeah I'd love to help you in fact I've got a tape of me talking to bond which I've never released and you can have it it's like for me that was like get on a plane straight off yeah well it's just a water gift so I got I got that tape and then I thought well you know I can do something with this and he said look yeah look I'll put you in touch with some guys that I know down here in Miami who hung out with bond and the band while they were rehearsing highway to hell you know those guys are really close you know and suddenly it's like I was okay his story's developing here and then you know I spoke to the guys in in this band critical mass and they said oh well you know you know he had a had a girlfriend down here as well he was really close to and in the book I called her Holly ex and I was in New York and I thought okay I'm gonna go down and meet her so I caught a train and went down to Miami and she met me at the station and she's this tall beautiful blonde woman you know in her 50s now she invited me to stay with her and we spent days just talking about fun and she said look I want to be anonymous in this book everything's telling me not to do it but I want to do it because he I cared for him so much and I really want to tell the world that you know he was he was a really neat guy and a lovely guy and he had just a terrible addiction and he couldn't control and I want to help other people who are suffering in the same way and that's why she tries to do it had she never spoken to anyone before absolutely no one absolutely no one and and of course you know I'm thinking is is this a setup or whatever you have some elaborate practical joke to get back at me who would be oh there are a lot of people but you know I would be talking to other people in Miami you know people from critical mass people from other punk bands from that era they all said oh yeah you know she was she was bonds girl and they had something pretty serious going on of course you know bond had other women but I think towards the end of 79 he had he had set his sights on her and she rebuffed him and I think that obviously upsetting greatly the women that you talk to at lengths through this book there are three significant women that lead us to understand him in different ways why do you think there's such crucial aspects to understanding bond Scott you mentioned silversmith sorry yes silversmith holy X Patty Bishop probably as well was another important woman well she had she had also dated the bass player cliff Williams she dated a lot of rock stars but she gave me a whole list of the people that she been with but you know she was that was like this Long's and I wasn't going to name them that so but she had photos just tell us quite one of the guys from the cars oh good that's don't give him that in the book so there we go and you know she still had photos of her was born so the the two blondes were really hot women in their in their time so I think bond definitely had a type silversmith was different to that but she was very different yet and had some have described her as he's soulmate the one that he would speak about you know marrying but he he did say that about Holly as well and there was a lot of intimacy silver for example silversmith was much maligned throughout well his life even but also posthumously the way she was treated has been she's cops so much abuse it's terrible terrible stuff her connection with him was related to for a lot of perception around his drug taking that drug taking is in question by some people that he even was taking drugs but silver was obviously very important to speak to around that stuff yeah you saw there by her own admission was a heroin user she was friends with the Rolling Stones she had she was good mates with Phil or not Jimmy Bain she was in the heroin soon but you know bond was according to to holly was also doing you know quaaludes in Miami and and tons of cocaine and you know there's another woman in the book who who says look you know there's been a lot of guilt you know did we did we sort of hope born on these drugs did we kind of set him on that path and I said to her look you know look at the end of the day he's an adult he makes his own decisions you cannot take responsibility for that you know he made that choice and and really also you know that's the conclusion I come to about what happened in London is that you know everyone there's been so many people who blame Alasdair Kinnear for what happened or where they blame silversmith for what happened in London you know bon ending up in that carbon I mean really at the end of the day I think it was you know bond made his choice but yes to own that what's very interesting is this kind of dual narrative about bond the band has said here and there I don't know he didn't really even drink that much you know that there was a resistance to acknowledge him for the way that we hear other people describe him is really up for it you know and and obviously a heavy drinker why do you think we're hearing these different perspectives sorry that he that he was you know not into drugs the fact that there's a suggestion that heroin might have been involved is fiercely rejected why are there with there were two news stories today sort of saying friends of bonds slam newbomb Scott book no lies um Mark Evans said to me when I was writing Mark Evans was a bass player of ac/dc in the 70s he told me that bond had had a heroin OD in 75 you know and then Michael browning the manager of ac/dc said there was another one in 76 and then you look at who was around bond in sort of the final 24 hours of his life who was connected in some way to the events that happened that that evening and morning and and they were all connected to heroin you know so to say sort of heroin had nothing to do with what happened to bond is is just crazy so you know that's what I I had to do I had to kind of really investigate that because the two you know the two fundamental big stories in the story of Bon Scott how did he die and did he have anything to do with back and black but they're the two things that most other books have avoided dealing with or investigating or people satisfied that it was alcohol poisoning as reported and that it's simply okay that that's actually what happened why do we need to draw into the the conversation around Bon Scott this idea of heroin when it isn't proven and it wasn't actually tested for at the time oh there's a lot of a lot of question marks over exactly what happened you know after he died but it was all you know from the discovery of his body to the conclusion of the inquest you know it all happened sort of in 72 hours it was very quick and so that you know the conventional story is the one of the alcohol poisoning being with Alastair Kinnear left in the car etc and then there was this you know I guess seismic event sort of in the in in the bond story back in 2005 when classic rock did a interview with PDA and Paul Chapman of UFO who said that they had actually been informed about his death that morning so so many many hours before his body was supposedly discovered and the interesting part of that story was that Paul Chapman he was the guitarist of UFO said that he had been in his flat in the Fulham with a guy called Joe Fury who was an Australian friend of silver and bond and bond had gone off to buy some heroin and they were waiting for him to come back to the flat with the heroin but he never turned up now in the other telling of the story the silversmiths story you know Joe was actually at home with her so where was Joe wise Paul Chapman telling me this story it's totally totally different and of course silver completely rejected and said it's completely crazy but I spoke to Paul Chapman he was absolutely adamant why have another people followed up this this has been around now as you know a different side of the story for many years why haven't we had more interest in actually following up the truth about what happened that night because I think there's from a lot of people one you know Paul chap and news heroine Pete Way was using heroin how can you trust what to heroin users are telling you so there's that too it's just too bloody difficult to actually figure out how do you match up those two diametrically opposed stories they just don't fit but of course I tried to make them fit and that's why I ended up spending a year and a half just on that final part of the book which he did actually intend that you would absolutely go to at all but it took a year and a half from here no because I realized once I finished the the American part of the story that I couldn't ignore the death that it was a fundamental part of the story and it was incumbent upon me to do it when you went back and you now have really investigated those theories you've got two theories at the end of this book and they are very much surrounding the fact that heroin was involved in this when you bring that story or those theories back to people like Holly X or silversmith we know doesn't believe that heroin was involved what has been the reaction what are people's feelings about this look I could only go on you know I guess they're the messages and emails that I've received since the book has come out and I would say probably 85% of them extremely positive I mean Paul Chapman read the book he said yeah I think you've done it I think you nailed it so I mean that was great but there's you know 15% of people who just think I'm the worst person in the world that to have you know arrived at this conclusion that bonds in order terrible energy which is you know which is upsetting of course because you know all I'm trying to do is solve a mystery here the the the the alcohol poisoning story for me just just doesn't stack up and that he was potentially in a Kaffir for how many hours well you know one of the theories at the end of the book it was that he was actually left in the car dead for many hours deliberately it is sad when we have this myth and you know the story of this great man or a man anyway and you write in the book that his ending was beautiful it was a sad ending for for such a man when you're riding and you're getting inside this story how does it impact you when you're getting so close to something like this I feel a great affection for him and of course I never knew him I can't claim to have never to have had known him but you know most biographers didn't know Hitler either you know and there's this view of some people in the ac/dc fan community that you know if you didn't know bond you can't write a book about him which is just bollocks you know if you're a good biographer you're a good biographer you do the research you interview people you collate the information you make judgements on the information that you're given and you write it down and from your work do you think anyone really knew bond the total bond silver definitely silver yeah the other well there's so much as we said before interesting aspects to this back and black is where we're going to get to in a minute let's talk about ac/dc and his relationship with that band another side of the story where we get a lot of really different messages about it he was a lot older than the rest of the band when he joined them around ten years older do you think that put him outside the band to begin with yeah to a degree and by the accounts of the three women that you mentioned before that he had a very separate life to them and he was interested in other things he was far more intellectual Steely Dan well not not only Steely Dan but you know Doris Lessing and call it and you know you like to go to our galleries and and and feminist book shops you know just things that you just don't think of when it comes to bond you know one of the the myths as well is that well the widely held belief is that bond was pretty untouchable in ac/dc that what what do your thoughts on that I think he was just another employee just just has Brian Johnson has just been another employee but I think after his death it suited the band to kind of manufacture this idea that he was this absolutely essential part of the band but I don't see why he would have been any more protected than any other member of that band and there has been quite a number of casualties in that band you could look at the those three years in America though where he was at a number of times quite a liability for them there was record you know label weren't happy and some of the performances but they didn't let him go so the proof in some way is there as well he was still with them hmm up until that crucial time yeah it's difficult because you know one you know the ACDC my aren't cooperating with me so I can't get their side of the story other than what they've already said I can only really go on what others are telling me which is that that they that they weren't that close that that he was having a personality conflict with Malcolm young for instance you know and a lot of people are very angry about that sort of coming out in the book but apparently there was tension there Oly kinda talks about that as well and and understands that in some ways with the the alcohol addiction that bond had that it would have caused so much and I guess in some ways they had a responsibility to protect him as well by presenting an image of bond yeah well you know there's a there's a character in a book called roy emily alyn who said that you know he was at a gig in Texas and and sort of bond screwed up the lyrics to one of the songs and he came off the stage and he was really shaken up and he he was frightened and it was a moment where you know bond really looked like he was genuinely worried and and that was a interesting story I don't you know when he told me that I wasn't quite sure what he was telling me but he insisted it happened that that you know bond was scared so I don't know I mean maybe the drinking had got so bad that you know he started getting paranoid or something I really don't know I don't draw too many conclusions from that but I think that you know there's a good key moment in the book where bond calls Roy from a hotel room in Paris and says look I just can't hack it anymore I'm too far gone I can't do this anymore it's killing me I got to stop drinking which was in December 79 it wasn't a few weeks before he died it was December 79 so obviously if Roy is right you know bond was one bond was thinking about leaving the band and it's you know Roy's not the first person to say that Vince Lovegrove said it too before he died that that bond had wanted to get out of ac/dc and had thoughts of a solo album there was talk of that as well yeah I looked into that as much as I could there was this I guess has been talked for a long time that he wanted to do a southern rock album but I mean nothing really presented itself as sort of definitive proof that that was true I think but silver silver said he was into all kinds of different music you know ballads even so you know who knows what it might have been the as you said there's two big stories in this book the writing of back in black you've spoken to a lot of people who consider that Bon Scott was absolutely responsible for writing some of back in black most notably he shook me all night long how have you arrived at that and and what are some of those insights that you gained from people that have really led you to feeling very strongly about this well when I wrote the young's doug Fela who was a cdc's booking agent of their American tours you know very well-connected guy and the American music industry he managed Bon Jovi and Motley Crue played with Ronnie James Dio he said to me you know you can bet your life that bond wrote you shook me all night long he said bonds lyrics are all over that song but of course that's just one person saying that there's that's not definitive proof of anything and until such time as you know you get a signed confession from the Youngs and Brian John's and you know bond wrote you should go on that long some people will never believe what you give them as I guess information that might lend itself to support the idea that he did that what changed it for me I guess was you know meeting Holly and her telling me you know one that she had a horse called double time which is words that appear in the second verse she told me to come but I was already there which is a very bond sounding lyric which silver said that she actually saw in one of his letters from 1976 as well as the word American Science in the chartreuse eyes the shuttle of the chartreuse eyes yeah so Holly told me that she was out with bond at the Newport Hotel by the pool and he turned to her and said you have chartreuse eyes and she said well what do you mean green and she is adamant that that was changed to sightless eyes in the resulting song that is on back in black which would happen often he would bring words and ideas and that would be approximated by change or sense a sense it all changed by the young brothers now I'm not saying any of that is definitive proof it wouldn't stand up and called or anything but circumstantially anecdotally I think it certainly lends some credence to the possibility that that song was was could have been adapted from something that bon left behind such as in his not in his notebooks and his notebooks have not been seen since his death yeah the ones that potentially would have had the work that he would been working on for this album so silver said that that the night that bond went out to the music machine and he was dead the next day that he had called her and said I finished the lyrics for back and black let's go out and celebrate it's pretty young but there's obviously as we said there's no there's no hard evidence for these there's another aspect to the story to that the Bon Scott family have received apparently royalties hmm which confuses me because if ac/dc are claiming that Bon Scott has had nothing to do with that album then why would they be paying royalties to a family she's a very good question do you answer it well but what what does something I mean it doesn't make sense that they were because it wouldn't it be about money wouldn't it be about you wouldn't admit to this because it would it would cost more his mother said some years ago that bond had had been writing lyrics for that album and silver told me before she died that she said two eyes after bond died that to get a lawyer don't sign anything go to the Perth Law Society and get some advice so look I'm just speculating here but you know possibly possibly you know the family might have known that some of bonds lyrics were used and they just accepted a deal where they would allow for the credit young-young Johnson to be on that album while they were receiving payment and was it about betting in a new singer do you think making sure he had after Bon Scott making sure that that you know the new singer was credited that there is do you think what that yeah so and also that there's a guy in the book called David crebbs know David crebbs was really the biggest rock manager in the United States he ran a company called Libre cribs which the Aerosmith ac/dc Ted Nugent and liebe Krebs managed ac/dc for highway to hell and back in black and I spoke to David on the phone and he said look I don't believe that young young Johnson is an accurate credit for the back and black album I don't believe it and that's coming from the guy who managed ac/dc so I think that's a fairly significant quote from someone who knew them very intimately he died before the huge success of ac/dc with that album he died with $31,000 to his name which he found out when you went looking which is an incredible find as well yeah so you know I became very adept at internet research and fortunately a lot of these old newspapers are digitized now and I was just scrolling through copies of The Sydney Morning Herald from 1980 and found a notice a legal notice saying anyone who's got to claim on the estate of Ronald Belford Scott please contact his lawyer and I so I contacted the Supreme Court in New South Wales and I said if you got any a probate for Ronald Belfort Scott and they said I'm sorry sir no no we don't know so you sure you want to check again we've got a Ronald Helford Scott could that be the same man I see yep definitely and that'll be $100 and I paid $100 and they sent me the probate of Bon Scott which had an inventory of all his assets I couldn't believe it Wow and as you said it was 30 I've just over thirty thousand dollars and and you know sorry thirty one thousand dollars and three hundred dollars and shares I mean like it's amazing that must be pretty spooky as well to be that kind of close to someone that you've really been researching so intimately to sort of have that sort of stuff in front of you as well I just couldn't believe that I would be able to get it for a start yeah it was like wow I mean this is I'm turning up something that no one knows you know other than obviously people inside the family yeah but really I think it underlines really the tragedy of Bon Scott that that's someone who was so incredibly gifted who wrote such an amazing body of work who would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars by now died with $30,000 each bank account very sad we're gonna open up the floor very soon you've been so close with this story is it a tragedy this story of Bon Scott I think it is I think that the the the great tragedy is that he just didn't get the help that he needed when he needed it yeah yeah it's not it's not that he missed out on the the fortune that came back in black or anything like that it's just that he didn't get the help that he needed well we are going to as we said open up questions with with you now if you have I'm sure there's lots of questions with this book I'm sure there's lots of feelings about this as well so just make sure we're going to be just really respectful and you know it's a conversation you know if you've got anything you want to ask yep in reading and learning about Bon Scott over see who's these great artistry and lyrics and stuff I've come across people who say that he's incredibly violent at times in his youth whom obviously had a criminal record in fremantle spent time in Fremantle prison um did you get any sense of later in his life after that youth spent running with gangs and things like that first of all is that accurate and second of all did you get any impression of how that the reformation towards this almost paka SHhhh like and I sort of almost impish like goblin white character who you have that seem to have this great ability to control a party through great joy and storytelling is is what I've read obviously the same boat as you I never met the guy but there was seem to be some transformation in him from quite possibly troubled in and on it highway truly to hell when he was young hmm but then he ended up finding some songs over the music was is there any anything you found that would describe or explain that transformation I think silver was at the center of all that I think silver introduced him to culture to to books to different music to spirituality and she's she wrote me some some pieces which are not in the book because obviously I don't know in the copyright but I think I think her flat in London was really just a refuge from you know the the intellectual desert of ac/dc for you know that's true just I think he felt like he could be who he wanted to be in that band environment why was she so disliked was it simply the drug-taking well she she told me that she traveled even with the ban on the on the on their bus and she felt this intense hostility from the young brothers you know maybe to Yoko thing I don't I don't know but she was a very different very different woman and maybe they just saw her as you know a bit of a snob or you know thought that she was too good for them or whatever I don't know but she was over the belief that her apartment her record collection her friends were a refuge for he and and she also said that she thought that that bond really missed the intellectual environment that he had in fraternity with those hippies that those hippies that in their band were were smart well-read good conversationalist politically aware and that he had none of that in ac/dc and so that he was very frustrated and he wanted to get away from it whenever he could hey there thanks for um I found that really interesting well yeah I I too am fascinated with bonds got so much one of his answers has triggered a PhD project I'm a visual artist can't sit up here more talk to you no I mean you are you born what I am okay so what I found I mean such a great answer when he was asked if he was AC or DC and he said he was neither or he was the lightening in between and I think that I mean that's such a contemporary comment in terms of I don't know I mean in terms of non-binary in terms of you know whether male-female if you know alternating current direct current and I just wanted to to uh see what you what you thought of that or whether it be actually in fact said that I think it was Vince love gravity who said that there was a very subtle feminine side to bond as well and that was part of his appeal he wasn't all masculine there was any fish quality I think that's why he appealed to women and men but I think I think it was I think it's silver in the book he said the reason why he got on so well with women was that he actually really loved them he loved talking to them loved listening to them he just didn't see them as a conquest I mean and that goes against totally the impression that we have of him that's just this and the impression when he felt a necessity to keep perpetuating this image of him is the rascal rock-and-roller ended up really fatiguing him is that truly yeah and that was something that was very strong in the book and certainly an opinion that I formed that was that by the end and and this was something that even I think are in Thornton set once was that he just got absolutely sick and tired of playing up to this manufacturing role of being the bad boy you know being this Fagin to all the young guys in the band you know this hot high priest of badness and he got trapped in the end and he didn't know how to get out of it and and I strongly believe that's why he had such a drinking problem because he didn't know really who he was anymore oh thanks very much for for the talk and looking forward to reading your book the I agree with you that the the chance that it was all young young Johnson songwriting fur back in black so soon after Johnson joining the band almost out of nowhere just seems extraordinary to me there's there's rumors of demos with bond singing some of the songs is that just an Internet hoax or do you think there's any substance today oh look I'd love to if they're out there you know though you you heard that there was mention of that through the books that there is oh yeah there was a guy it was a guy you know in a very well-known American band who said you know I've I've heard that there are demos out there but I'm still amazed that the the demos purporting to be Bon Scott that are on YouTube still fool so many people you know they say oh you know his bond singing back in black it's obviously not what singing back in black look no I really don't have any information on that I wish I I wish I had thanks for the talk girl great great listening given that the Young's incorporated ruthless machine is there any leaks at all to the idea that bond was bond and he went out on a bender sorry only was bond I like that of a little Asian yeah did that he was saved and that was a bender like to you know no I I didn't find any evidence of that no no my there's the story that I got and in the from silver and it's the one that I believe was that he had finished the writing for the back in black album and he wanted to go out and celebrate so no didn't find any evidence thank you for the talk it's been fantastic the elephant in the room are the young brothers and they seem to be the missing piece to the puzzle to everything to do with the band and Bon Scott now we've lost George of course about a week ago even that brother who was very close to them Malcolm's obviously unwell do you think Angus will ever crack do you think we will ever get the true story of I see they see or it will die with Angus well I think good it's a good mystery with no I don't think he'll ever write his own book no because he he tells a consistently different story anyway like as you said the outlined here there's just it's always kind of narrated differently there's nothing consistent throughout it is there no and he's not the most articulate fellow either I find interviews with Angus absolutely painful to listen to but obviously he look is an enormous Lee gifted guy but I think he's like the rest of the young family he's extremely private and I don't think he's got any interest in kind of exposing himself any more than he has that's kind of also why in a lot of ways I was motivated to do these books because I I don't expect that there's ever going to be an official ac/dc biography and you know this band really deserve some good books just an incredible band and we should be all proud of them for a few know for taking Australian rock and roll around the world when we dig in so much though does the sheen wear off do we need to keep our heroes intact well you know ultimately I kind of look at it as as writing a history and and you know the truth for me is very important and if it's unflattering then so be it but if it happened if it's if it's the story and what and we're interested in the band I think you know we should have books like this I don't think of ac/dc negatively after writing these books I still have great admiration for them people accuse me of kind of wanting to take ac/dc down if I really wanted to take a CD they esidisi down I wouldn't be spending five years of my life on these bloody things you know thankless tasks it is a thankless task and I do it out of love for the music but I'm never gonna do an ac/dc book again don't say that you never know if we only what questions or will we leave it there let's leave it there I think we need to give a huge round of applause for Jessica it's so wonderful it's an absolutely you can be pleased to know that there's quite a good section of resources and and noting here so you don't have to read all of this but it's a wonderful book the last hi where the untold story of Bon Scott Sun bookshop is down the back there if you would like to purchase yourself a copy and Jesse will be there to write you a love letter in the front so thank you so much for joining us this evening it's been wonderful thank you visit wheeler center.com for the best in books writing and ideas from Melbourne Australia and the world

Channel: WheelerCentre

Views: 47,190

Rating: 4.6761131 out of 5

Keywords: Ideas, Melbourne, Australia, Conversation, The Wheeler Centre, Victoria, Writing, Bon Scott, AC/DC, Highway to Hell, Jacinta Parsons, Jesse Fink, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson

Id: nfTp1pRVj1w

Length: 60min 2sec (3602 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 24 2018