Bon Scott ... the true Aussie rock legend.
BRUCE ELDER spoke to AC/DC a few days after their legendary singer's death.
The general public, as Mark Knopfler so acutely observed, think of the average rock 'n' roll band as a bunch of layabouts who get their "money for nothing and their chicks for free". With few exceptions the reverse is true. Genuinely successful rock bands like AC/DC work impossibly hard, sacrifice the pleasures of normal life for the mind-numbing awfulness of life on the road, and are bound together by a day-to-day proximity which makes factory work seem isolated.
I first understood this when, as Rolling Stone's London correspondent back in 1980, I was asked if I would go and interview the remaining members of AC/DC. It was only a few days after Bon Scott's death. The band were on the cusp of international success and certainly neither they nor I felt like talking about such an emotional and difficult event.
I was given an address near Victoria Station. It was a very unprepossessing warehouse which in late February was dark, horrendously cold and totally uninviting. When I arrived the band were rehearsing. Nothing spectacular. It was just a bunch of guys playing in a drab, concrete-floored room. My first and enduring impression was of the smallness of the members of the band and the unhealthiness of their complexions. Their faces looked fish-belly white and pasty. They all looked thin and emaciated. And Angus Young, who I had previously only ever seen in pictures, looked positively tiny and weedy. They were far removed from the big healthy lads in English bands like Status Quo or Black Sabbath.
The interview started, as they invariably do among expatriates, with idle chat about Australia. Then I asked: "Who in the band was closest to Bon?" Angus answered: "We all were. You see we were on the road for 10 or 11 months every year and the rest of the time we were in the studio recording the next album. We were all close to Bon."
It was one of those moments when you suddenly realise the line between truth and myth in the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. These guys were bonded by hard work and the desire to succeed.
And an amusing footnote: I was telling this story to Les Gock, ex-member of Hush, a few weeks ago. He said, "Well Angus's version isn't entirely true. We used to tour with AC/DC. I spent a lot of time with Angus - playing cards. You see, Angus doesn't drink. All he ever drank back then was milk. So Bon and some of the others who liked a drink would go out partying while Angus stayed back in the motel drinking milk and playing cards."
What was that about wild rock 'n' roll lifestyles?
BRUCE ELDER spoke to AC/DC a few days after their legendary singer's death.
The general public, as Mark Knopfler so acutely observed, think of the average rock 'n' roll band as a bunch of layabouts who get their "money for nothing and their chicks for free". With few exceptions the reverse is true. Genuinely successful rock bands like AC/DC work impossibly hard, sacrifice the pleasures of normal life for the mind-numbing awfulness of life on the road, and are bound together by a day-to-day proximity which makes factory work seem isolated.
I first understood this when, as Rolling Stone's London correspondent back in 1980, I was asked if I would go and interview the remaining members of AC/DC. It was only a few days after Bon Scott's death. The band were on the cusp of international success and certainly neither they nor I felt like talking about such an emotional and difficult event.
I was given an address near Victoria Station. It was a very unprepossessing warehouse which in late February was dark, horrendously cold and totally uninviting. When I arrived the band were rehearsing. Nothing spectacular. It was just a bunch of guys playing in a drab, concrete-floored room. My first and enduring impression was of the smallness of the members of the band and the unhealthiness of their complexions. Their faces looked fish-belly white and pasty. They all looked thin and emaciated. And Angus Young, who I had previously only ever seen in pictures, looked positively tiny and weedy. They were far removed from the big healthy lads in English bands like Status Quo or Black Sabbath.
The interview started, as they invariably do among expatriates, with idle chat about Australia. Then I asked: "Who in the band was closest to Bon?" Angus answered: "We all were. You see we were on the road for 10 or 11 months every year and the rest of the time we were in the studio recording the next album. We were all close to Bon."
It was one of those moments when you suddenly realise the line between truth and myth in the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. These guys were bonded by hard work and the desire to succeed.
And an amusing footnote: I was telling this story to Les Gock, ex-member of Hush, a few weeks ago. He said, "Well Angus's version isn't entirely true. We used to tour with AC/DC. I spent a lot of time with Angus - playing cards. You see, Angus doesn't drink. All he ever drank back then was milk. So Bon and some of the others who liked a drink would go out partying while Angus stayed back in the motel drinking milk and playing cards."
What was that about wild rock 'n' roll lifestyles?
No comments:
Post a Comment