Australia's best band travelled a highway to hell paved with booze, death and hardcore doses of the clap.
It all started in a cesspit called Glasgow, Scotland, when William and Margaret Young spat out eight kids – apparently there wasn't much on television in those days. Two of those tackers – pint-sized guitar-stranglers Malcolm and Angus – were destined to become gods of rock. But it was a long way to the top, especially for a crew Angus himself has described as, "Five dwarves that make a big racket."
Let there be rock
Immigrating to Australia in 1963, the Young clan lobbed at Villawood Migrant Hostel in Sydney, which was basically Guantánamo without the
sea breeze. Within two years, elder brother George Young hit the big-time with The Easybeats – the closest thing Australia had to the Beatles. It opened Angus and Malcolm's eyes.
"I saw all the women and I figured that looked good," Angus laughed later. "I was horny. I got a guitar off my brother and started playing."
Believing rock was their ticket to fame, fortune and foxes, the Young brothers joined forces. Playing rhythm guitar, Malcolm was the brains behind the outfit. Angus was the star attraction – a baby guitar assassin in school uniform with electrified fingers. “I just go where the guitar takes me,” he once said. Not much has changed in 40 years.
In September that year, the Youngs found their saviour
in a hard-living ex-pop singer with bodgy tatts and a twinkle in his
eye – Bon Scott.
At 28, he was already a rock veteran, enjoying fame with 1960s pin-ups The Valentines and fronting '70s hippie band Fraternity. To prepare for his first gig with AC/DC – shortly after he recovered from a near-fatal motorcycle crash – at Adelaide's Pooraka Hotel, Angus recalled, “Bon downed about two bottles of bourbon with dope, coke, speed and said, 'Right, I'm ready.' And he was too!"
An outlaw, boozer, joker, ladies' man and the ultimate rock frontman, Bon was many things to many people. Everyone knew he really did all the nasty things
he sang about, and they loved him for it. Six months after Bon joined AC/DC, their debut album High Voltage was in the Top 10. They were on their way.
Fellow band members were in awe of their frontman's freakish abilities. In the book Highway To Hell, former Seedies bass player Mark Evans recalled a time Bon scored a "trifecta" four days running – "Three different girls each day for four days in a row. The man was a genius."
Granting few interviews, AC/DC have kept a lid on most of their internal strife in the post-Bon era. When Malcolm needed time away from touring to attend AA meetings, they simply roped in look-alike nephew Steve Young as a temporary replacement. Fans barely noticed.
There have been other low points over the years, like the 1983 sacking of long-time drummer Phil Rudd over his unchecked drug use and the unplanned pregnancy of one of Malcolm's relatives. After a dust-up with Malcolm during
the recording of
Flick Of The Switch, Phil was sent packing. He was eventually invited back in 1994.
What's your favourite AC/DC song? Leave your comment below.
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