Of all the musical influences I have, Bon Scott easily ranks in the top five, not just as a singer but as a lyricist as well. His lyrics were not deep on any philosophical level or had you contemplating your existence in the great cosmos and your relationship to it.
No, his tongue-in-cheek styled lyrics were geared to the primitive instinct of every young man chalk full of testosterone, giving the middle finger to society. And he was passionate about his lyrics, too. Just listen to any vocal performance that man recorded. He was all guts and balls in every time.
Bon Scott was born Ronald Belford Scott on July 9, 1946, in Forfar, Scotland, to parents Charles Scott and Isabelle Mitchell, who ran a family bakery in the town of Kirriemuir. At age six, the family of four, which now included younger brother Derek, emigrated to Australia, settling in Sunshine, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne.
After his second brother, Graeme, was born in 1953, the family packed up and moved to Fremantle, a port city in Western Australia, in the metropolitan area of Perth. He also had a younger sister named Valerie, who was born after Graeme.
He was called Bon because another kid in his class at North Fremantle Primary School was also named Ronald. Perhaps his nickname could have been from a lingering Scottish accent he still had as a young child and the Scottish word “bonnie” meaning handsome, pretty, attractive. Bonnie Scotland, Bonnie Scot, Bon Scott.
He joined the Fremantle Scots pipe band, along with his father, where he learned to play drums and picked up the fife, recorder and the bagpipes. He dropped out of high school at age fifteen and by 1963 had landed in Riverbank Juvenile Institution after being arrested for falsifying his address; escaping legal custody; having sex with an underage girl, though he would have still been a teenager himself; and for stealing fifty-five liters of gasoline.
In 1964, Scott formed his first band called the Spektors, where he played drums and sang some lead vocals. This band eventually morphed into the Valentines in 1966, where Bon shared vocals with Vince Lovegrove. They recorded a few songs written by Harry Vanda and George Young of the Easybeats and released several singles. One of their own songs, Juliette, co-written with Scott, cracked the Australian top thirty. The band also made live TV appearances on programs such as Turning On, where they performed a cover of the bubblegum hit Build Me Up Buttercup. The band broke up in August 1970 after disagreements and a much-publicized drug bust in 1969.
From The Valentines, Scott moved to Adelaide in November 1970 joining the band Fraternity. Being managed by the same agency as Sydney rock band Blackfeather, Bon was invited to play the recorder on their track, Seasons of Change, for their debut album, At the Mountains of Madness.
In March 1971, Fraternity released their own version of Seasons of Change, and it hit number one on the Adelaide radio charts. The band released two albums during their career, 1971s Livestock and 1972s Flaming Galah. After winning a national battle of the bands competition in 1971, with the prize being a paid trip to London, they toured the UK in 1973 under the new band name Fang. They opened for bands such as Status Quo and Geordie hoping to gain a foothold there. The band slowly fell apart and they eventually returned to Australia.
While lead singer for Fraternity, Bon married Irene Thornton on January 24, 1972, but their marriage was short-lived, separating in 1974 and divorcing in 1977. Bon was also involved with a Margaret Smith whom he had also met in Adelaide in the early seventies, but their relationship ended in 1977. Both women stayed in touch and remained friends with Bon until his death.
After returning to Australia towards the end of 1973, Bon started singing with Mount Lofty Rangers, a band founded by pianist Peter Head. The band was a merging of his band Headband and ex-members of Fraternity. Not being much of a guitarist, Peter taught Bon how to put chords together to help arrange the musical ideas he had. According to Vince Lovegrove, Bon’s lyrics even then were “simple, clever, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek”. His simple yet clever approach to lyrics would bode well for his future success with AC/DC as the primary lyricist.
On May 3, 1974, after an argument with a member of Mount Lofty Rangers, Bon sped off on his motorcycle while under the influence of alcohol, leading to an accident that landed him in the hospital. He spent three days in a coma and a further eighteen days recovering. Upon his release, his former band mate Vince Lovegrove who was now running a booking agency, gave Bon some work painting and decorating his office and introduced Bon to a young band named AC/DC who were on the lookout for a new singer.
After returning to Australia towards the end of 1973, Bon started singing with Mount Lofty Rangers, a band founded by pianist Peter Head. The band was a merging of his band Headband and ex-members of Fraternity. Not being much of a guitarist, Peter taught Bon how to put chords together to help arrange the musical ideas he had. According to Vince Lovegrove, Bon’s lyrics even then were “simple, clever, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek”. His simple yet clever approach to lyrics would bode well for his future success with AC/DC as the primary lyricist.
On May 3, 1974, after an argument with a member of Mount Lofty Rangers, Bon sped off on his motorcycle while under the influence of alcohol, leading to an accident that landed him in the hospital. He spent three days in a coma and a further eighteen days recovering. Upon his release, his former band mate Vince Lovegrove who was now running a booking agency, gave Bon some work painting and decorating his office and introduced Bon to a young band named AC/DC who were on the lookout for a new singer.
Bon’s life came to a tragic end on February 19, 1980, after being left to sleep in the back of a friend’s car in East Dulwich, London. He was found the next day and was pronounced dead on arrival at King’s College Hospital in Camberwell. He was only thirty-three. The coroner’s report listed the cause of death as “misadventure” from alcohol poisoning.
Bon is buried in Palmyra, a suburb of Perth, Australia.
