THE MAN WHO MADE AC/DC
RELEASED ON JULY 27, 1979, HIGHWAY TO HELL WAS AC/DC’S LAST ALBUM WITH LEAD SINGER BON SCOTT, WHO DIED FROM ALCOHOL POISONING ON FEBRUARY 19, 1980. THE ALBUM’S TITLE SUPPOSEDLY CAME AFTER A REPORTER ASKED BAND MEMBERS IF THEY COULD DESCRIBE WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE BEING CONSTANTLY ON TOUR. LEAD GUITARIST ANGUS YOUNG REPLIED THAT IT WAS “A F—KING HIGHWAY TO HELL.” THE ALBUM BECAME AC/DC’S FIRST TO SELL A MILLION COPIES AND MAKE THE U.S. TOP 20. THIS YEAR SAW AC/DC REACTIVATE ITS SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS, FOLLOWING A TWO-YEAR LULL, FOR A MONTH-LONG CELEBRATION TO HONOUR THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR CLASSIC MASTERPIECE. AND AS WE CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE THIS EPIC MILESTONE, JEFF APTER SHARES THIS EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM HIS LATEST BOOK, WHICH TAKES US BEHIND-THE-SCENES WITH MALCOLM YOUNG, HIS CO-FOUNDER BROTHER ANGUS, LEAD SINGER BON SCOTT AND THE REST OF THE BOYS, AS HE ENCAPSULATES THE HIGHS AND LOWS THAT COME WITH BEING A KEY MEMBER OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST ROCK BANDS ON THE PLANET.
Momentum was always crucial for Malcolm Young and the band, and their U.S. tour would be the bubble in which they existed until the middle of August 1979. It was a three-and-a-bit-month-long run with very few nights off. They travelled, they played, they slept a bit and then they kept moving. Bon Scott summed up the feelings of Malcolm and the entire band when asked by Florida DJ Neal Mirsky where they currently resided. “We’re not actually residents of anywhere right now,” Scott explained. “Most bands live on the Virgin Islands or whatever… but we’re mainly Australians… the three Australians were born in Scotland. One Englishman. And one Polish guy. We’re what you might call international.”
They were rock-and-roll gypsies, essentially.
