How did AC/DC singer Bon Scott die?
Very few frontmen in the history of rock and roll could carry off the on-stage presence that AC/DC singer frontman Bon Scott adopted for six years between 1974 and 1980. Wild-haired and invariably shirtless, striking his signature power poses and throwing a high-pitched growl into the microphone, he was explosive, hellbound, hard rock personified.
But it wasn’t just an act. Scott lived like he performed, taking all the drugs he could get his hands on and bedding any woman who’d have him, allegedly impregnating two of them at the same time. Generally taking everything in his stride, living easy and loving free, most importantly, with no stop signs. He meant every word he sang.
That is, until one day, life intervened, bringing him to a sudden and tragic halt. Scott had overdosed on heroin within a year of joining AC/DC in 1975, which very nearly cost him his place in the band. “Things weren’t looking good,” bassist Mark Evans later claimed in Jesse Fink’s book The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC. “There was mention of another singer. But it never got to that point.”
Scott lived to tell that particular tale, in both a literal and a professional sense, but five years later he wouldn’t be so lucky. In the early hours of Tuesday February 19th 1980, Scott passed away at the age of 33. He’d been performing, writing and recording with AC/DC right up until his death. He burnt out in his prime.
So, what was the cause of death?
The official autopsy recorded Scott having died of acute alcohol poisoning.
After visiting the London nightclub Music Machine in Camden the night before, Scott and his friends Alistair Kinnear Zena Kakoulli somehow drove back to 67 Overhill Road in East Dulwich, on the other side of the city. They’d all been drinking heavily, and Kinnear had taken heroin, too. It’s speculated that Kakoulli’s husband, Peter Perrett, the vocalist from the rock band the Only Ones, was also with them.
When later asked by Fink whether she thought Scott had also taken heroin that night at the Music Machine, Kakoulli replied, “I would think it probable.” Scott frequented the club with his girlfriend at the time, Margaret “Silver” Smith, primarily so the two of them could score drugs.
Once the group arrived at Kinnear’s house, he and Kakoulli left Scott, who had passed out, in the seat of his car. There, it’s speculated, Scott threw up in his sleep as a result of intoxication by a mixture of alcohol and heroin and choked on his own vomit. Kinnear found him the next morning and called an ambulance, but it was already too late.
This tragic accident robbed rock music of one of its greatest showmen. Brian Johnson soon took Scott’s place in AC/DC, successfully leading the group into a new era. But nothing was quite the same without Bon Scott. For many fans, he’s come to symbolise not just the glory days of AC/DC but the golden age of rock.
