Happy Birthday, Bon Scott Post by: Triple M Music 9 July, 2009 - 8:34 AM

Gone, but definitely not forgotten. It’s hard to imagine the legendary AC/DC frontman approaching pension age, but Bon Scott would have turned 63 today if he was still with us.

Of course, tragically, it’s almost 30 years since we lost the great Bon at the age of only 33. But even today, as his former outfit remains arguably the biggest rock band on the planet, people everywhere remember Bon in their own way.

There’s a plaque in the small town of Kirriemuir in Angus, Scotland, Bon’s birth place, that commemorates one of the town’s most famous sons. [It’s other most famous son is JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan.] In Fremantle, Bon’s adopted town outside Perth, there’s a big bronze statue of the singer.

Just this week, a hardcore fan in Fremantle has started up The Highway to Hell tour, which takes Acca Dacca fans to all the significant Bon-related places around Fremantle. It starts at the statue at Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour, then travels past Bon’s childhood home, his schools, Fremantle Prison [where the singer did a short stint], ending up at Bon's recently refurbished grave site in Fremantle Cemetery.

Over in New York a couple of weeks ago, a couple of Bon’s old notebooks – featuring his handwritten lyrics to 25 songs including utter classics like “High Voltage”, “TNT” and “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” – sold for $44,000 at Christie’s, the world’s most prestigious auction house.

Around the same time in Melbourne at this year’s APRA Awards, AC/DC’s 30-year old classic “Highway to Hell” won the prize for the Most Played Australian Work Overseas … for 2008!!!

It’s one of the true tragedies of Oz rock that for all Bon’s brilliance and hard work, AC/DC didn’t crack the big time until just after his death.

One of Bon’s oldest and closest mates, Vince Lovegrove [the two shared vocal duties in Bon’s old band Fraternity] recently recalled the last time he saw Bon, in New York, a year-and-a-half for his death. Vince said it was sad to find Bon lonely and still broke.

“He told me he was tired of it all, that he hoped the band ‘cracks it soon’,” Vince said, “He said they were nearly there, that he could smell the success, but if they didn’t make it in the next year or two, he would leave the band. He said there still wasn’t much money, that he was still broke. He told me he would come back to Australia if it didn’t happen soon for AC/DC.

“Less than two years later, on February 19, 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, alone, slumped in a Renault car in south London.”

It was an incredibly sad and unfair end to one of our greatest talents, but as is often the case with the world’s greatest artists, their true genius isn’t totally appreciated until they’re gone.

Happy Birthday, Bon – you and your music are still very much in our hearts.

Please share your thoughts on the great Bon Scott.

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