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Title: AC/DC nearly fired Bon Scott after overdose
Source:
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URL Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/art ... e/story-fn9d2mxu-1226750001380
Published: Nov 1, 2013
Author: Will Swanton
Post Date: 2013-11-01 09:09:07 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 760
UNTHINKABLE! And until now untold. AC/DC nearly sacked Bon Scott. Mark Evans, the former bass guitarist, makes the revelation in The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC, to be published by Random House tomorrow. Evans said AC/DC's founding members Angus and Malcolm Young, who were anti-drugs, took a dim view of their iconic frontman overdosing on heroin in Melbourne in 1975. "There were some doubts about Bon at that stage," Evans said. "He'd had a problem or he'd had an OD very early on. It was just a dabble . . . Bon just made a bad decision. It was only one bad decision. "From what I was led to believe and came to believe, it was a very, very isolated incident. I never saw any evidence of anything remotely like heavy drugs (when I was in AC/DC). "I remember when it happened. It was all very in-house. That was it." Scott was the irrepressible, full-throated, sweat-soaked lead singer of AC/DC from 1974 until he died in 1980 following a night of heavy alcohol consumption in London. "There was a moment of madness," Evans said of the possibility of Scott being sacked. "That's all I can put it down to. There was disquiet. I have to put this into perspective here: in any decision like that I had absolutely f. . k-all influence. It was just something that filtered through the band: that things weren't looking good (for Bon). There was mention of another singer. But it never got to that point. There wasn't a lot said at the time. It was (a case of), 'There may well be a change coming.' " Asked directly whether Scott overdosed on heroin, Evans replied: "Yeah." Evans was the bass guitarist for AC/DC, alongside Scott, from 1975 to 1977. International acclaim was attained on the back of albums such as 1976's High Voltage (a mix of the Australian-issue High Voltage and its follow-up, TNT) and 1977's Let There Be Rock. Sydney-based author Jesse Fink said Evans deserved praise for setting the record straight. "This is music history," he said. "It's important to know. It's an astonishing quote from Mark because finally, after close to 40 years, we've had someone who was inside the AC/DC sanctum reveal that Bon Scott was ultimately seen as just as dispensable as anyone else in the band -- drummers, bass players, singers -- who wasn't a Young brother. "Mark has no agenda. He has no axe to grind. He absolutely loves AC/DC." -
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