{"id":23471,"date":"1980-02-19T00:00:17","date_gmt":"1980-02-19T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=23471"},"modified":"2020-02-04T15:28:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T15:28:02","slug":"news-bon-scott-dies-of-acute-alcohol-poisoning-at-age-of-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/news-bon-scott-dies-of-acute-alcohol-poisoning-at-age-of-33\/","title":{"rendered":"AC\/DC Vocalist Bon Scott Dies Aged 33 (February 19th, 1980) | News @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

AC\/DC Vocalist Bon Scott Dies Aged 33<\/strong><\/span>
\nFebruary 19th, 1980<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bon Scott, vocalist for Australian hard rock group AC\/DC, died of acute alcohol poisoning on February 19th, 1980 at the age of 33.<\/p>\n

Following an evening of heavy drinking at London, England venue the Music Machine, Scott passed out. The singer was left to sleep in a Renault 5 car, a vehicle owned by an acquaintance of Scott\u2019s. Named Alistair Kinnear, Kinnear resided at 67 Overhill Road in East Dulwich, South London. Kinnear found Scott lifeless the following afternoon, alerting authorities. Albeit rushed to King\u2019s College Hospital in Camberwell, Scott was pronounced dead on arrival. <\/p>\n

Pulmonary aspiration of vomit was cited as the cause of Scott\u2019s death in subsequent years, although the official cause was listed as \u201cacute alcohol poisoning\u201d on the death certificate, the frontman\u2019s passing deemed as \u201cdeath by misadventure\u201d. Scott\u2019s body was embalmed by Desmond Henley, and later cremated. His ashes were subsequently interred by family members at Fremantle Cemetery in Fremantle, Western Australia. <\/p>\n

To mark what would have been Scott\u2019s 60th birthday, the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board completed refurbishments on the Bon Scott Grave Area on July 7th, 2006. These refurbishments included a Bon Scott Arch and Memorial Entrance gate off Carrington Street in the north-west corner of Fremantle Cemetery. Two days later on what would have been his 60th birthday, a bronze plaque was stolen from the site. In February 2008 \u2013 28 years following Bon Scott\u2019s death \u2013 the National Trust of Australia decreed that his grave be included on the list of classified heritage places.<\/p>\n

Four days previous to his death \u2013 on February 15th, 1980 \u2013 Scott had attended a recording session for AC\/DC\u2019s sixth international studio full-length album. Rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young and lead guitarist Angus Young worked on the beginnings of two compositions, Scott stepping behind the drumkit for the session as opposed to lending vocals or penning lyrics. These two tracks were \u2018Have A Drink On Me\u2019 and \u2018Let Me Put My Love Into You\u2019, versions of which later appeared on July 1980 effort Back In Black<\/em>.<\/p>\n

AC\/DC had briefly considered disbanding shortly following Scott\u2019s death, but eventually opted to continue. Geordie vocalist Brian Johnson was hired as Scott\u2019s replacement, his first recordings as part of AC\/DC appearing on the aforementioned Back In Black<\/em>. The tracks \u2018Hells Bells\u2019 and \u2018Back In Black\u2019 were dedicated to Scott\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n

Ronald Belford Scott\u2019s initial musical endeavour was pop group The Spektors, the man having joined in 1966 as drummer and occasional lead singer. A brief venture for Scott, The Spektors merged into The Valentines, a pop outfit in which he was co-lead vocalist with Vince Lovegrove. <\/p>\n

In 1970, Scott moved to Adelaide, joining progressive rock ensemble Fraternity. Two albums would surface, namely Livestock<\/em> (1971) and Flaming Galah<\/em> (1972). Fraternity disbanded following a 1973 UK tour, where the group supported Status Quo and Geordie under the moniker Fang. Shortly following this, Scott was associated with Mounty Lofty Rangers, lending vocal parts to the songs \u2018Round & Round\u2019 and \u2018Carey Gully\u2019 (later released in 1996).<\/p>\n

On October 24th, 1974, Scott replaced Dave Evans as vocalist of AC\/DC. Scott had been recommended by erstwhile The Valentines bandmate Vince Lovegrove, who had received a telephone call from George Young \u2013 elder brother of Malcolm and Angus Young, and songwriter of several tracks recorded by The Valentines \u2013 Young explaining that AC\/DC sought a new vocalist. The month before in September, AC\/DC had performed at the Pooraka Hotel in Adelaide, Australia. Scott met AC\/DC backstage, this culminating in a jam session that night at the home of former mentor Bruce Howe.<\/p>\n

Inaugural LP High Voltage<\/em> was issued in Australia during February 1975, second outing T.N.T.<\/em> arriving in December of that year \u2013 the latter was the first AC\/DC album to feature drummer Phil Rudd. An international version of High Voltage<\/em> came in May 1976, essentially a compilation of tracks from those first two Australian efforts. Additional records followed, namely Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap<\/em> (1976), Let There Be Rock<\/em> (1977), Powerage<\/em> (1978) \u2013 Powerage<\/em> marking the debut of bassist Cliff Williams \u2013 live opus If You Want Blood You\u2019ve Got It<\/em> and Highway To Hell<\/em> (1979). Highway To Hell<\/em> reached position 17 on the Billboard 200 and was AC\/DC\u2019s most successful record up until that point; produced by Robert \u2018Mutt\u2019 Lange, its title track became a staple of the band\u2019s live repertoire.<\/p>\n

Scott was survived by his parents Isabelle and Charles as well as siblings Derek, Graeme and Valerie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AC\/DC Vocalist Bon Scott Dies Aged 33 February 19th, 1980 Bon Scott, vocalist for Australian hard rock group AC\/DC, died of acute alcohol poisoning on February 19th, 1980 at the age of 33. Following an evening of heavy drinking at London, England venue the Music Machine, Scott passed out. The singer was left to sleep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1622],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acdc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23471"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81534,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471\/revisions\/81534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}