While the demise of Bon Scott may seem like a straightforward death-by-misadventure story on the surface, there’s been many conflicting accounts over what actually happened. Almost 40 years after his death, new details continue to emerge on what happened on his last night alive.
Born in Scotland in 1946, Scott’s family moved to Australia when he was just 5 years old. He learned music at a very young age. He dropped out of high school at age 15 to start his first band.
AC/DC Search For A New Singer
In 1974, Bon suffered a devastating motorcycle injury that left him in a coma and put his career as a drummer in jeopardy. After being released from the hospital, he took up odd jobs including being a chauffeur for a local band named AC/DC who just happened to be on the search for a new singer.
He became the band’s frontman in 1974 and the following year, the group released their first album with Bon Scott titled, High Voltage.
Highway to Hell
AC/DC released several subsequent albums, but it was their sixth record in 1979, Highway to Hell, which would first break the US Top 100 charts and make AC/DC one of the most popular rock acts in the world.
The tour to support the record would be the band’s final with Scott, who died three weeks after the group’s last show in the UK.
Scott was in London in February of 1980, working on the group’s upcoming Back in Black album. He was living in a flat with his new Japanese girlfriend, Anna Baba, but also in the picture was his former girlfriend, Margaret Silver Smith, who was involved in the drug scene.
Bon Scott and Alistair Kinnear Party at the Music Machine
On February 19, 1980, Scott was with several friends at a local music club. Scott apparently invited his ex-girlfriend, Margaret “Silver Smith” to see a band at a club named Dingwalls in Camden. Instead she sent her friend Alistair Kinnear. Kinnear and Scott would end up at a different club that night called the Music Machine, not too far from Dingwalls.
Kinnear was allegedly the last person to see Scott alive. The official story goes on to say that after leaving the Music Machine, Kinnear drove Bon back to the singer’s flat, but Bon had already passed out, so Kinnear turned the car around and drove back to his house in southeast London.
Alistair Kinnear Leaves Bon Scott Passed Out in the Car
Kinnear parked the car outside his flat and called up Silver Smith asking her what to do with Bon. She suggested leaving him in the car since it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the singer to pass out after a heavy night of drinking.
Kinnear claimed to the London Standard a few days after Bon’s death, “I just could not move him, so I covered him with a blanket and left him a note to tell him how to get up to my flat in case he woke up.”
Bon Scott Dies at the Age of 33
Kinnear also claims that he put Bon on his back to sleep in a more comfortable position. Bon would never wake up again – dying at the age of 33 after just 5 years into his stint with AC/DC.
Kinnear alleges he awoke early in the evening on February 20th and checked on Scott and found him unresponsive in the car. He rushed the singer to King’s College Hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The official cause of death from the King’s College Coroner’s office was acute alcohol poisoning. The toxicology report made no mention of drugs.
“His body was curled around the gearstick, his neck twisted, his dental plate dislodged.” – Clinton Walker
Strangely though, when Kinnear found Bon’s body, it was not in the laid back position he had been left in. According to author Clinton Walker, who wrote the book, Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott, he described how the body was found saying, “His body was curled around the gearstick, his neck twisted, his dental plate dislodged. The bile rose up in his throat and blocked his asthmatic windpipe.”
Two days after Bon’s death, Kinnear, in the same London Evening Standard article, revealed what happened the night before the singer passed away, “I met up with Bon to go to the Music Machine, but he was pretty drunk when I picked him up. When we got there, he was drinking four whiskies straight in a glass at a time.”
“… when we left, he was definitely not drunk at all and we went home, and the next day he’s dead!” – Colin Burgess
Not everybody agrees with Kinnear’s recollection of events. Also at the Music Machine
that evening with Bon, was AC/DC drummer Colin Burgess who told author Murray Engleheart, who wrote the book AC/DC Maximum Rock N’ Roll, “I can definitely say that to this day, when we left, he was definitely not drunk at all and we went home, and the next day he’s dead! To me, it’s just a really, really strange thing.”
Scott’s biographer, Jesse Fink, who wrote the book, Bon: The Last Highway, also disputes the official story saying, “He was a prodigious drinker. The idea that seven double whiskeys would put him in the ground seems like a strange notion.”
Alistair Kinnear Disappears Never to Be Heard From Again
The confusion around his death gave rise to some to claim that he may have been murdered with some believing the band wanted to get rid of the singer. Kinnear disappeared a few days after Bon died and strangely, his flat was ransacked.
Kinnear would never be heard from again and some have even casted doubt over whether Alistair Kinnear was a real name or an alias or an amalgamation of several people who may have been with Bon Scott the night of his death.
UFO Negative Influence on Bon Scott
Some reports suggest that on the evening Bon died, he was supposed to meet up with UFO members Phil Mogg and Pete Way. According to Classic Rock writer Geoff Barton, Peter Mensch, who was, at one point, AC/DC’s manager, criticized the members of UFO for being a bad influence on Bon.
The members of UFO were known to be hard partiers and dabbled in heroin and claimed that Bon was around them at those times but couldn’t recall whether he was using the drug.
Both UFO and AC/DC had previously toured together. According to UFO’s Pete Way, he claimed he was informed about the death of Bon Scott on Tuesday morning, but Alistair Kinnear claimed he discovered Bon’s body on Tuesday evening.
Scott’s biographer, Jesse Fink interviewed those who knew Bon and claimed he was dabbling in heroin around the time of his death and pointed to two near-death experiences during the mid-70’s.
“Basically, he had a third overdose and this time it got him, that’s the conclusion I come to.” – Jesse Fink
Fink would conclude that the drug basically contributed to the singer’s death saying, “Basically, he had a third overdose and this time it got him, that’s the conclusion I come to.”
Scott wouldn’t die a rich man. An updated version of Fink’s book claimed that Kinnear was not alone at his flat the night Scott died as there were apparently two other people staying at his house including a rock musician named Peter Perreet and his wife, Zena Kakoull.
Back in Black
Following Scott’s death, the band would soldier on, hiring new singer Brian Johnson and their follow up to Highway to Hell, Back in Black would come out 5 months after Bon’s death and served as a tribute to him.
AC/DC’s guitarist Angus Young would tell VH-1’s Behind the Music, “We just wanted a simple black cover. We wouldn’t have even done him justice in words. Even the bell in the beginning of “Hell’s Bells” was our little tribute.”
Released in the summer of 1980, Back in Black went on to make AC/DC international superstars, and remains one of the biggest selling rock albums of all time. Some would claim that Scott had written some of the song’s on Back in Black but was uncredited. Ex-girlfriend Silver Smith, claimed to have seen journals and notebooks for Bon Scott featuring the lyrics to, “You Shook Me All Night Long”.
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