Legendary AC/DC frontman Bon Scott died of a heroin overdose. He also made quintessential and uncredited lyrical contributions to the band’s multi-platinum opus, “Back in Black.” These are two theories that were little more than rumor and conjecture until Jesse Fink’s 2017 book, “Bon: The Last Highway” (ECW Press). It was recently announced that Fink’s tome will get an updated release in May of 2022.
The commonly accepted version of Scott’s death is that after a night of hard drinking in London in February 1980, Scott passed out in a car. Unable to wake the singer, an associate, Alistair Kinnear, covered him with a blanket and retired inside his apartment to sleep off a heavy night of partying. When he awoke, Scott was still in the car but lifeless. His cause of death, the coroner found, was “acute alcohol poisoning”, the official finding “death by misadventure.”
“Former heroin users know what other heroin users look like, and they made it very clear to me that they had thought Bon had taken heroin that night.”
Jesse Fink, author of “Bon: The Last Highway”
Uncovering uncomfortable truths: Fink has compiled multiple stories from Scott’s lovers and friends who were with him in the final months, weeks, days and hours of his life. “Bon: The Last Highway” weaves a tangled tale of a singer living easy and living free but also existing recklessly, battling alcoholism and struggling to cope with a full-time life as the frontman of the non-stop AC/DC touring machine.
“I got as much information as I could from them,” Fink said of his multiple sources, which included UFO’s Pete Way and Paul Chapman; Scott’s lovers Silver Smith, Pattee Bishop and Holly X; friends Roy Allen, Joe Fury and Michael Fazzolare; Daniel Kinnear (the son of Alistair Kinnear, Scott’s accomplice on the night of his death); and, crucially, Zena Kakoulli, the wife of The Only Ones singer Peter Perrett and manager of Lonesome No More, a band the AC/DC singer watched at Camden’s Music Machine on the final night of his life.
LISTEN: Talk Is Jericho: The Wild Life & Mysterious Death of Bon Scott
“I found all of them to be great,” Fink continued. “It wasn’t like I went into the book not believing any of them before I’d written anything. They all had their own stories, and somewhere in all those stories was the truth. I think I’ve got as close as you can get to really coming up with a definitive account of what happened to Bon. But I didn’t want to be so egotistical to say, ‘This is exactly what happened.’ So at the end of the book I offer two versions of what might have happened to Bon.”
Fink’s research has uncovered multiple accounts that Scott, nicknamed “Ronnie Roadtest” for his prodigious intake of alcohol and reckless attitude towards drugs, had dabbled in heroin and was moving in heroin circles in London. “It threw a whole different complexion on what we know about Bon,” Fink said. “And certainly there’s a hell of a lot more to the story than we’ve ever been told before. Former heroin users know what other heroin users look like, and they made it very clear to me that they had thought Bon had taken heroin that night.”
A botched investigation: Fink has also revealed through extensive new inquiries that the police investigation and coronial inquest into Scott’s death were both inadequate and arguably incompetent. From the discovery of Bon’s body to the conclusion of the inquest, all official inquiries were concluded in less than 72 hours. No toxicology report was released if it ever existed, and even Scott’s death certificate contained inaccuracies.
“The fact that there’s an incorrect address on the death certificate, why has no one ever picked that up?” Fink said. “I was looking at it like, ‘Have I got this wrong?’ No. I’m really looking at a mistake on a death certificate.”
Bon on “Back in Black”: Fink’s research led him to Miami and to the home of Holly X — a part-time girlfriend and confidante of Scott. He strongly believes Holly could have been Bon’s muse for AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” a track credited to Angus and Malcolm Young, as well as Scott’s successor, Brian Johnson. “She had the sightless eyes … working double time on the seduction line,” Johnson sings. “When Holly told me her horse was called Doubletime,” Fink explained. “What the f—? I was just stunned.” Holly later took Fink to the Newport Beachside Hotel & Resort in Miami and showed him an area by the pool where Bon told her she had chartreuse eyes. “According to Holly, the lyric was originally ‘chartreuse eyes,’ ” Fink said.
Another girlfriend, Silver Smith, maintains that she saw lines from the song in one of Scott’s letters in 1976, and that on the night of his death, Scott had just finished writing the lyrics to the “Back in Black” album. A cause for celebration, this task completed called for what would be Scott’s last night on the town. “I went into writing this book certainly with a suspicion and a hunch that Bon had been involved (in ‘Back in Black’)”, Fink said. “But Holly’s story in particular, and Silver’s revelation about the lyrics to ‘You Shook Me All Night Long,’ those were game-changers and should be for anyone who is interested in the story of the ‘Back in Black’ album. I think Bon deserves the credit and acknowledgement that’s been a long time coming.”
“Back In Black” recently topped Rolling Stone Australia’s list of the “200 Greatest Australian Albums Of All Time.”
Honoring a legend: Even before the book was released, Fink was aware there would be a small group of highly-charged skeptics resistant to his findings in “Bon: The Last Highway.” “It’s easy to predict AC/DC’s fans will rally around their heroes when a halo or two has been knocked off,” he wrote in the book’s introduction. “I definitely braced myself for a backlash,” Fink said. “But I have to say apart from a very small minority of people who have an interest in perpetuating these myths about Bon, I think most fans are really keen and looking forward to reading this story. A lot of people have their own ideas and suspicions about what happened to Bon and the issue of his lyrics being on ‘Back in Black,’ and finally there’s a book that’s really going to meet the expectations they have for a proper investigation.”
At the heart of it all, Fink himself is an AC/DC aficionado like so many others across the globe. “I have a lot of admiration for AC/DC, especially Bon-era AC/DC,” he said. “I enjoy their music with Bon Scott and the ‘Back in Black’ album as many millions of people do. But I can also separate myself from that and write an honest book.”
“All the power of the AC/DC logo, what it means and represents to people, all goes back to Bon Scott. It’s what Bon represented and what he continues to represent in death, which is rebellion and living life on your own terms. That’s the eternal appeal of AC/DC and Bon created it.”
The revised edition of “Bon: The Last Highway” will be released in May to 2022 and is available for preorder on Amazon.
A slightly different version of this article originally appeared in The Canton Repository in 2017.
Follow B.J. Lisko on Twitter: @BJLisko
- Kendall Jenner Messes Up AC/DC Mural - April 20, 2024
- FFDP Guitarist Reveals How Band Got Their Name - April 20, 2024
- Lynyrd Skynyrd Drummer Responds To “Tribute Band” Accusations - April 20, 2024
