Best remembered as the original frontman of the legendary hard rock band
AC/DC, singer
Bon Scott was born Ronald Belford Scott in Kirriemuir, Scotland on July 9, 1946. As a child he began performing in his father's pipe band, and following the family's relocation to Australia in 1952 he quit school at age 15, later playing in a local rock outfit called the Spektors. By 1967,
Scott had joined the Melbourne-based group
the Valentines, making his recorded debut with the single "Everyday I Have to Cry"; the band soon emerged as one of the most popular on the Aussie circuit, in mid-1969 issuing an EP, My Old Man's a Groovy Old Man. A drug bust destroyed
the Valentines' public image, however, and after cracking the national Top 30 with their 1970 single "Juliette," the band dissolved;
Scott soon joined the Sydney blues-rock unit
Fraternity, issuing the LP Livestock in 1971. Flaming Galah followed a year later; in 1973, however,
Scott was involved in a motorcycle accident which left him comatose for several months, during which time
Fraternity disbanded. After recovering, he worked a series of odd jobs before recording a demo as a member of the short-lived Mount Lofty Rangers; finally, in 1974,
Scott joined
AC/DC, recording the group's debut LP
High Voltage a year later.
AC/DC's ascent to international stardom culminated in 1979 when their LP
Highway to Hell reached the U.S. Top 20; however, on February 19, 1980
Scott died in the wake of an all-night drinking binge, with the surviving members of the band tapping new vocalist
Brian Johnson to record the classic
Back in Black just a few months later. The 1997
AC/DC box set,
Bonfire, celebrated
Scott's contributions to their legacy. ~ Jason Ankeny