"Bon: The Last Highway"
Jun 27, 2022 13:28:39 GMT -5
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Post by Chuckiebob on Jun 27, 2022 13:28:39 GMT -5
Excellent article on Bon Scott.
www.al.com/entertainment/2017/11/acdc_bon_scott.html
I clipped out several passages of interest.
AC/DC frontman Bon Scott wore an oval-shaped Lynyrd Skynyrd belt-buckle often onstage and off during 1979, his last full year alive.
The buckle is clearly visible in numerous photos of Scott from this period. The design is modeled after the red, blue and white Confederate Battle Flag, with the 13 letters of “LYNYRD SKYNYRD” crisscrossed across the center, standing in for the flag’s 13 stars. “It’s long been rumored that Bon got the buckle from Ronnie Van Zant, but it’s more likely a myth,” says Jesse Fink, author of the riveting new Scott biography “Bon: The Last Highway.” “Skynyrd’s plane crash happened in October 1977, so it seems a reasonable assumption to me that he’d have regularly worn it much earlier if he were paying his respects to the band.”
Jesse, your book briefly touches on some of Bon’s reputed Southern rock friendships. What do you think about Southern rock that appealed to Bon? Was it merely the salt-of-the-earth, hard-drinking vibe?
There's a Florida-based concert promoter called Sidney Drashin who told me Van Zant possibly came to see AC/DC when they first played Jacksonville in August 1977, but he's not 100 per cent sure. And though Gary Rossington went to the press with a story in 2013 that the band jammed with AC/DC the following day in Jacksonville, when I spoke to their sound engineer at the time, Journey producer Kevin Elson, who was supposed to have been there recording it, he said he never met AC/DC: "Unfortunately I don't have anything on the two groups getting together. Wish I did. I never got to know the guys." AC/DC actually played a concert in Hollywood, 300 miles south of Jacksonville, that very day. So I'm not convinced AC/DC and Skynyrd were close; it's a nice thought, though.
I believe Leon Wilkeson possibly had a personal connection to Bon – Leon was a big fan of AC/DC – but not so much the other guys in Skynyrd. I think Bon’s real Southern rock friendships were with guys from other bands like Nantucket, Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet, Outlaws. He visited Outlaws at a gig in East Rutherford, New Jersey. He and Outlaws manager Charlie Brusco shared a girlfriend, apparently. They both found out that night, much to their chagrin.
Lynyrd Skynyrd photo courtesy Everett Collection
How much and how do you think Southern bands influenced Bon as a singer or lyricist?
Not to a considerable degree, because AC/DC had their formula and Bon wasn’t allowed a lot of room to move, lyrically speaking. The Youngs’ two-man censorship committee made sure of that. I think mostly Bon was drawn to the Southern rebel ‘spirit’ like so many rock bands or performers of that era: Skynyrd, Black Oak Arkansas, Ted Nugent, Outlaws, .38 Special, (Molly) Hatchet. The South, Southern rock and that spirit had indisputably struck a chord with him as well as the rest of the band. AC/DC had hung a Confederate Battle Flag inside their tour bus in 1979. But you do find American themes in his lyrics, such as the clear reference to Tennessean railroader Casey Jones in “What’s Next To The Moon” off “Powerage.” And “Gimme A Bullet”, the song title, sounds a lot like “Gimme Back My Bullets” off the Skynyrd album of the same name.
www.al.com/entertainment/2017/11/acdc_bon_scott.html
I clipped out several passages of interest.
AC/DC frontman Bon Scott wore an oval-shaped Lynyrd Skynyrd belt-buckle often onstage and off during 1979, his last full year alive.
The buckle is clearly visible in numerous photos of Scott from this period. The design is modeled after the red, blue and white Confederate Battle Flag, with the 13 letters of “LYNYRD SKYNYRD” crisscrossed across the center, standing in for the flag’s 13 stars. “It’s long been rumored that Bon got the buckle from Ronnie Van Zant, but it’s more likely a myth,” says Jesse Fink, author of the riveting new Scott biography “Bon: The Last Highway.” “Skynyrd’s plane crash happened in October 1977, so it seems a reasonable assumption to me that he’d have regularly worn it much earlier if he were paying his respects to the band.”
Jesse, your book briefly touches on some of Bon’s reputed Southern rock friendships. What do you think about Southern rock that appealed to Bon? Was it merely the salt-of-the-earth, hard-drinking vibe?
There's a Florida-based concert promoter called Sidney Drashin who told me Van Zant possibly came to see AC/DC when they first played Jacksonville in August 1977, but he's not 100 per cent sure. And though Gary Rossington went to the press with a story in 2013 that the band jammed with AC/DC the following day in Jacksonville, when I spoke to their sound engineer at the time, Journey producer Kevin Elson, who was supposed to have been there recording it, he said he never met AC/DC: "Unfortunately I don't have anything on the two groups getting together. Wish I did. I never got to know the guys." AC/DC actually played a concert in Hollywood, 300 miles south of Jacksonville, that very day. So I'm not convinced AC/DC and Skynyrd were close; it's a nice thought, though.
I believe Leon Wilkeson possibly had a personal connection to Bon – Leon was a big fan of AC/DC – but not so much the other guys in Skynyrd. I think Bon’s real Southern rock friendships were with guys from other bands like Nantucket, Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet, Outlaws. He visited Outlaws at a gig in East Rutherford, New Jersey. He and Outlaws manager Charlie Brusco shared a girlfriend, apparently. They both found out that night, much to their chagrin.
Lynyrd Skynyrd photo courtesy Everett Collection
How much and how do you think Southern bands influenced Bon as a singer or lyricist?
Not to a considerable degree, because AC/DC had their formula and Bon wasn’t allowed a lot of room to move, lyrically speaking. The Youngs’ two-man censorship committee made sure of that. I think mostly Bon was drawn to the Southern rebel ‘spirit’ like so many rock bands or performers of that era: Skynyrd, Black Oak Arkansas, Ted Nugent, Outlaws, .38 Special, (Molly) Hatchet. The South, Southern rock and that spirit had indisputably struck a chord with him as well as the rest of the band. AC/DC had hung a Confederate Battle Flag inside their tour bus in 1979. But you do find American themes in his lyrics, such as the clear reference to Tennessean railroader Casey Jones in “What’s Next To The Moon” off “Powerage.” And “Gimme A Bullet”, the song title, sounds a lot like “Gimme Back My Bullets” off the Skynyrd album of the same name.