Angus Young deflates Bon Scott ‘Back in Black’ rumours

AC/DC’s Angus Young deflates the rumour Bon Scott Was Involved In Songwriting For ‘Back In Black’ before To His Death

For years there’s been rumours that Bon Scott contributed to songs on AC/DC’s most successful album ‘Back in Black’, Before his tragic death.

There’s even been several versions of ‘Back in Black’ “leaked” that claim it’s Bon Scott singing, like this one below:

Any AC/DC fan would know that’s certainly not Angus Young playing! Although the vocals are pretty rockin’ that’s not Bon Scott singing.

In an interview with Paste, Angus Young said that Bon Scott “never really got the chance” to contribute to songs of AC/DC’s iconic album Back in Black. He shoots down the rumours that Bon Scott performed early versions of the songs on Back in Black.

Bon Scott played drums at rehearals

Young recalls Scott’s contributions to Back in Black were limited to playing drums on early demo recordings of the songs “”Have a Drink on Me” and “Hells Bells”. In 1979 after AC/DC finished their Highway to Hell tour Angus Young and his brother/bandmate Malcolm hired a rehearsal room in London. They started to write songs for their next album, they took turns in playing drums and guitar. One of the days of their rehearsals, Bon Scott rocked up. He’s had experience on drums so he stepped in while the brothers worked on the guitar riffs for “Hells Bells”.

“Bon got behind the kit so we could try and work out this intro, how we wanted to do it,” recalls Angus. “So, we sorted that out how we wanted, and the other one was ‘Have a Drink on Me,’ a riff Malcolm was playing around with. So, we worked out the intro on that and how the song was gonna go. ….That was it, really. If you were looking up what Bon had done, it was really just to help us with those demos on the drums.”

The Young brothers and Scott had plans to get together to continue working on new songs.”He’d been working on some lyrics and said, ‘We’ll hook up next week, and maybe the three of us can just start going through stuff,'” Young said. “But unfortunately, he passed before that.”

Bon Scott passed away on 19th February 1980. It was reported he died choking on his own vomit after he passed out from a night of drinking. A bit over a month later AC/DC announced Brian Johnson as their new singer. In July of that year they released Back in Black. The album become one of the highest selling albums in the world. The title, the all black artwork and the church bells that ring in the opening of “Hells Bells” was a tribute to the late Bon Scott.

In a 2010 interview, Angus stated about Bon’s influence on the band more than three decades after the singer’s death: “I think it’s just something that is part of you. It’s like you lost someone close to you, in your family or a very close friend. You’ve always got that feeling they’re there but you just, I suppose, miss them in the physical sense. There’s always memories that keep coming back to you, and it doesn’t matter what the situation is. You could be traveling, you could be relaxing somewhere, or going to play or being in the studio, there’s always something that reminds you.”