While there have been countless books written about AC/DC and former frontman Bon Scott, seldom has a body of work focused solely on Bon Scott as a person, musician and entertainer.
His story – as that of the band – is legendary but too often tales of his life and music serve merely as appetisers for his unfortunate demise.
With his recently released book Bad Boy Boogie, The True Story Of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott, Australian author Jeff Apter has elected to shine the light more so on Bon Scott’s well known cheeky side, delving into his larrikin streak and components that made him one of this countries most famous musicians.
We all know the common stories and tales of life with a rock and roll band, but how many of us have actually taken the time to get to know the enigmatic vocalist and what made him tick?
It is here that Apter introduces us to that mischievous side of one Ronald Belford 'Bon' Scott and in the words of Philip Morris who was AC/DC’s photographer, “This reveals Bon as I knew him: a man of the people, a street poet, a larrikin.”
HEAVY sat for a chat with Apter earlier this week to discuss the contents of the book and share stories about AC/DC.
“There have been other books about Bon,” Apter admitted. “There's been a lot of books about AC/DC, and I've written my share. I've written about Malcolm and Angus Young, and I've worked with people from AC/DC ghost writing books, but I wanted to write a book that focused almost exclusively on the larrikin side of Bon Scott, the funny side of the guy. This really funny lyricist and really raunchy part, and not talk so much about what happened at the end of his life. I wanted to write a book that reminded us of why we enjoyed the fact the guy was around, not the circumstances of his death. People have seemed to respond to that really well. The simple fact we put a really cheeky photo on the front cover of Bon flashing a million dollar smile and obviously about to get up to no good seems to have made my point to people, and they really get what I'm trying to express with the book. No-one seems to tire of the guy. He's been gone for over 40 years but when people talk about AC/DC nine times out of ten they want to talk about that Bon Scott era.”
In the full interview, Jeff talks about his reasons for writing the book, sorting fact from fiction, the title and why he settled on it, recites some of his favourite parts of the book, his impression of AC/DC as a budding journalist, keeping personal thoughts and feelings out of his writing and more.