Ronald Belford Scott (July 91946–February 191980), better known as Bon Scott, was the lead singer and frontman of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC.
He was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland; his family relocated to Perth, Australia in 1952.
By 1970 Scott had already enjoyed some limited success in various Perth-based rock and R&B groups (The Spektors, The Valentines), as a singer and sometimes, drummer. In the early 1970s his band Fraternity seemed to be well on its way to fame and fortune. In 1973, just after returning to Adelaide from touring England, Scott was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. Fraternity continued on without him but never achieved the kind of success Scott would enjoy with his next band.
The following year, while working as a roadie and part-time van driver in the local Adelaide music scene, that Scott first met the members of the Sydney-based band AC/DC. The band was led by the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, younger siblings of Scott's friend George Young of The EasyBeats . Scott was amazed by the band's energy and drive, and the naive bandmates were, in turn, quite taken with the experienced frontman. After spending time as their van driver, he became their drummer. A few months later, following a pre-concert argument with the Young brothers, the group's singer Dave Evans refused to perform. Invited to fill in, Scott showed both the audience and the band just how charismatic a frontman he was. When Evans got fired from AC/DC a few days later (for obvious reasons), the band knew who they wanted. Bon Scott became the new singer for AC/DC near the end of 1974.
Bon and AC/DC recorded six studio albums and one live record between 1975-1979. Their last one, Highway To Hell, was the record that turned them into superstars. But fame had a price.
Following a night of heavy drinking in the Camden Town area of London (his last drink was at a venue now known as Camden Palace), Scott was found dead on the front passenger seat of a car parked outside 67 Overhill Drive, the address of the previous night's drinking partner. He had suffocated on his own vomit due to alcohol poisoning although the international press made false accusations about a drug overdose. The coroner's report labeled it simply "misadventure."
Scott is buried in Fremantle Cemetery's Memorial Garden in Australia, the town where he grew up.
AC/DC's next album, with new singer Brian Johnson, himself a Bon fan, was a tribute to Bon: Back In Black (1980). The album has become their most famous work, a rather cruel irony.
