Following in the footsteps of British hard rock pioneers, such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, AC/DC formed in 1973 with a vision of explosive eminence. Given that death metal and screamo now exist, the Australian band is often regarded as hard rock rather than heavy metal by today’s standards. Still, in the 1970s, the voluminous lungs of Bon Scott and killer riffs of Angus Young were more than enough to enter metallic territory.
Although the band set out with Dave Evans as its frontman, Scott took his place in 1974 before a meteoric surge to prominence. With his distinctive tenor vocal, Scott helped to shape the 1975 debut, High Voltage and followed through to 1979’s Highway to Hell. The latter remains one of AC/DC’s most acclaimed records, thanks to the iconic title track, ‘Girl’s Got Rhythm’ and ‘Night Crawler’. A promising future lay ahead for the band, but tragedy was just around the corner.
Tragically, Highway to Hell would be Scott’s final album with AC/DC before his death from acute alcohol poisoning in February 1980. At the time, the singer was just 33 and was at the peak of his career. In similar situations, eminent groups like Nirvana and Led Zeppelin decided not to continue past the death of their frontmen. However, AC/DC saw continuity as the key to recovery.
Scott’s death greatly impacted AC/DC and left the group’s future in the balance for several weeks. They could only conceive of continuing by welcoming the one metal vocalist Scott would have approved of. “I remember the first time I had ever heard Brian’s name was from Bon,” guitarist Angus Young recalled in an interview with BraveWords. “Bon had mentioned that he had been in England once touring with a band, and he had mentioned that Brian had been in a band called Geordie and Bon had said ‘Brian Johnson, he was a great rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard.’ And that was Bon’s big idol, Little Richard.”
With Brian Johnson on board as a viable replacement, AC/DC got back to the studio and recorded Back in Black, an album that miraculously continued the form of Highway to Hell. With their half-century celebration tour taking place in 2024, AC/DC’s fanbase shows no signs of waning some four decades later. Similarly, the band’s British luminaries, Black Sabbath, remain in a position of indelible majesty as Ozzy Osbourne reveals a determination to return to the stage despite health concerns.
Like AC/DC, Black Sabbath proved that they could maintain a healthy fanbase without their frontman, Osbourne. The Prince of Darkness departed the band in 1979 to focus on his solo career, leaving Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler to continue with replacement vocalists. Impressively, the band managed to maintain critical and commercial success with several different vocalists, most notably Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and the US import Ronnie James Dio.
Osbourne was ultimately welcomed back into the fold in 1997 and has toured on and off with the group ever since. Supposedly seeing a little of his own band in AC/DC, Osborne has always admired the work of the Young brothers, Brian Johnson and Bon Scott. He was well acquainted with both singers and was affected by the news of Scott’s premature demise.
Speaking in a past interview, Osbourne remembered hearing of Scott’s death while creating his debut solo album, 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz. The album’s most controversial song, ‘Suicide Solution’, was a response to the news and a warning about the dangers of alcohol addiction. “The lyric came from the fact that Bon Scott’s from AC/DC had recently died from some over-abuse,” Osbourne began. “In actual fact, he died from hypothermia in his car. He was drunk and fell asleep in his car, apparently. He never woke up… it was winter, and he froze to death, but he was unconscious from too much alcohol.”
‘Suicide Solution’ caused a stir of controversy upon its arrival due to its unclear stance on suicide. The lyrics suggest that alcoholics are all committing suicide slowly: “Suicide is slow with liquor”. However, the major headlines appeared in 1984 when a 19-year-old fan from America named John McCullom shot himself in his bedroom while listening to his collection of Osbourne solo albums, including Blizzard of Ozz. In October 1985, McCullom’s parents targeted ‘Suicide Solution’ as a cause for their son’s death and brought a lawsuit against Osbourne and his record company on the grounds of negligence, product liability, and intentional misconduct.