UPDATE: Statement From Jesse Fink On Reported Criticisms Of His Bon Scott Biography
UPDATE 10/31/2017 4:55 PM EST: We received the following statement from Bon: The Last Highway author Jesse Fink regarding the cited Noise11 report in our original story:
“I’ve been in Melbourne over the past 24 hours promoting ‘Bon: The Last Highway’ and have had a fantastic reception to it. We had a full house at the Wheeler Centre last night for a talk I did with ABC Radio’s Jacinta Parsons, and I’m booked solid with press interviews and bookshop signings for the next 10 days in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The reaction to the book has been overwhelmingly positive everywhere I go.
“I’m getting hundreds of messages from people around the world who are all saying the same thing; that they’re so relieved that a book is finally dealing with the two big issues other books haven’t tackled: How did Bon really die and did his lyrics end up on ‘Back In Black.’ Paul Chapman from UFO read the book in one sitting and told me it was one of the best books he’d ever read. And Paul was the guy who got the phone call to say Bon was dead. He was there when it happened.
“There are always going to be people who are threatened when you get too close to the truth or have got there already. That’s part of the job when you do the kind of investigative work I do. I just want to say thanks to all the people who have written to me, bought the book or come to my talks. Thanks for supporting my work.”
ORIGINAL STORY
A highly anticipated new biography about the late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott is being hammered by friends of the singer in Australia.
The site Noise11 reports that author Jesse Fink‘s Bon: The Last Highway, is particularly wrong about its assertion that Scott was planning to leave AC/DC at the time of his death in 1980 at the age of 33 and told the band of his plans already.
The site reports that “friends of Bon tell Noise11 that that is rubbish. Bon was with friends in Australia three weeks before he died and told them that the band was preparing their next album and that if it didn’t work that might be the end of the band, but we are told there was no suggestion Bon was ever planning on leaving on his own accord.”
The site also writes that Fink’s assertion Scott died of a heroin overdose rather than acute alcohol poisoning is “unsubstantiated.”
Scott was quickly replaced in AC/DC by Brian Johnson, who fronted the band for the subsequent breakthrough Back In Black album — which includes some lyrics penned by Scott but not credited to him when the album came out.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
