Jesse Fink

Ronald Belford “Bon” Scott.
Lyrics, the personality and presence – it is not merely because of his vocal range and the band he headed that he is considered to be one of the greatest frontmen and rock’n roll vocalist of all time.

His life and untimely death is being revisited in the new biography Bon: The Last Highway: The Untold Story of Bon Scott and AC/DC's Back in Black, which was released on 30 October.

The book is a long time labour of love courtesy of author Jesse Fink, whose work may not be unfamiliar to aficionados of literature on AC/DC as his 2015 release The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC lays the foundation for this tome.
It took Fink three years and extensive research to pen this first extensive biography of Bon Scott in twenty-five years.

There is little doubt and it is almost unanimously agreed across the world of music and universally agreed on in rock’n roll circles that the 1977-1980 period of AC/DC serves as one of the pillars and blueprints for a myriad of what was to evolve no matter how extreme the final incarnations were to be.

Jesse Fink refers to Scott's death as "the Da Vinci Code of rock," and his main objective is to separate fact from myth in the singer's ever growing legacy, pinpointing the emphasis of his book as the "special — and unlikely — friendship between an Australian rock star and an alcoholic Texan troublemaker." 

With AAA access to Bon’s lovers, newly unearthed documents and a myriad of never-before-seen photos, Fink aims to answer unanswered questions by revealing new information leading to Scott’s untimely demise on 19 February 1980 in London.

The recipient can expect a story that takes off in Austin in 1977 and follows Scott's steps until his demise in 1980 death in the UK, a pivotal era for the band as it saw its rise to unprecedented heights despite enormous tensions behind the scenes of the operation.

An essential reading not only for AC/DC die-hards but anyone remotely interested in the history of rock’n roll.

7.5 / 10 — T