Angus Young recently clarified rumors that Bon Scott recorded material for the legendary Back In Black album before his death.
The album, which marks Scott's transition to Brian Johnson , did have some of its material listened to by the artist, but Young confirms, in an interview with Paste Magazine , that he never had the chance to sing or record any of the tracks on the project.
Malcolm [Young] and I were writing songs, which became the songs for Back in Black ,” Angus recalls. “We were in London in a rehearsal room, and Bon had come down too. And what used to happen was, Malcolm and I would get together and grab a drum kit, and Malcolm would stand behind the drums sometimes, and I’d grab the guitar and just play a riff. Or, other times, Malcolm would grab the guitar and just have me hit a simple beat on the drums.”
“We were working on an intro that became the intro to ‘Hells Bells’,” he continues. “Then Bon showed up and Malcolm said, ‘Oh, great, Bon! You can get behind the drums!’ Because originally, Bon started as the drummer. So Bon got behind the drums so we could try and work on this intro, how we wanted to do it. So we worked it out how we wanted it, and the other one was ‘Have a Drink on Me,’ a riff Malcolm was messing around with. So we worked out the intro around that and how the song would go. Then he called Bon to do a demo for it. So that was it, seriously.”
The guitarist adds: “If you were looking for what Bon had done, it was just to help us with those drum demos. And he even told us, when we were tapping our feet at night: 'Look, we're going to meet next week.' He was working on some lyrics and said: 'Let's meet next week and maybe the three of us can just start tinkering with things.' But, unfortunately, he passed away before that.”
Listen below to the classic "Back In Black" by AC/DC:
