How did AC/DC singer Bon Scott die?

Until one day, life intervened and brought him to a sudden and tragic end. Scott suffered a heroin overdose within a year of joining AC/DC in 1975, which almost cost him his place in the band. “Things were not looking good,” bassist Mark Evans later claimed in Jesse Fink’s book The Youngs: The brothers who founded AC/DC“There was talk of another singer. But it never got that far.”

Scott lived to tell this special tale, both literally and professionally, but five years later he would not be so lucky. In the early hours of Tuesday, February 19, 1980, Scott died at the age of 33. Up until his death, he had performed, written and recorded with AC/DC. He had burned out in his prime.

So what was the cause of death?

The official autopsy revealed that Scott had died of acute alcohol poisoning.

After visiting London’s Music Machine nightclub in Camden the night before, Scott and his friends Alistair Kinnear and Zena Kakoulli somehow drove back to 67 Overhill Road in East Dulwich, on the other side of the city. They had all been drinking heavily, and Kinnear had also taken heroin. It is speculated that Kakoulli’s husband Peter Perrett, the lead singer of the rock band The Only Ones, was also with them.

When Fink later asked if she thought Scott had also taken heroin that night at the Music Machine, Kakoulli replied, “I think it’s likely.” Scott frequently visited the club with his then-girlfriend Margaret “Silver” Smith, mainly so the two could get drugs.

When the group arrived at Kinnear’s house, he and Kakoulli left an unconscious Scott on the seat of his car. There, it is speculated, Scott vomited in his sleep, as a result of intoxication from a mixture of alcohol and heroin, and choked on his own vomit. Kinnear found him the next morning and called an ambulance, but it was already too late.

This tragic accident robbed rock music of one of its greatest showmen. Brian Johnson soon took Scott’s place in AC/DC and successfully led the group into a new era. But without Bon Scott, nothing was the same. For many fans, he has become a symbol not only of the glory days of AC/DC, but of the golden age of rock.

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