The coroner’s report cited the cause of death as “acute alcohol poisoning”, and certainly Bon had a reputation as a heavy drinker.
But he was also one of the greatest rock singers and most charismatic frontmen of all time, and as Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott says, Bon was also a generous spirit and just a great guy to be around.
Def Leppard were the support act on the UK leg of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell tour, which kicked off on 26 October, 1979 at Newcastle Mayfair. And for Joe Elliott, who had just turned twenty, this tour was an experience he would never forget.
“Two years after we first saw AC/DC in Sheffield we were opening for them,” Joe recalls. “It was madness.”
The gig that Joe remembers most vividly was the second date of the tour, at the venue where AC/DC’s classic live album If You Want Blood You’ve Got It was recorded.
“After our set I went out into the crowd at Glasgow Apollo,” Joe recalls. “I was up in the balcony, and when they opened up with Live Wire, with the bass pumping, I swear that fucking balcony was moving twelve inches up and down. It was like an earthquake!
“The people were going so nuts I thought the balcony would collapse. I was watching the audience, soaking up that reaction, and I thought, I want a bit of that! Thinking back, it still makes the hairs on my arms stand up.”
“As a band we learned a lot from AC/DC on that tour,” he says. “The presentation, the high energy.”
And Joe kept a close eye on the singer.
“Bon used to talk a lot between songs, and I loved that banter,” Joe says. “Communication with the crowd is an integral part of rock’n’roll, and Bon was a master at it.
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