WEBVTT - AC/DC Pt. 2: Dirty Deeds, Dead Friends, and Murder for Hire 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:13.720 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:19.520 story about contract killings, death threats, drinking with ghosts, rock 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.480 and roll, and a part two continuation of our story 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.360 on one of the greatest bands of all time, ACDC, 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.200 A band that made great music. Yes, some of the 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.720 greatest rock and roll music these ears have ever heard. 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:36.199 Unlike that music I played for you at the top 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.680 of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:44.600 preset loop from my melotron called Jack and Bloke MK one. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.040 I played you that loop because I can't afford the 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.800 rights to Shake it Off by Taylor Swift. Then why 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.640 would I play you that specific slice of pre Kelsey Cheese? 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.520 Could I afford it? Because that was the number one 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:04.800 song in America on November sixteenth, twenty fourteen. Then that 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.120 was the day a CDC's Phil Rudd was arrested on 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.959 charges that would make the musicians seem strangely alike one 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.480 of the murderous characters in one of the band's best songs, 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:24.760 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. On this episode, concrete Shoes, Cyanide, neckties, contracts, 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:30.319 high voltage. In Part two of our ACDC story, I'm 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.199 Jake Brennan and this his disgrace. 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:58.800 Land Chapter one. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:05.880 Do anything you want me to? We transmitters in Queensland 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:10.560 and the Northern Territory. This is ab this honest John, 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.880 the villain of the year. Call me come my no 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:15.080 good mom. Who's worts? 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:15.960 The Seeky's here? 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:18.800 Yeah, I watched the Birdie. 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.280 You'll think I was kidding when I said I'd be 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:26.079 glad to knock you up. I have some Gorganzola for 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:27.280 his little snazzola. 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:38.800 Yeah, a shot. No Angus and Malcolm Young of a 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.880 c DC never forgot where they came from, the working class, 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.639 the kind of home where the television baby sat the 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.840 kids because there was no other option, and they never 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.200 forgot what made them family. The two brothers launched their 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.560 band in the early seventies under the guidance of their 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.120 older brother George, who, along with his friend Harry Vanda, 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.440 had already achieve pop chart success with his band The 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.280 Easy Beats. The Easy Beats single Friday on My Mind 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.200 reached number sixteen on the Billboard Hot one hundred in 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.519 America in nineteen sixty six and was covered by David 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.640 Bowie on his album Pin Ups in seventy three. In 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.360 the environment that Angus and Malcolm were raised in, hard 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:24.520 work and discipline were of utmost importance. It didn't matter 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.200 if you were mixing cement as their father had done, 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.760 or playing guitar in a band with your brother on 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:36.280 stage and your other brother behind the board. Concrete shoes, cyanide, neckties, 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.760 contract killings. This kind of work the Dirty Deeds, the 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.960 kind that Dishonest John promised to deliver Dirt Cheat. Dishonest 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.880 John was a character from Angus's favorite cartoon growing up, 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:52.600 The Beanie and Cecil Showy. Even this type of work 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:57.560 required discipline, But for Angus and Malcolm, who in nineteen 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.000 seventy five were putting together the lyrics with ACDC singer 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.640 Bond Scott for the third album, Contract Killings and the 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:09.520 like were just violent fantasy, typical the type of transgressions 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.920 demonstrated by the characters dreamed up by Bond. Men on 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:18.400 the outer edge of society, thieves, broke down, dreamers, schemers, stalkers, 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.000 and yes, even killers, Men on the fringe, like the 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.279 main character and the title track from their forthcoming album, 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.640 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheat, a song inspired partly by 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:35.240 Bond's vivid imagination, and partly from Angus's childhood infatuation with 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:39.200 the dishonest John cartoon character, and partly from those bad 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:44.080 bad men Humphrey Bogart portrayed in his early films. The 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.720 song Dirty Deeds was great, no doubt about it. Beneath 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.240 the story of Bond's bad bad man hiring himself out 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.320 to solve his customers problems with all manner of criminal violence, 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.640 and in typical Bond humor, to do so cheaply. Beneath 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.000 all of that, there was a killer riff and a 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:09.760 rhythm that swung. ACDC is often categorized as being a 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:14.760 hard rock band, but that couldn't be more untrue. ACDC 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.919 is a rock and roll band. The rock part of 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.000 the equation is the part that sounds hard, and the 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.360 roll part is the part that's hard to do. It's 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.120 the part that swings. Think of the rolling stones, hard 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.880 riffs from Keith, but songs that feel good and make 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.240 you want to dance because of Charlie. Because Charlie Watts 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:39.159 knew how to swing. The swing is subtle. Most rock 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.359 bands get it wrong, and well, they're not rock and 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:48.760 roll bands. They're just rock bands. Malcolm Young was hell 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.120 bent on being a rock and roll band. Being just 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.600 a rock band wasn't good enough. You might as well 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:58.400 be hauling concrete or watching cartoons. Being in a great 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.680 rock and roll band was something that would last, and finally, 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:06.280 on this album, on Dirty Deeds, Malcolm had what he wanted. 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.600 That's because now, after a series of early releases with 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:16.560 different bandmates, inconsistent repertoire, and distribution issues, ac DC seemed 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.960 to finally be putting it all together on one great 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.720 full length album that was bound to break the band 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:27.200 in America. Malcolm knew what anyone who saw ACDC back 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.320 in the seventies quickly learn. Ac DC was the greatest 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.400 rock and roll band on the planet. Pete Townsend from 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.400 the who saw them live and loved them to Trick 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.760 found other brothers from down Under Kiss was intimidated by them, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.720 and Van Halen was afraid to follow them on stage. 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:49.640 Ac DC was that good, and a big reason why 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.440 was because, in addition to Angus's schoolboy guitar hero antics 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.200 and Bond's bad boy soul strip and Malcolm's iron fist 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.120 behind it all, ACDC had a drum who could swing, 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:07.440 Phil Rudd. With Phil now behind the kid, Malcolm Young 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.240 was on his way to building a band that was 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:13.200 the rock and roll representation of raw, working class power, 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:19.520 a machine that could withstand fame, addiction, death, and even murder. 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.920 But Atlantic Records didn't hear a single, and Dirty Deeds 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.840 Done Dirt Cheap was shelved in America, it disappeared into 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:34.560 Limbo unreleased. Not until years later did American audiences get 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.880 to hear it. For the time being, partly to prevent 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.600 being dropped by their label, and partly as a giant 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.040 fuck you to the label that clearly didn't believe in 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:47.000 his band. Malcolm Young took ACDC back into the studio 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:52.080 and created a masterpiece, nineteen seventy seven's Let There Be Rock. 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.640 Let the label try to ignore this. They couldn't, neither 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:00.920 could audiences. The band toured relentlessly through Europe and America. 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.720 ACDC quickly followed Let There Be Rock with nineteen seventy 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:09.600 eight's Powerridge quite literally the greatest rock and roll album 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:11.560 of all time, by the way, but I'm not here 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:13.960 to start arguments you can't win. I'm here to tell 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.600 you a story about Dirty Deeds, so I'll just keep 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:22.120 going with Poweradge came more touring and plans for another record, 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.680 this one to hopefully do what others hadn't break the 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.840 band in America. But touring was taking its toll. As 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.559 touring does. People think that the lives of touring musicians 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.559 are glamorous, and to some extent it is dancing girls 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.480 and champagne on ice, as Bond Scott wants saying, but 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.760 it's also incredibly taxing physically and mentally. It'll drive even 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:50.000 the best of them crazy. And people also think that 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.520 being in a band is being part of a brotherhood, 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.800 and it most definitely is. But the part that often 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.480 gets left out is what if one of your brothers 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.120 goes shit house nuts every now and again? What then 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.559 every band knows what I'm talking about. Bon Scott definitely 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:08.560 knew about this, so much so that in nineteen seventy 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:10.839 eight he took some time off from partying on the 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:16.800 road to write a letter to his sister, Valerie. Bonn 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.960 wrote on Hilton Stationary, well, as you can see Bond's 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.000 in downtown Pittsburgh today, I've just come over from the 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:25.880 West Coast, where I spent a couple of days in 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.880 La doing midnight special Bond goes on, and you can 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.880 feel the natural charm in his words and the sweetness 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.200 he has in reserve for his sibling. You can also 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.600 instantly feel his concern for a friend. Bonn is telling 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.600 Valerie that he's scouting drummers to fill in for ac 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.080 DC's Phil Rudd, saying quote, Phil had a bit of 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.320 a nervous breakdown, and Bonn goes on to say that 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:52.280 Phil had to spend a lot of time with a 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.920 shrink and that it was real bad, but luckily he 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.320 got over it quickly enough not to upset the band, 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.240 and we had a tree with kid gloves for a bit. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:07.400 But he's okay now. According to Bond Scott, Phil Rudd 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.360 had gone a bit off the rails. A loose cannon 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.440 drummer was exactly the type of drummer a musician as 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:18.120 serious minded as Malcolm Young could not abide. Yet Malcolm 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.000 needed Phil. Malcolm had played with other drummers, and other 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.319 drummers were a dead end. Phil swung in a special 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.840 way and Malcolm couldn't go back to the way it 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.840 was to be in just a rock band. So Malcolm 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.680 closed ranks, dealt with Phil's problem internally and kept trudging 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.320 towards success in America, with Phil behind the kit for 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.439 the recording of the band's next album, again the one 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.880 they hope would break them in the States. But now 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.240 the label was interfering once more, and for this next record, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.760 ACDC would need to part ways with their longtime producer, 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.920 their brother George Young, and work with someone who better 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:59.800 understood what American audiences were looking for. The meddling stung. 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.320 Being forced to break the bond with their older brothers 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:09.760 stung even worse. Atlantic suggested legendary producer Eddie Kramer, he 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.880 of Jimmy Hendrick's fame. Eddie Kramer suggested Malcolm and Angus 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.800 record the Young Rascals Good Loving as their first single. 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.000 Malcolm called his manager and told him to get Eddie 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:21.880 Kramer the fuck out of the studio and on the 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.200 first thing smoking back to wherever the hell he came from. 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.719 Atlantic then shipped in Mutt Lang, fresh off crafting a 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.880 number one hit for the Boomtown Rats. Mutt told Malcolm 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.480 and Bond that the backing vocals on the demos needed 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.040 to be sung in a certain way. Malcolm told Mutt 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.200 he wasn't no dirty Boomtown Rats. Singing for the charts, 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.600 and Mutt then went in and sang the suggested vocal 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:50.680 part perfectly. Malcolm took the note, and so did Bond. Mutt, 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.679 who's on another level, and he understood what made ACDC work. 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:57.079 For the most part, he just got out of the 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:01.560 way and let them cook. What emerge was a masterpiece. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.880 Highway to Hell. The album did for the band what 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.079 it in Atlantic had long hoped to achieve. It broke 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.680 them in America. To date. The album that sold almost 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.360 eight million copies in the United States and more than 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.719 fifteen million worldwide. But if a CDC was going to 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.319 be built to last, there was another mile marker on 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:28.680 the highway to pass even greater success international success. Malcolm 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:33.280 was relentless a workhorse. He and Angus wrote tirelessly for 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.600 what they were certain would be an album that would 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.200 blow the rest of the world wide open for ac DC. 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:42.400 As nineteen eighty progressed and high school kids across the 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:46.280 United States dug into the massive riffs on Highway to Hell, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.719 the band was already set to record a follow up. 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.920 Now it was Bondstern. He looked up from the notebook 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.400 he was writing in and closed it It was February 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:02.600 in London, cold and dreary, but Bond was feeling celebratory. 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.359 He'd done it. He'd finished writing the lyrics for acdc's 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:30.640 next album finally, and so it was time to get drunk. 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:46.360 Chapter two Neckties. There are no handbooks in rock and roll. 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.400 There's no index you can leave through, no dead singer 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.880 section filed under d and therefore there were no instructions 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.520 for ACDC when they learned in February nineteen eighty that 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:03.440 their singer, the inimitable and seemingly irreplaceable Bond Scott, had died. 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.280 One of Bond's girlfriends at the time. Silver Smith claims 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.360 that Bond finished writing the lyrics for acdc's next album 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:13.800 in the London flat that he was renting, and went 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.280 out afterward to celebrate with his friends from the band 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.840 UFO at a club called the Music Machine. Bond then 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.200 blacked out drunk in the back of it over No. Five, 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:27.600 choked on his own vomit, and died senselessly. And now 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.520 Malcolm Angus and everyone else in the ACDC camp was 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:34.600 trying to figure out how to get their dead singer 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.720 back to Australia from first class on the plane. While 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.960 they waited to fly out, you could see Bond's coffin 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.960 coming down the baggage conveyor belt mixed in with the 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:49.200 rest of the luggage. Fucked this, Angus wouldn't have it. 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.120 He wasn't flying home first class with his friend being 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.400 hauled underneath the plane with the rest of the cargo. 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.720 The band moved back to coach and back to Australia 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:05.440 on Scott was buried, and then the band moved on 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:10.640 through their grief. Each band member, Malcolm, Angus, phil and 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:15.000 bassist Cliff Williams worked tirelessly. The first order of business 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.760 was to find a replacement for Bond, a task that 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:22.680 seemed impossible but somehow was accomplished when they found Brian Johnson, 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:26.280 a singer who once impressed Bond and a singer who, 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.720 as it's long been rumored, was recommended to ac DC 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.040 by a fan. Next up, they needed to complete the 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.360 album they started putting together before Bond's death, but when 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.760 they emerged from the studio they were wielding a tribute 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.480 to Bond called Back in Black, an album that would 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:45.480 sell ungodly amounts of records, largely on the strength of 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.400 the band's new songs, songs that fit their new singer perfectly, 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.560 and also on the strength of the group's relentless touring. 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.280 When all was said and done, Back in Black did 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:00.000 what Malcolm intended it to do, broke the band beyond 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.160 America throughout the rest of the world. It was a 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.120 global smash, one that would go on to sell fifty 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.880 million copies and become the second biggest selling full length 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:13.840 album of all time, behind only Michael Jackson's Thriller. Back 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.040 in Black's follow up for Those About to Rock, We 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:20.400 Salute You, sold incredibly well, also deepening ac DC's connection 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:24.880 with American gearheads and FM radio listeners. They continued to 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.680 tour and became quite literally the biggest band on the 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.800 planet before hunkering down to create their next album, Flick 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.680 of the Switch. And that's when the pressure of it 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.400 all started to grind the gears on Malcolm's well oiled 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:42.920 rock and roll machine. Chapter three, Pick up the Phone, 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:48.920 Leave Her Alone. Phil Rudd, acdc's drummer, the man who 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:53.880 rolled and swung mightily, was coming apart again. He played 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.480 nightly to tens of thousands of adoring fans and did 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:58.480 his best to outrun the death of one of his 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.960 best friends, Bond Scott, all while enjoying the trappings of 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:06.040 success Bond always wanted but never achieved. It was a lot. 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.320 The guilt was, no doubt, white hot. Phil cooled it 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:15.719 with alcohol, gallons and gallons of alcohol. Of course, in 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.840 rock and roll, drinking is not only tolerated, it's encouraged. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.200 But for a band leader like Malcolm Young, the only 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.960 thing that was sacred was you're playing. If the drink 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.920 impacted the gig, then you could get fucked off stage. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.080 In a hotel room in Nebraska, Phil Rudd was drinking 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.560 with ghosts. They were right there at the edge of 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.880 his bed. Who were these people pulling from the same 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.520 bottle that he was? Groupies fans, Some spoke and adoring 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.000 kiss ass tones. Some taunted Phil. They talked of ACDC 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.679 songs and fast cars, and all Phil heard was Bond's voice. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.120 When one of them, just a high school ahead, asked 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:03.240 Phil flight bonn ask for a life. When the lady 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.159 with the dude, who was icinger, got frustrated and wanted 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:10.760 to know where the coke was, Phil heard Bond question him. 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.200 When two guys near the bathroom nearly came to blows 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.280 over a girl sitting on Phil's bed, Phil heard Bonn 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:21.160 arguing with himself. Phil had a thought, was this It 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:26.480 were the distractions, the gigs, the sessions, the responsibilities. Were 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.359 they no longer enough? Phil may have been pissed, drunk, 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:34.840 but he knew what this was. Unresolved grief finally coming 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.480 to the surface, bleeding out all over the room in 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.119 ghostly white heat, filling the atmosphere within these four walls 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.119 with the pressure he never imagined, manifest in the words 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.000 of the fans, his new Fairweather friends, speaking in bon 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:53.520 Scott's voice and now increasingly in tongues. The sound of 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.200 it filled his head with dense pressure. It was intense, 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.240 more intense than the pressure of being on stage age 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.000 in front of tens of thousands, and more intense than 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.640 staring down Malcolm. Stronger than the fear of letting Angus down. 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.000 It was the pressure of admitting he was gone and 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.080 that there was nothing he or anyone else could do 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:18.480 about it. Bond was gone, and these fuckers in the 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.159 room had to go next. But Phil was helpless. He 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.359 called his road manager, Ian. Ian would know what to do. 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.200 Road managers always knew what to do. Ian headed straight 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:31.159 over to Phil's room to clear out the groupies and 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:33.800 the fans so that acdc's drummer could get some rest. 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:40.240 But when Ian entered the room, it was empty, empty, 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.480 with the exception of Phil, and there were no groupies 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:49.000 and no fans, only a ghost. Phil Rudd had tripped 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.760 beyond some invisible line and things would not get better. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.800 Phil Rudd continued drinking with the ghost of bon Scott 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:01.119 until on October eighth, nineteen eighty three, Phil walked on 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.159 stage in Uniondale, New York, wasted, sat down behind his 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.080 kit and bashed away until he fell off his stool 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.760 in a pissed drunk stupor. He recovered, sort of and 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.960 finished the set. Afterward, Malcolm Young walked up to his 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.280 drummer backstage and walloped him in the face with his fist, 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.760 and that was it. Phil could fuck off. He was 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.600 out of the group and ACDC was now just another 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:34.720 rock band. We'll be right back after this. 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:36.400 We're We're Where. 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:47.520 Chapter four The high school head who said you needed 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.040 a swing. Plenty of bands who merely rocked had enjoyed 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:55.200 massive success. It was nineteen ninety and the billboard charts 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.000 were peppered with rock bands turning on teenage heads all 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:02.280 over the world. Jovi made Jersey girls swoon with Blaze 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.600 of Glory, which went to number one. Billy Idol rocked 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:07.760 the Cradle of Love all the way up to number two. 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:10.800 Faith No More soared into the top ten at number 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.720 nine with their single Epic, and in the same year, Nelson, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.440 Heart and skid Row all competed on the charts alongside 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.520 ac DC's single Thunderstruck, the band's biggest hit since You 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.479 Shook Me All Night Long, which drove their new album 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.400 The Razor's Edge to multi platinum status, the band's best 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:33.080 selling records since Back in Black. All of these songs 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:37.040 were rock bon Jovi, Billy Idol, Nelson, Heart, skid Row, etc. 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.160 They weren't rock and roll. Thunderstruck by ac DC wasn't 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:43.800 rock and roll either. It's about as meat and potato 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.640 as hard rock as you can get. It's great, don't 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:48.520 get me wrong, But it isn't Highway to Hell or 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.399 Let There Be Rock. It doesn't come anywhere near the 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.119 greatness the band achieved creatively when Phil Rubb was in 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.840 the band. Neither were the full length recordings that preceded 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.480 the Razor's Edge or followed the last the album to 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.840 feature Phil, which was Flick at the Switch. Those albums 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.040 being Fly on the Wall and Blow Up Your Video. 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.480 Simon Wright replaced Phil Rudd on those albums, and Chris 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:14.680 Slade of the Firm replaced Simon on the Razor's Edge. 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:19.480 This was a creative era of inconsistency for ACDC. Some 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:24.160 fans the purest blame Bond Scott's replacement singer Brian Johnson 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:28.600 for the band's lackluster recordings during this time, specifically Fly 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.399 on the Wall and Blow Up Your Video. But Brian 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:36.160 wasn't the issue. The drumming was the issue. Sure, Malcolm 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.439 made it work with Thunderstruck, but deep down I think 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:42.800 he knew they weren't the same band without Phil Rudd. 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.280 They weren't a rock and roll band and something needed 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.320 to change. And that's something was brought on by the 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:59.720 Dirtiest deads Murder Chapter five. We'll get round Him, We'll 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:07.280 have Her sells a ball. Christmas nineteen eighty three, ACDC 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:10.560 is once again on top, one of the biggest bands 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.800 in the world, and their manager, Crispin Dy had many 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.879 reasons to celebrate that evening. In Sydney, Australia. There was 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:20.760 the success of the band he managed, and then there 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.159 was the joy he felt over releasing his own debut album. 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:27.879 So Crispin went out to hit the pubs. Upon leaving 0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:31.320 one of those watering holes in the Darlinghurst neighborhood, he 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:37.680 was attacked three men or was it just one. It's 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:41.800 doubtful Crispin ever saw the attack coming, and the head 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:46.080 trauma likely came first from a blunt instrument, then the punches, 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:48.919 the kicks. But when you felled and your brain has 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:51.760 been so severely bashed that you could feel it loosening 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:54.840 itself from the inside of your skull, the hits to 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:59.560 the body don't really register. You're in shock, confused, and 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:02.520 you know something's happening to you, but you're not sure what. 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:06.800 There's fear, yes, but that fear isn't of your attackers. 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:12.200 It's deeper now. You can feel yourself slipping away. Holding 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:16.800 on is no longer a tangible challenge. It's metaphysical that 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.479 you try to concentrate, but the hits keep on coming, 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:22.160 and your mind is pulling you into a darkness you've 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:25.679 never known, a darkness with a promise of peace so 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:28.159 real you can feel it wrap itself around you and 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.840 shield you from the pain being inflicted upon your body. 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:35.960 But there's a trade off. Nothing's free. Slipping into that 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:40.960 piece means slipping into oblivion. So you fight, if not physically, 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:45.360 then mentally, you will yourself to survive. But when they 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:49.879 find you, you're unconscious, bloodied, broken, lying in the street 0:24:49.960 --> 0:24:52.560 like a Christian thrown to the lions, and they gather 0:24:52.680 --> 0:24:55.800 up what's left of you, because remarkably you're still breathing, 0:24:56.080 --> 0:24:57.879 and they bring you to the hospital where you do 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:00.919 your best to hang on, but that pull towards something 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:04.680 better than what you've been given it's too strong, so 0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:09.840 you give in and succumb to your injuries. The next day, Christmas, 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:12.760 the day you meet your maker at the age, which 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:21.240 is forty one, acdc's manager Crispinde was murdered. They never 0:25:21.280 --> 0:25:26.080 caught his killers, and this case is steeped in hate. First, 0:25:26.240 --> 0:25:29.080 there was a supposed eyewitness accusation of the three Pacific 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:32.320 Islanders were seen standing over Crispin's body, a lead that 0:25:32.359 --> 0:25:35.040 went nowhere. And then there was the fact that Crispin 0:25:35.160 --> 0:25:38.000 was gay walking late at night in an area known 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:41.280 for its gay night life, but the death was investigated 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:44.680 as a robbery, not a hate crime, and nothing came 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:48.680 of it until in twenty twenty three, thirty years later, 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:51.680 it was revealed that the forensic testing of Die's blood 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:55.119 stained clothing have been botched by authorities and when the 0:25:55.160 --> 0:25:58.639 forensics will run again. A DNA match linked the crime 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:03.120 to a violent, convicted felon with a criminal history, including 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:07.120 a nineteen ninety three assault with an iron bar, a 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:10.960 blunt instrument and another attack of a tourist in Sydney. 0:26:11.920 --> 0:26:14.720 That convicted felon killed himself in two thousand and two, 0:26:15.320 --> 0:26:19.600 and the case of the murder of acdc's manager remains unsolved. 0:26:21.600 --> 0:26:25.040 What isn't a mystery, however, is what this murder, this 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:28.960 unfortunate event, did for the band that Crispin Dye managed. 0:26:29.800 --> 0:26:33.680 At his funeral, members of ACDC passed and present were 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:37.440 in attendance, and this was where Malcolm Young ran into 0:26:37.480 --> 0:26:40.159