ROSE TATTOO Frontman Remembers BON SCOTT

DirtyRock.net conducted an interview with ROSE TATTOO front man Angry Anderson at the Australian Rock Celebration Concert to unveil the Bon Scott statue. A few excerpts follow:

DirtyRock.net: How well did you know Bon?

Angry: I didn't really know him well at all. We were carousing buddies. Were we great mates? Yeah, we were great mates, but did I know much about him? No. I've learned more about him since he died actually… about his personal life and those sorts of things. We very rarely ever talked about chicks, we mostly, when we were horribly, horribly drunk talked about music, about the blues. I remember one night we were sitting there and he had a little tape recorder. He just put it on the bar and said "Have a listen to this" and he pushed play, and it was Alex Harvey. I went "Fuck that's amazing!" He said "That's Alex Harvey. Here catch up on him" so I did. And Alex Harvey went on to become one of my favourite singers.

DirtyRock.net: How did you first meet him?

Angry: I don't actually remember. I remember going to see THE VALENTINES and I didn't know anything about him except he was in THE VALENTINES. I'd read a few things and they weren't my cup of tea musically, I probably only lasted a few songs but they came to Melbourne and muso's go and checkout other musos. When I actually talked to him he'd already joined AC/DC. And this was before Phil (Rudd) joined, I had him as a drummer in my band BUSTER. They had just got Bon in and everyone was saying you better come and see this band, their on fire. We went up after the show in a station pub, sort of like sacred ground, and went up to them and said I loved the show. They knew who we were and we all sat down and had a few drinks together and that was it.

DirtyRock.net: Do you think he's looking at this and wondering what all the fuss is about?

Angry: Yeah. He'd be taking the piss. I think he would be chuffed that people think so much of him and still do to this day. I just don't think he took too much in his life seriously anyway. I could be classically fuckin wrong but I think the only thing he took really seriously is the same thing we all do… we just love being rock players. Just fuckin love it to be honest. There's only a certain population that are picked to play rock n roll and some of us are, we're pretty happy about that. I think he'd be quietly pleased now in his maturity, not that I think you age there, wherever there is, but you learn to accept a few things when you get older. I think he'd be as chuffed about us, not so much in his own glory but the fact that we all remember him so fondly let alone fans. I'm not even dead yet but I'd really enjoy being dead if my contemporaries think of me fondly.

Read the entire interview at www.dirtyrock.net.