It’s been 46 years since AC/DC released Highway to Hell — an album that almost marked the tragic end of one of rock’s greatest bands.
The Australian legends, Malcolm Young, Angus Young, Bon Scott, Larry Van Kriedt and Colin Burgess, quickly established themselves as one of the most entertaining acts. However, nothing prepared them for the media attention that would follow their 1979 masterpiece.
Highway to Hell wasn’t just a commercial success, it stirred controversy, with religious groups reportedly calling for it to be banned.
“As soon as we called the album Highway To Hell, the American record company immediately went into a panic,” he once recalled, according to Guitar World. “With religious things, I thought everywhere was like Australia. There, they call them Bible-thumpers, and it’s a limited species, very limited!”
Despite the religious outcry, AC/DC toured relentlessly across America. The album’s milestone seemed to promise an even brighter future as the band returned to the studio for their next project.
What nobody knew at the time was that this album would be the last to feature the band’s legendary original lineup.
Tragedy struck on February 19, 1980, months after Highway to Hell’s release, when lead singer Scott was found unresponsive after a night out.
He was reportedly pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital, with the official cause listed as acute alcohol poisoning — what the coroner termed “death by misadventure.”
Scott’s death devastated the rock world and nearly ended AC/DC. Widely regarded as one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time, his loss left a seemingly impossible void to fill.
For a moment, it appeared that Highway to Hell would indeed be the band’s final chapter.
In comes Brian Johnson, a unknown singer who would prove to be exactly what the band was looking for. After a successful audition, Johnson joined the group and helped create what many consider their greatest album.
Just five months after Scott’s tragic death, AC/DC released Back in Black on July 25, 1980.
“The whole Back In Black album was our dedication to Bon. That’s why the album cover was pure black, and why the album starts with a bell ringing, something sombre and different to anything else we’d done,” Young once said, per Guitar World.
With anthems like “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Hells Bells,” and the thunderous title track, a new era began — one that remains celebrated as part of rock history’s greatest collections of songs.
