Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal by Jon Wiederhorn
Book: Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal by Jon Wiederhorn
Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jon Wiederhorn
Ads: Link
doubles. For Peter, we had a fifty-five-year-old guy and we put makeup on him. For Ace, an African American stunt double.
PETER CRISS: I decided I wanted to do my own thing, my own music. Ten years in KISS was enough for me. I got tired of playing heavy metal. I like writing love songs. I like playing with strings, horns, and pianos.
ACE FREHLEY: When Peter left, I really felt a great chemical imbalance in the band. Even though I loved Eric [Carr, Criss’s replacement], God rest his soul, losing Peter upset the balance of the band a little too much. Plus, I didn’t have my drinking buddy anymore, so I had to go drink with my bodyguards and roadies. It took me a long time to realize that I had a serious problem. I guess I finally realized it when I crashed my DeLorean in ’83. I also got busted for drunk driving six months later, and lost my license for a couple of years. That was kind of a wake-up call to me to get help. If I had stayed in the group, I probably would have self-destructed and killed myself. You know, there were plenty of times when, driving home to Connecticut from the city, I contemplated just driving my Porsche into a fucking tree and ending it all. So I had to choose the lesser of two evils.
GENE SIMMONS: We consciously missed Ace and Peter all the time, but in no way, shape, or form did we feel responsible or blame ourselves for what happened to them. Everything is a choice in life and you make the bed you sleep in, and unfortunately, they decided to be self-destructive. That doesn’t mean you don’t miss them. We’ve had some great times. Some not-so-great ones, too—and that’s why they had to go.
AC/DC seemed unstoppable. Then, on February 19, 1980, Bon Scott tragically lost his life. The band was in London doing preproduction for the follow-up to Highway to Hell ; Bon was living it up as he always did. The night before he died, Scott went to the Music Machine, a club in Camden Town, London, to check out the band Lonesome No More with his friend Alistair Kinnear, who was driving. After a night of heavy drinking, the two drove back to Kinnear’s apartment, and Kinnear noticed the singer had passed out.
ALISTAIR KINNEAR (Bon Scott’s friend): I tried to lift him out of the car, but he was too heavy for me to carry in my intoxicated state, so I put the front passenger seat back so that he could lie flat, covered him with a blanket, left a note with my address and phone number on it, and staggered upstairs to bed. It must have been 4 or 5 a.m. by that time, and I slept until about 11, when I was awakened by a friend. I was so hungover that I asked him to do me a favor [and check] on Bon. He did so, and returned to tell me my car was empty, so I went back to sleep, assuming that Bon had awoken and taken a taxi home. At about 7:30 that evening I went down to my car intending to pay a visit to my girlfriend who was in hospital, and was shocked to find Bon still lying flat in the front seat, obviously in a very bad way, and not breathing. I immediately drove him to King’s College Hospital, where Bon was pronounced dead on arrival. The Lambeth coroner’s report cited acute alcohol poisoning, and death by misadventure.
ANGUS YOUNG: Nobody knew what to do. We were so battered. It’s as if we’d had an arm amputated.
PHIL RUDD (AC/DC): His death numbed me. Nobody believed it could happen to us. We were so depressed. We were just walking around in silence.
3
BRITISH STEEL: NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY METAL SHAPES THE FUTURE, 1980–PRESENT
A s 1979 dawned, the metal landscape looked dim for the genre’s founders. Black Sabbath had no singer, and its former vocalist was so dependent on drugs and alcohol he could barely function. But even if Sabbath and Ozzy had never returned, the foundation they had built was so powerful it couldn’t be destroyed. AC/DC carried on after Bon Scott’s death—and reached new heights with vocalist Brian Johnson. Judas Priest was about to release its most highly
PETER CRISS: I decided I wanted to do my own thing, my own music. Ten years in KISS was enough for me. I got tired of playing heavy metal. I like writing love songs. I like playing with strings, horns, and pianos.
ACE FREHLEY: When Peter left, I really felt a great chemical imbalance in the band. Even though I loved Eric [Carr, Criss’s replacement], God rest his soul, losing Peter upset the balance of the band a little too much. Plus, I didn’t have my drinking buddy anymore, so I had to go drink with my bodyguards and roadies. It took me a long time to realize that I had a serious problem. I guess I finally realized it when I crashed my DeLorean in ’83. I also got busted for drunk driving six months later, and lost my license for a couple of years. That was kind of a wake-up call to me to get help. If I had stayed in the group, I probably would have self-destructed and killed myself. You know, there were plenty of times when, driving home to Connecticut from the city, I contemplated just driving my Porsche into a fucking tree and ending it all. So I had to choose the lesser of two evils.
GENE SIMMONS: We consciously missed Ace and Peter all the time, but in no way, shape, or form did we feel responsible or blame ourselves for what happened to them. Everything is a choice in life and you make the bed you sleep in, and unfortunately, they decided to be self-destructive. That doesn’t mean you don’t miss them. We’ve had some great times. Some not-so-great ones, too—and that’s why they had to go.
AC/DC seemed unstoppable. Then, on February 19, 1980, Bon Scott tragically lost his life. The band was in London doing preproduction for the follow-up to Highway to Hell ; Bon was living it up as he always did. The night before he died, Scott went to the Music Machine, a club in Camden Town, London, to check out the band Lonesome No More with his friend Alistair Kinnear, who was driving. After a night of heavy drinking, the two drove back to Kinnear’s apartment, and Kinnear noticed the singer had passed out.
ALISTAIR KINNEAR (Bon Scott’s friend): I tried to lift him out of the car, but he was too heavy for me to carry in my intoxicated state, so I put the front passenger seat back so that he could lie flat, covered him with a blanket, left a note with my address and phone number on it, and staggered upstairs to bed. It must have been 4 or 5 a.m. by that time, and I slept until about 11, when I was awakened by a friend. I was so hungover that I asked him to do me a favor [and check] on Bon. He did so, and returned to tell me my car was empty, so I went back to sleep, assuming that Bon had awoken and taken a taxi home. At about 7:30 that evening I went down to my car intending to pay a visit to my girlfriend who was in hospital, and was shocked to find Bon still lying flat in the front seat, obviously in a very bad way, and not breathing. I immediately drove him to King’s College Hospital, where Bon was pronounced dead on arrival. The Lambeth coroner’s report cited acute alcohol poisoning, and death by misadventure.
ANGUS YOUNG: Nobody knew what to do. We were so battered. It’s as if we’d had an arm amputated.
PHIL RUDD (AC/DC): His death numbed me. Nobody believed it could happen to us. We were so depressed. We were just walking around in silence.
3
BRITISH STEEL: NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY METAL SHAPES THE FUTURE, 1980–PRESENT
A s 1979 dawned, the metal landscape looked dim for the genre’s founders. Black Sabbath had no singer, and its former vocalist was so dependent on drugs and alcohol he could barely function. But even if Sabbath and Ozzy had never returned, the foundation they had built was so powerful it couldn’t be destroyed. AC/DC carried on after Bon Scott’s death—and reached new heights with vocalist Brian Johnson. Judas Priest was about to release its most highly
Similar Books
