Many would say that AC/DC’s brand of rock is life affirming, but few fans could mean it quite so literally as Black Hawk Down survivor Michael Durant.
As Classic Rock Magazine reports, Durant recalls how AC/DC provided an anthem for him to soldier on. He was one of two helicopter pilots commandeering Black Hawks, which were shot down during the infamous 1993 mission by the US Military that attempted to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in Moagadishu.
Though he survived the disastrous crash and subsequent attack, which resulted in the entire team being killed, Durant was held as a prisoner in Somalia and recalls in the new fan-made documentary Beyond The Thunder, how AC/DC kept his hopes alive while he lay critically injured and incarcerated.
In a newly released clip from the unofficial AC/DC doco, Durant recalls: “I get shot down and we’re forced to fight it out on our own. The enemy overruns us – when they do that they kill everybody.”
“They initially looked like they were going to kill me, but somebody realised I had a value as a live prisoner,” continues the pilot. “In the process I got my cheekbone, nose and eye socket broken. It was terrifying – am I going to live through the next five seconds?”
Durant then tells of remembering hearing US helicopters flying overhead, blasting a rather significant soundtrack.“Then I hear this ‘Bong.’ and the beginning of ‘Hell’s Bells’… It’s something I’ll never forget.”
“When you’re in captivity and you hear an aircraft, the first thing you think is, ‘Do they know where I am?’… Then I hear this ‘Bong.’ and the beginning of ‘Hell’s Bells’,” explains Durant.
“It was an incredible moment. They had loudspeakers attached to this Black Hawk and they were flying around broadcasting. The hope was that I would hear. Immediately following the song I hear this voice: ‘Mike, we won’t leave here without you.’ It’s something I’ll never forget.”
After 11 days in captivity, Durant was freed and eventually recovered from his wounds – including severe back injuries sustained during the helicopter crash – but always cherishes the moment AC/DC became the harbinger of his survival.
The interview is one of the many featured in Beyond The Thunder, a work of love from filmmakers – and insane Accadacca enthusiasts – Kurt Squiers and Gregg Ferguson. While the documentary has yet received the formal recognition or response of AC/DC and their management Squiers and Ferguson so desperately seek, the film is already receiving rousing plaudits from the critical community; its trailer alone earning an award at last year’s Classic Rock Roll Of Honour Awards.
In related AC/DC news, the band are set to release their first live album in two decades in AC/DC Live At River Plate, recorded from the band’s performance to nearly 200,000 fans in Buneos Aires in December 2009, across three sold-out nights.
The band were on cracking form after a 13-year absence from Argentina, and AC/DC Live At River Plate captures every moment from their 19-song show as part of the massively successful Black Ice World Tour in support of the band’s 2008 album of the same name.
Though the concert was already released on DVD and Bluray last May, the live album, released next Monday November 19, will be available as a two disc CD set or as a limited edition three LP set, issued on red vinyl from the band’s website.
