Iggy Pop has revealed that he was approached to join AC/DC after Bon Scott died in 1980, but he declined the offer.
During a recent interview with The New York Times , the punk-rock singer said that AC/DC’s manager reached out to him.
“They had a manager many years ago, when I hadn’t reformed The Stooges, I hadn’t moved to England. And this guy said, ‘Are you interested in joining AC/DC?’ They were looking for a singer,” he said.
However, Iggy Pop said he declined the offer because he didn’t think he was right for the gig.
“I listened to their record. I thought, I can’t fit that bill,” he said. “I wasn’t, like, ‘Ugh, I don’t like them.’ It was quite well made. They do careful work, but I’m not what they needed.”
While Iggy Pop didn’t join AC/DC, he told the publication that he met Bon Scott in Holywood before his untimely death.
“I had some wonderful encounter with Bon somewhere, and we were both drunk and stoned,” he explained. “I see pictures sometimes. I go, I don’t remember, but that’s me with Bon. I loved what he did.”
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Bon was found dead in his car after a night of partying in London in 1980. He was 33 years old.
Last year – 32 years after his death – Bon Scott’s brother, Derek, spoke about his sibling’s passing for the first time on ABC documentary series Australian Story, for a segment called “On The Brink”.
During the episode, Derek labelled the majority of mainstream media stories about his brother as “bullshit” but did confirm that Bon (real name Ronald) had a wild side. Derek said that Scott’s lifestyle tended to get out of control in the times between recording and touring.
“That‘s when he would start taking risks, doing wild things,” he said. “On days when he was bored, there was no future, there was only now. He didn‘t give a bugger about whether he lived or died the next day. He’d try anything – magic mushrooms, marijuana, alcohol – and he would take risks on his motorbike.”
Derek also reflected on the devastating moment his family were told that Bon had died in a call from AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young.
“[Mum] thought, ‘Oh, Ron’s ringing me to say happy birthday,’ which he often did the next day because of the time difference. Malcolm didn‘t have time to explain because it was hitting the airwaves and he didn’t want them to hear it on the radio. So he just said, ‘Ron died.’”
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