Gary Storm : interview Buffalo 1978
My friend, Debbie Katz, and I waited backstage in the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium while Aerosmith pounded in the background. Bon and Angus came out, their hair still wet from the showers. They were personable and eager to talk.
Gary: Why didn’t you drop your pants tonight?
Bon: He doesn’t really drop ‘em.
Angus: I used to.
G: You used to. But you don’t anymore?
A: All American audiences get insulted by it, eh.
G: Oh, really? Do the promoters, did the promoters tell you not to?
A: Ahh! No one’s ever told me not to. It’s just, it’s just that a lot of American audiences seem to be turned off it, think you’re insultin’ ‘em.
G: Yeah? I guess they’re not, ah, rough and ready enough.
B: No, they’re not perverted like the English, y’know. The English are all perverted. Th-they-the English get off on seeing little schoolboys’ asses.
Aerosmith was so loud that I sometimes had trouble deciphering their Australian accents through the din. Bon Scott began making suggestive glances at my friend Debbie.
G: Now, um . . . one thing I’ve noticed – again, I’ve read a lot about you guys and I’ve listened to your records a lot – one thing I’ve noticed and it always surprises me, that it, ah, is that a lot of re-, American reviews of your records and your concerts are not very favorable. What do you think of that, that you don’t get very good reviews in this country?
A: Kids – kids like us.
G: The kids like us.
A: That’s all, that’s all that matters, right.
B: Reviewers don’t count, they-do-they don’t buy records, y’know, they jus-th-they-jus-they get given them and they, y’know, give th-their spiel on them, like, um, and the kids, they obviously, you-he-you heard the audience tonight, y’know the kids love the songs, y’know.
G: Oh, they were standing.
B: They buy the, they buy the records, y’know.
A: Like, I mean, in England, they’ve still got critics still criticizing the Beatles, y’know, y’know.
G: Yeah? Hahaha.
A: Y’know where’s that at, y’know.
B: We’d be nuts to take critics seriously, y’know. You’d shoot yourself, y’ know.
A: Yeah.
B: First night.
G: Do you think you’ve had it worse in America from the critics?
B: Nah. No worse, y’know.
A: I never read them anyhow, hahaha.
G: No, they, it’s not good to read them, they really aren’t very, ah, reliable. How many shows do you do each year?
B: About eight – eight months. We play eight months, yeah.
A: Maybe nine.
B: Yeah, eight or nine months. We’ve got gigs five or six a week
G: Five or six shows a week.
Debbie: (Inaudible question.)
G: Wait, say that again.
D: How long have you been doing that?
A: Years. Ever since we first started.
G: Ever since you first started.
D: It shows that you’ve worked that much together, ‘cause you’re so really great!
At one point during the show, Bon carried Angus around the whole floor of the auditorium on his shoulders while the young guitarist wailed on his cordless guitar, whirling through the crowd, spilling streams of sweat. Debbie asked them about it.
D: Who’s idea was it to go around – do use – you usually go around the auditorium like you?
A: Oh, yeah.
D: Did you just do that tonight for, ah . . . . . ?
A: (Inaudible remark.)
G: Yeah, they . . . . .
B: Yeah, we’ve done that for quite a while, yeah, we just love to get out and meet that, ah, public contact, y’know. ‘Cause, like, you’re on the stage, y’know, and they’re down there and there’s, ah, like a fence there, y’know, and just like it’s board – it’s a borderline, y’know, you want to break that, y’know, and just get into the crowd, y’know. We go out on balconies and shit, y’know, do all sorts of crazy things, y’know.
A: I like the feeling of a man underneath me so I jump on his shoulders.
D: Hahaha.
G: Yeah, that’s what happens. Tonight, you jumped on his shoulders and . . . . .
B: (Making muscles and sounding like Popeye.) I’m glad you think I’m a man!
D: You carried him all around there, you’re real strong!
A: He gets out there.
D: Yeah!
Bon Scott was an old time rock’n’roller. At the time of this interview, he’d been rocking professionally for 12 years and had never once let his unbelievable energy keep from coming on. If you ever saw him perform, you know it was amazing he lasted as long as he did. Angus Young had adopted the image of a demonic naughty boy. A mere twenty at the time, he seemed absolutely out of his mind and absolutely sure of what he was doing.
G: Now, some of your, some of your songs seem to, like, have interesting stories behind them. Like, um, “She’s Got Balls.” Is, ah, is that about a real person?
A: Yeah, it’s his (Bon’s) missus, hahahahaha.
B: I was married once, y’know. And my wife said to me one night, she said, “How come you never write songs” – this was while we were still married, I divorced her – “how come you ne-never write songs about me?” And so I sat down and I wrote this song “She’s Got Balls” which, y’know, by being a man show her that I can have – having balls . . . .
.
A: And she divorced him the next week, hahahaha.
B: . . . . . having balls is like being good. It’s got balls, it’s good, y’know. It’s gutsy like, y’know. So I said, “Well, there’s a song, do you like it?” and she said, “I’ve got balls! What do you mean?!” Hahaha. So she divorced me. Hahaha.
G: Really, right after that?!?!?
B: Well, pretty soon after, yeah.
G: That was, that the only grounds? That couldn’t have been the only grounds for divorce.
A: He told me he likes men better. (Inaudible remarks.)
D: Did you have any kids?
B: (Inaudible remarks.)
G: No kids. She should ask – speak into the microphone. (Snorts). Um, “Kicked in the Teeth”, how about that one, does that have a story behind it?
A: Ah, there are a lot of stories that come from generalities, more than y’know, certain, y’know, things, ah. Like all, the, all the things we write about, like, ah, I’m 32 years old so lots of things that happened to me over th-the last 32 years, y’know, so I’ve got lots of, sort of, therefore, back-un to write about, y’know, lots of . . . .
G: You’ve been . .
B: Y’know, y’know.
G: So you’ve been kicked a few times.
B: Yeah, yeah. New teeth, y’know. Hahahahaha.
We continued talking about some of the songs by AC-DC, as Bon Scott’s admiration for my friend Debbie became more evident.
G: Um. Oh, “Whole Lotta Rosie,” tell me about that one.
B: Ah well, Rosie was, ah, she watched us in Tazmania, and she’s, she was nineteen stone, twelve pounds (Note: a stone is about 14 pounds) and it . . . . tha-tha-that’s an account of, urn . . . . copulation. And, um, she was at a gig and I was drunk one night and she sort of put the make on me and she was too big to say no to, I guess, and . . . . I-I-I thought, well, this has got to come out in song, y’know. And “Whole Lotta Rosie” is what came out of it, y’know, came out with a good song, y’know.
G: It did, it did.
B: That’s, y’know, th-that’s an actual happening, the chick was nineteen stone, twelve pounds, y’know.
G: Nine-??
B: Nineteen-twelve, yeah. Which is about, what, a hundred and eighty pounds. (Note: actually more like 280 pounds.)
G: A hundred and eighty pound groupie.
B: Yeah. Yeah.
G: A groupie girl. That’s great.
B: Hahahaha.
G: From Tazmania, you said?
B: Sorry?
G: From Tazmania?
B: Yeah, yeah, a Tazmanian devil.
After the interview and a few autographs, Bon invited us up to the hotel for the party. Debbie didn’t feel like it, so we left. She said she thought they were probably gay. I don’t know, I said, he sure seemed to dig you.
