Today would have marked the 66th birthday of Bon Scott, the original lead singer of the Australian hard rock group AC/DC. Scott, who was their front man during the first wave of the band’s success, died of acute alcohol poisoning on February 19th, 1980, and was another of rock’s true blue go for broke and take no prisoners individual, who relished and leapt full frontally into all the swirling decadence that came with his endeavor. With his gritty voice and attitude, his ballsy approach on the microphone, his charmingly sleazy demeanor, and dying young like so many of rock and roll’s greats before him, Bon Scott remains a celebrated figure in the annals of hard rock history.

He was born Ronald Belford Scott in Scotland on July 9, 1946, before his family moved him from there to Australia when he was six. Having recently arrived from Bonnie, Scotland at that point when he went to school, he was christened with the nickname “Bon” and it stuck with him for the rest of his life.