Singer took byway to hell - well, Texas

By Louise Schwartzkoff

NOWADAYS he lives in Texas and performs as the king of all Badasses, but 35 years ago Dave Evans was the original frontman for AC/DC.

Like Pete Best, the drummer booted from the Beatles weeks before their first single hit the charts, Evans was dumped for Bon Scott, who took AC/DC on to fame and fortune.

Is he bitter? Well, only a bit.

Mostly about the official story of how he left the band. The AC/DC "bible", Clinton Walker's Highway To Hell , calls Evans a "shameless exhibitionist … in his position more for the way he looked than the way he sang". In the book, guitarist Angus Young recalls throwing Evans off the stage for his embarrassing drunken antics.

"It's all bullshit. A pack of lies," Evans said yesterday, after reading a story in the Herald about a Sydney exhibition of early AC/DC photographs. "Can you imagine anyone throwing me, the King of all Badasses, off the stage? [Walker] never interviewed me and I wanted to strangle him."

From his home in Dallas, where he performs such hits as Sold My Soul To Rock'n'Roll with middle-aged rockers the Badasses, Evans gave his version of events.

"It was just a case of clashing personalities. We all had these young egos and we were like rams butting heads. In retrospect, I suppose I should have just shut up, but I was a strong personality," he said.

At AC/DC's first photo session in 1974, Evans wore a silk scarf, skin-tight leggings and stack heels. The Young brothers later said he was too glam for a hard rock band.

Rubbish, according to Evans. "Just have a look at Malcolm [Young] in his lamé jumpsuit in those early shots," he said.

"The whole glam thing was his idea. He might point the finger at me, but he has three gigantic fingers pointing back at himself."

Evans met his replacement, Bon Scott, several times and had "no problem with him". In recent years he has even performed in tribute concerts to the late rocker. "He was just another fallen soldier of rock. His death was a tragedy and, as an Aussie rocker myself, I understood what he was going through."

As to the Young brothers, Evans said he was too busy to resent them for long. After AC/DC he joined the Newcastle band Rabbit, which released two albums.

"I've moved on," he said. "But if they've still got a problem with me after all these years they should probably see a therapist."

The photography exhibition AC/DC Exposed! is at the Blender Gallery, Paddington until July 29.

© 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald

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