RIP Morgan Spurlock

Poison, it's unfortunate their careers were sidetracked due to bad record production, sheetty management, or inept management even if the collective sample of Anvil's musical catalogue was mediocre, at best. Their were more then a few hard rock/heavy metal bands in the late 70's and 1980's with music and albums, IMHO, arguably much worse than anything Anvil put out (most of these bands were comical "hair metal bands", BTW) and sold millions of more records.

But as an Aussie yourself, their have been a few bands that became hugely successful, and it turned out over the long haul, success might've been the worst, deadliest thing to ever happened to them. You know, AC/DC has had more then its fair share of personal tragedies, band deaths and deadly concerts like Salt Lake City, Utah in 1990, but one thing about the band is that their success was gradual, they were allowed to build up their fanbase, support, record promotion, a true underground repore from 1974-77 until they relocated to London and began their ascent to heavy metal superstardom with Highway to Hell and even if he hadn't died of asphyxiation, or died 3-4 years later, Bon Scott likely doesn't remain the band's long-term singer, regardless. He'd been telling fellow bandmates, friends privately that he wanted to have enough success in music and then retire as a sheep farmer as early as 1977/78. Despite his on-stage bravado, swagger, and presence as a lead singer, Scott subconsciously suspected he wasnt made for the rock lifestyle, long-term.

Band like INXS, has to be maybe Australia's most tragic, saddest successful bands that after Michael Hutchence got into a fight or accident in Amsterdam where he lost his sense of taste (terrible loss, since he was a huge wine lover/connoisseur), and he unfortunately got into auto-erotic asphyxiation and one night, in 1997, it ended in tragedy. They were one of the biggest rock bands of the MTV era of the 1980's and how it all imploded was terribly sad.

Some have argued it was really suicide because his daughter, Tiger-Lilly, was estranged from him and her mother, with her stepfather, Live Aid founder Bob Geldof and philanthropist and after Hutchence's death, his former lover, British TV rock pop presenter committed suicide IIRC, in 2009 or 2010.
I always thought the story about Michael Hutchence’s cause of death was a bit like Mama Cass supposedly choking on a ham sandwich - an urban myth. My friend’s brother played Hutchence on TV miniseries where they left that aspect open-ended though, so maybe there is some truth to it
(https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3150144/). I agree though, it was a tragic story.

It’s interesting to hear about AC/DC “breaking through” with Highway to Hell internationally. Locally, they were huge in the 70s (before my time). They had released High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and TNT by 1976 here, and they were all platinum albums several times over. I love Back in Black with Brian Johnson, and much of what came after, but Aussies have a particular affection for Bon Scott as the original lead singer.

Always open to hearing about backstage blow ups though. I admit to liking Deep Purple too, albeit predominately Coverdale and Hughes, and more what they put out with other bands.