Who Was Bon Scott’s Rosie?

It isn't at all uncommon for rock stars to record songs about the naughty side of life on the road. And while everyone's aware of the existence of groupies, it can be easy to assume our favorite classic rock tracks about singers' sexual exploits are either made up completely or drawn from multiple experiences. Late AC/DC singer Bon Scott, however, was different in all sorts of ways — one of which may have been a real-life story behind the band's classic track "Whole Lotta Rosie."

Jesse Fink, author of the upcoming Scott biography Bon: The Last Highway: The Untold Story of Bon Scott and AC/DC’s Back in Black, delves into the myths and legends surrounding "Whole Lotta Rosie" at his book's official site, poring over old interviews and more contemporary accounts to determine who the real Rosie was — and if she ever existed in the first place.

Fink's post is well worth a read, and we won't spoil his conclusions here. But whatever amount of scholarly focus one can fairly be said to bring to bear on the question of whether a brilliant singer really did have a legendary roll in the hay with a plus-sized groupie has certainly been applied here — starting with a classic quote from AC/DC guitarist Angus Young bemusedly describing Scott's "fetish about big women."

"She’s about six foot two inches tall, and like 19 stone 12 pound, like that was some mountain, you know," Scott's quoted as saying of the woman who inspired the song. Fetish notwithstanding, he alluded to resisting the encounter, but said "Rosie" wouldn't take no for an answer. "She was so big she’d sort of close the door and put it on you… she was too big to say no to. So I just sorta had to succumb … I had to do it. Oh my God, I wish I hadn’t."

Whatever did or didn't happen, the world got a rock 'n' roll classic out of it. Listen to "Whole Lotta Rosie" again above, and check out Fink's look back at the story behind the song at his site.

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