Vince Lovegrove, who introduced Bon Scott to AC/DC, dies in Australia

GlobalPost

Vince Lovegrove, the music industry figure said to have introduced Bon Scott to AC/DC, has died in a car accident in Australia. 

The music personality was driving his kombi van — the Australian term for Volkswagen bus — near Byron Bay, a resort town on the New South Wales coast, according to the Fairfax media

Although police said one person died in the accident, which occurred between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., they had not yet confirmed late Sunday that it was Lovegrove.

However, a long-time friend of Lovegrove, music writer Nikki McWatters, confirmed that it was the well-known musician, band manager and AIDS activist.

"He had a remarkable energy and love of rock and roll and was a great friend to so many," McWatters told the SMH. "It has come as such a shock that he's gone. He'll be terribly missed."

Lovegrove formed the band The Valentines, sharing vocals with Scott before introducing him to the members of AC/DC.

According to the Herald-Sun, he remained one of Scott’s closest friends until his death in 1980.

Lovegrove won a Human Rights Awards in 1987 for his TV documentary "Suzi's Story," which told the story of his wife's battle with HIV-AIDS and aimed — the Herald-Sun wrote — to raise awareness that AIDS was not just a "gay disease."

Suzi Lovegrove died on 14 June 1987.

The couple's son, Troy, subject of another documentary, "A Kid Called Troy," also died of AIDS three weeks before his 8th birthday.

Lovegrove was also a music journalist, writing an unauthorized biography on the life of Michael Hutchence. Controversially, he wrote that Paul Yates used her pregnancy to trap Hutchence, a claim she denied.

In the 1980s, he also became the manager of high-profile Australian rockers The Divinyls.

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