I know this coz I saw a documentary where Brian Johnson was talking about how he wrote hell bells...You know how with Bon Scott's death, Brian was drafted into the band...Essentially these guys had gone to the Caribbean(!) to heal their emotional wounds so to speak and Brian, struggling to fit in and fill Bon Scott's shoes, ended up writing one of the most haunting and chilling songs in rock history during an actual thunder storm!!! So "I'm a rolling thunder, a pounding rain I'm comin' on like a hurricane" has nothing to do with Vietnam. It was a proclamation of Brian's arrival on one stormy night, so reflective of the mood of the band at a time when they were struggling to come to terms with the loss of the great Bon Scott.
I know this coz I saw a documentary where Brian Johnson was talking about how he wrote hell bells...You know how with Bon Scott's death, Brian was drafted into the band...Essentially these guys had gone to the Caribbean(!) to heal their emotional wounds so to speak and Brian, struggling to fit in and fill Bon Scott's shoes, ended up writing one of the most haunting and chilling songs in rock history during an actual thunder storm!!! So "I'm a rolling thunder, a pounding rain I'm comin' on like a hurricane" has nothing to do with Vietnam. It was a proclamation of Brian's arrival on one stormy night, so reflective of the mood of the band at a time when they were struggling to come to terms with the loss of the great Bon Scott.