AC/DC Drummer PHIL RUDD Breaks His Silence: 'I've Seen The Errors Of My Ways'

May 5, 2015

Former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has broken his silence over his latest exit from the group, saying he is "very disappointed" over the breakdown of his relationship with his bandmates.

Rudd last month pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening to kill a former employee after his first solo effort, "Head Job", flopped. It was a month later that he called an associate and asked him to "take out" Rudd's personal assistant, who Rudd then called himself and said, "I'm going to come over and kill you."

Rudd offered the associate $200,000, a motorbike and the choice of one of his cars or a house as payment for the hit, which the associate turned down.

After his initial call to his assistant, Rudd made several more but the assistant hung up each time. Prosecutors said that the assistant "was genuinely fearful of his safety."

When police later raided Rudd's waterside home in the New Zealand town of Tauranga, they spoke with him in his lounge. At one point he picked up a container from the coffee table and put it on the floor. Later testing of the container found cannabis crumbs.

When police searched his jeans, they found a similar bag of methamphetamine. There were more drugs in the bedroom and stashed in the hallway cupboard.

"I was pretty stressed at the time," Rudd told Australia's "A Current Affair" (see video report here).

"I got back here and the people who I had working for me for this [album] launch — it was a total fucking disaster. So I was really pissed off."

In an interview with USA Today last fall, AC/DC guitarist Angus Young stated about Rudd: "Phil created his own situation. It's a hard thing to say about the guy. He's a great drummer, and he's done a lot of stuff for us. But he seems to have let himself go. He's not the Phil we've known from the past."

Speaking about his relationship with his bandmates, Rudd told "A Current Affair": "I wrote them a letter, I tried to get in contact with Angus... I've had no contact with anybody.

"I'm very disappointed ... But, you know, that's life."

Drummer Chris Slade rejoined AC/DC in February for its performance at the Grammy Awards and will play on its world tour as a replacement for Rudd.

"I'm sure they're having a great old time," Rudd told "A Current Affair". "I'm sure they're really enjoying playing. I'm sure it really sounds great.

"There'll be another tour and another and I'll be on it," he said. "It'll go until we all die. We'll probably all have to be dead before it stops."

He added: "I've seen the errors of my ways... It's onward and upward from here."

Rudd also pleaded guilty to a drug possession charge. A second charge of threatening to kill was dropped. Rudd could face up to seven years in prison for the threatening to kill charge. He is currently out on bail until his sentencing hearing on June 26.

Find more on Ac/dc
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).