CHRIS SLADE 'Definitely' Would Have Been Interested In Playing With AC/DC Again

During an appearance on the latest edition of "Rock Camp: The Podcast", the all-new official podcast of Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp hosted by David Fishof, Britt Lightning and Miles Schuman, ex-AC/DC drummer Chris Slade was asked if would have been interested in playing with the band again had he been asked to join the legendary hard rockers on their 2024 world tour. The journeyman Welsh drummer, who has spent the past 60 years playing with everyone from Tom Jones to MANFRED MANN and THE FIRM, said: "Of course I know I would've done it. I can't walk, but I can play drums. [Laughs] I don't think Angus [Young, AC/DC guitarist] believes that, but who knows? I'd probably play it more like Phil [Rudd, longtime AC/DC drummer] does these days, not like Chris Slade did in the '90s."

Circling back to whether he would play with AC/DC again, the 77-year-old Chris said: "I would've been interested, definitely. But that's the way it rolls, you know."

Last September, it was announced that AC/DC had recruited Matt Laug to perform with the Brian Johnson-fronted outfit at the Power Trip festival the following month. AC/DC has since revealed that Laug will be back behind the kit when the band embarks on the "Power Up" tour in May.

Hours after Matt's addition to AC/DC touring lineup was first revealed, Chris took to his social media to write: "I know Matt as a very nice guy from my days of living in California. He is a very capable, teetotal drummer and will put the drums exactly where Angus wants them..... At the back of the stage. I wish him the best of luck!" A short time later, Slade shared a follow-up message in which he wrote: "An update to my last post and in answer to some people who seem to have misunderstood and made comments which have inferred the contrary.

"I am not bitter or 'whining' and neither did I expect a call from ACDC. I merely wanted to say that I know Matt well and he will do an admirable job, because I knew alot of you would ask me!!

"Apologies for my stupid sense of humour, which some of you didn't get ..... My position in any band in 60 years has always been sitting down at the back of the stage...

The 55-year-old Laug is an American drummer who has played with many bands/artists such as Alanis Morissette, Alice Cooper, SLASH'S SNAKEPIT and Vasco Rossi. Matt moved to Los Angeles after graduating from South Florence High School in 1986 and after attending college in L.A., Matt became a sought-after studio drummer.

In 2001, Laug supported AC/DC as part of SLASH'S SNAKEPIT on the North American and European legs of the "Stiff Upper Lip" tour.

AC/DC has offered no explanation for the absence of the band's longtime drummer Phil Rudd, who rejoined AC/DC for the recording of the group's comeback album, "Power Up", which came out in November 2020.

Rudd was ousted from AC/DC when he was sentenced to eight months of home detention by a New Zealand court in 2015 after pleading guilty to charges of threatening to kill and drug possession. He was replaced on the band's "Rock Or Bust" tour by Slade, who had previously served as AC/DC's drummer between 1989 and 1994, playing on the album "The Razor's Edge".

Rudd, who appeared on all but three of AC/DC's 18 previous studio albums, toured in support of his 2014 solo debut, "Head Job". It was the release of that album that led indirectly to Rudd's arrest, with the drummer allegedly so angry at a personal assistant over the way the record was promoted that he threatened to have the man and his daughter killed.

Following his five-year tenure behind the kit from 1989 to 1994, AC/DC drafted in Slade for the "Rock Or Bust" world tour in 2015 and 2016 as Rudd was sidelined due to his legal issues.

Slade originally followed Simon Wright in AC/DC's lineup, joining in time to play on "The Razor's Edge". When Rudd returned in 1995, Slade was shown the door and harbored some bad feelings about that for a while.