CHRIS SLADE 'Wasn't Bitter At All' About Not Being Asked By AC/DC To Return

Journeyman Welsh drummer Chris Slade, who has spent the past 60 years playing with everyone from Tom Jones to MANFRED MANN, THE FIRM and AC/DC, says that he wasn't bitter about the latter band's decision to recruit Matt Laug to sit behind the kit for the Brian Johnson-fronted outfit on AC/DC's spring/summer 2024 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.

"I wasn't bitter when Phil came back [for the 'Power Up' album] or whatever — or [they] didn't use me, put it that way," Slade told Real Music With Gary Stuckey in a new interview (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "People said, 'Oh, he's bitter. Listen to the way he's talking.' I wasn't bitter at all — not in the slightest. I probably got used to it by now.

"When I lived in California, I used to know Matt Laug as a drummer," Chris continued. "So I was pleased that I knew the guy who was gonna be sitting in. And I knew he was a nice guy. I knew he was very capable and that he could do exactly what Angus [Young, AC/DC guitarist] wanted. I've just heard a rumor, actually, that Phil's coming back. I don't know. But that's a rumor, and those AC/DC rumors are… You never know."

Asked if he would go back to playing with AC/DC if the band asked him to rejoin, Slade said: "Yes, I would. I would. I'm still playing with [THE CHRIS SLADE] TIMELINE. I'm playing every week. We do gigs. Last Saturday we were in France, in Lyon. In two weeks' time, we go to Italy. We were in Poland about two months ago, Chechnya, Eastern Germany. We work all over Europe. We were in Spain a couple of years ago. We haven't been back since. And so I'm playing with my guys, and I'm quite happy to do that. It's a really, really great band. And there's no need for me to go back with AC/DC, to be honest, but if they wanted, Angus knows he could ask me any time.

"I can't see it happening," Slade went on to say. "I couldn't see it happening the second time it happened, to be honest. People kept saying to me, 'Have you heard anything? Have you heard anything yet?' Friends and family. And I said, 'Look, they're not gonna call. Okay?' This was before 'Rock Or Bust'. 'They're not gonna call. They've had enough of me. They're not going to call.' And then I was on the road in Switzerland with TIMELINE. Ring, ring, and it's a AC/DC. [Laughs] And this is three months after these rumors have been flying around. And I was shocked. I spoke to the manager for about half an hour, and I said, 'Yeah, of course I'd do it.' And at the end, I said, 'Can I ask you a question? Did this come from the guys? Did this request come from the guys?' He said, 'Of course, it came from the guys. I wouldn't be making this call without their say-so.' Which is true. But I still wanted confirmation that it was the guys that was putting this offer out to come back. So I was there for another two, three years."

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.

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.

Slade is promoting the new album from THE CHRIS SLADE TIMELINE, "Timescape", which will arrive on July 19.