Former AC/DC Drummer PHIL RUDD Fined For Careless Driving In New Zealand

According to The New Zealand Herald, former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has been fined after facing a charge of careless driving in Tauranga, New Zealand, where he has lived since 1983.

The 72-year-old musician, whose legal name is Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke, drove over a planted roundabout and hit a tree last July while driving his 2009 Ferrari 599 on Lakes Boulevard in Tauriko, on the outskirts of Tauranga.

"Skid marks and gouges out of the road were consistent with the vehicle becoming airborne over the planted roundabout, before leaving the road up a curb and colliding with a small tree," a police summary of facts said.

Community magistrate Shaun Cole fined Rudd $500 and ordered him to pay $100 court costs.

Back in July 2015, a New Zealand judge sentenced Rudd to eight months of home detention after the drummer pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a man who used to work for him, along with possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.

Rudd admitted at the time that he had offered $200,000, a motorbike, and the choice of one of his cars or a house to an associate after asking him to have the victim "taken out." He also acknowledged that he had directly said to the victim he was going to kill him.

Although prosecutors had also originally charged Rudd with murder-for-hire, they later dropped that charge, citing lack of evidence.

In a 2025 interview with New Zealand's Stuff, Rudd addressed the fact that he laid down the drum tracks on AC/DC's latest album, 2020's "Power Up", but was not part of the accompanying tour.

"There was a time when I thought it was the end of my world," he told Stuff. "I only knew life with AC/DC. Those people I thought loved me like a brother, they haven't even picked up the phone."

Referencing AC/DC's late frontman Bon Scott, who died in 1980 from alcohol poisoning, Rudd added: "But to me AC/DC was always Bon. My favorite album is 'Highway To Hell'. My favorite song — his song 'Touch Too Much'."

"When Bon died, even in AC/DC I felt alone," Phil explained. "But I was never alone. The people who like the music, it always humbles me, but makes me happy too.

"People always ask me if I will play with AC/DC again," he continued. "The only people I would do it for would be the fans. And for Bon. I would do it for Bon."

In a November 2023 interview with New Zealand's Stuff, Rudd said that he was unable to join his AC/DC bandmates at the Power Trip festival in California that year, but that he was "look[ing] forward to playing with them again in the future."

Sitting behind the drum kit for AC/DC's appearance at Power Trip in October 2023, as well as all the 2024, 2025 and 2026 dates was Matt Laug. The 58-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.

When AC/DC announced in September 2023 that Laug would play drums for the band at Power Trip, it offered no explanation for the absence of 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 Chris 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.

During an appearance on a November 2020 episode of Dean Delray's "Let There Be Talk" podcast, Rudd confirmed that the seed for his return to AC/DC was planted at the funeral of AC/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young in 2017. Rudd, singer Brian Johnson and bassist Cliff Williams all attended the ceremony. At the time, the three musicians were considered former members of AC/DC, with Johnson and Williams both having left in 2016 for health reasons, while Rudd was sidelined in 2015 with various legal issues.

"Angus and I had a good chat at Mal's funeral and caught up," Rudd recalled. "[After I played on the 'Rock Or Bust' record] there was crazy shit going on, but since then, I'd got my shit together and put a little band together, I went to Europe and was doing a bit of playing and stuff and did [a solo] album. The guys knew I was still playing, so when I caught up with Angus at the funeral, we were sort of chatting away and somehow, he just sort of [asked me] if I was up for [doing a new AC/DC] album. And he started writing the next day. He went in the studio and started writing straight away."

Angus told Rolling Stone that it was indeed Malcolm's funeral that helped heal old wounds.

"[Phil] was there and in good shape," the guitarist said. "He was keeping himself well together. He was getting therapy and sorting himself out. It was really good."

Johnson added that he and the rest of AC/DC welcomed Rudd with open arms. "I speak for all the boys with Phil," he said. "We defend Phil to the hilt. What happened up there, that's not the Phil we know. That was just something else. He's really looking brilliant now and doing everything great."