Longtime AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd says he’s made peace with being left out of the band’s recent tour plans, although it seems he would still like an explanation.
“There was a time when I thought it was the end of the world,” Rudd tells Stuff in a new interview. “Those people I thought loved me like a brother, they haven’t even picked up the phone.”
In the immediate wake of some pretty serious and well-documented legal troubles, Rudd did not participate in the band’s chaotic (cursed?) 2015-2016 Rock or Bust tour.
He was behind the drums for the recording of 2020’s Power Up, but when the band returned to the road in 2023 Rudd was replaced without public explanation by Matt Laug.
Read More: How AC/DC Welcomed Phil Rudd Back After His Legal Troubles
Next month AC/DC will return to Australia for their first dates in their home country in 10 years, again with Laug. Rudd, who played some of the band’s most famous songs with a New Zealand orchestra this summer, says he would only return for the fans, and to honor the memory of his late former bandmate Bon Scott.
“When Bon died, even in AC/DC I felt alone,” Rudd explains. “…To me, AC/DC was always Bon. My favorite album is Highway to Hell. My favorite song – his song ‘Touch Too Much.'”
Rudd goes on to explain that, if asked, the only reason he would play with AC/DC again would be for the fans, and for Bon. But he’s also happy to pursue his current hobbies. “Driving, drumming, rooting and shooting,” he explains, “those are my hobbies, and I’m no so bad at all of them. I never loved the spotlight, or craved fame.”
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
