Phil Rudd thought he was in the clear after the charges were dropped against him for hiring a hit man to kill two individuals. He is still cleared on those charges, but in a recent interview with USA Today, his bandmates Angus Young and bassist Cliff Williams said Rudd was behaving erratically before his arrest. He is still facing drug charges for possessing methamphetamine and marijuana.
The saga of Rudd keeps on adding more twists and turns with each passing week. According to his bandmates, he was hard to get into the studio, which was important to them recording their upcoming artist album Rock Or Bust. He apparently wasn't reliable when they were doing video and photo shoots, leaving the group unsure if he would even show up and if he did was he going to be camera ready, as noted by Radio.com.
Young put it bluntly: "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."
Drugs could be involved and Young speculates on this point saying ""when you get into that land, it's very hard," but adds "I don't know the exact situation. ... I can only say, from our perspective, that the guy needs to sort himself out."
AC/DC are still going ahead with promoting their album and have plans to go on tour next year. Rudd will have to clear up his pending legal issues involving drug possession and even more important is clean up any personal issues he may have so AC/DC can be a cohesive unit that operates efficiently on the road.
We will see if Phil can pull it together and clean it all up in time for the album and tour next year. If not, AC/DC are potentially heading straight into a disaster.
