With AC/DC's new album, Power Up, drummer, Phil Rudd — who battled both drug and legal issues — is back behind the kit for the first time since 2015. While appearing on the Let There Be Talk podcast, Rudd revealed that it was at the funeral of the band's late-guitarist Malcolm Young back in 2017, that he worked his way back into AC/DC.
Ultimate-Guitar.com transcribed some of Rudd's chat as he explained, “Angus (Young) and I had a good chat at Mal's funeral and caught up, there were all kinds of crazy s*** going on, but since then I got my s*** together and put a little band together, I went to Europe, did a little playing stuff and getting an album. 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 an album, he started writing the next day in the studio, and so we got it all together cool, and here we go.”
Rudd, one of rock's steadiest drummers, was asked to name some of his earliest influences: “Well, we got Ringo (Starr), Charlie Watts, Ian Plaice, just those '60s guys, British rock guys, and Ringo's sort of always a special kind of a dude. He was great — he was great, he had really great attitude.”
He went on to talk about the legendary Beatles drummer, recalling, “I saw him play with Carl Perkins and Eric Clapton on that (1985) Carl Perkins birthday show they did — he's just hot, he's on it. I share that to people — he's really got something happening, Ringo, he has really got something extra special going on.”
For Phil Rudd, simply put, laying down the beat behind AC/DC is not only what he does — but who he is: “I love it. The guys like the way it comes out. Y'know, technically, I've got quite a few problems as a drummer, but when it gets goin' and, y'know, you get some passion, I have my own expertise with that, y'know? So, that's the only (laughs) way I can defend the way I play drums (laughs).”
Power Up, which is AC/DC's 17th studio set, will be released on Friday (November 13th.)
