AC/DC's Drummer Charged with Meth Possession, Hiring a Hit Man

He tried to get a "dirty deed done dirt cheap," but instead of getting a "big gun" to "shoot to thrill," Phil Rudd, the drummer for legendary rock band AC/DC, appears to be on the "highway to hell," or at least prison.

The occasion for all of these puns is Rudd's alleged hiring of a hit man to assassinate two unknown men. Police raide​d the 60-year-old's home at 7 AM yesterday and he appeared in court that same morning dressed in a gray sweater and jeans. Rudd was also charged with possession of meth and weed. He won't enter a plea until November 27, but fac​es up to ten years in prison if convicted. It's unclear, ahem, "who phoned the law."

OK, we'll stop now.

AC/DC, the band that got Rudd into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, is releasing a new album called Rock or Bust on December 2 and touring in support of that record, and the other band members plan to go on with those plans. "We've only become aware of Phil's arrest as the news was breaking," AC/DC said in a statement that showed a fair bit of "stiff upper lip" (sorry). "Phil's absence will not affect the release of our new album Rock or Bust and upcoming tour next year."

As the drummer for AC/DC from 1972 to 1983 and 1994 to today, Rudd's considered an integral part of the group, not to mention its only Australian member. (Founder and rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young had to leave the band this year and is reportedly seek​ing treatment for dementia in Sydney. It has been a bad year for the band.) Like most people who are in rock bands with "edgy" images, Rudd has had trouble with the law—in 2010 his lawyer g​ot a pot possession conviction suppressed on the grounds that it would prevent him from touring with AC/DC in places like Japan, Canada, and the US—but he's never gotten into the sort of almost made-for-TV situation he finds himself in now.

As their favorite band falling apart at the seams, panicked fan​s are already hypothesizing online about who will replace Rudd. But it seems like there's been a rift between the band and its drummer for a while: Rudd ​was absent from two video shoots in October, and later that month an official p​hoto was released without him in it.

The charges will presumably officially end Rudd's tenure with AC/DC no matter how this case plays out. The rocker, who came out with a solo record titled Head Job in August, was released on bail and  ​picked up from court by a blond woman in a silver Merce​des.

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