Troubled AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was taken into custody Thursday for violating his bail conditions. Charged with threatening murder and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana, Rudd posted bail Tuesday after a bizarre hearing last week. On Thursday, he violated a court order to avoid contact with police witnesses in the case and was subsequently taken in.
Rudd was at a coffee shop outside of Tauranga Girls’ College when, according to his lawyer Craig Tuck, he had a “chance meeting” with “somebody he wasn’t meant to associate with.” According to New Zealand’s Stuff magazine, the man was apparently a former security guard for the AC/DC musician.
A witness reported that the man told Rudd, “I don’t work for you anymore,” at which point Rudd got in the man’s face. The man then pushed Rudd in the chest, who then “fell backwards over our sign and landed in the cafe,” a staff member at the shop said. “There was food and stuff everywhere.” Another witness told The New Zealand Herald that Rudd was “out and bloody dancing around and carrying on” before being handcuffed by police.
The security guard is a witness in the case against Rudd, so the incident put the drummer in violation of his bail’s non-contact condition. He was taken to court, where his lawyer sought re-admission of the bail. Solicitor Greg Hollister-Jones obliged with the addition of a new condition banning Rudd from consuming illegal drugs as “Rudd’s behaviour had been erratic and it would help to manage his complacence with all this bail conditions.” The judge granted Hollister-Jones’ request, and Rudd was once again out on bail.
Rudd is next set to appear in court on February 10th for a case review hearing. As for his bandmates, they recently admitted to having strained ties with their drummer, who appears on their new album Rock or Bust. They plan to tour behind the record next year, though whether Rudd will be with them remains up in the air.