Chris Slade recently looked back on how AC/DC asked him to stay on as a backup for Phil Rudd in 1994 during an appearance on ‘1 Question With.’ Asked if he felt insulted by the offer, the drummer said:
“Sort of, yes. I wasn’t very happy about it. Who would be, right? They wanted to keep me on in case. Malcolm called me actually. And was a very nice guy.”
Slade was the drummer on AC/DC’s 1990 album ‘The Razors Edge’ and its supporting tour. He was asked to stick around by Malcolm Young in case things didn’t work out with Rudd, who was fired in 1983:
“He called me personally, not a manager or anything, and he said ‘Look, it’s nothing bad.’ I remember it very well. ‘There’s nothing you are doing or have not done, but we’re going to try Phil out again, OK?’ And I said, ‘Oh, well, that’s it. I’m gone.’ Then he said, ‘No, no. We’d like you to stay around.’ I said ‘No. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, Malcolm.’”
Slade Is Willing To Return
Phil Rudd stopped touring with AC/DC last year, and the band hired Matt Laug in his place. Chris Slade celebrated the new drummer on social media by writing:
“I know Matt as a very nice guy from my days of living in California. He is a very capable, teetotal drummer and will put the drums exactly where Angus wants them… At the back of the stage. I wish him the best of luck!”
AC/DC kicked off a new tour – their first since 2016 – with Laug in May 2024. Meanwhile, Slade said in a previous interview that he was open to playing with the band again. His words to ‘Rock Camp: The Podcast’ read:
“Of course, I know I would’ve done it. I can’t walk, but I can play drums. [Laughs] I don’t think Angus [Young] believes that, but who knows? I’d probably play it more like Phil does these days, not like Chris Slade did in the ’90s. I would’ve been interested, definitely. But that’s the way it rolls, you know.”
The ‘Highway to Hell’ group will wrap up their 24-date European tour in Ireland on August 17.