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AC/DC Drummer Phil Rudd Sentenced Over Threat to Kill Assistant

The judge even criticized Phil Rudd's drumming in sentencing him to eight months of home detention for threatening to kill his ex-personal assistant.
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Former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd isn't just a bad guy — but also a so-so musician, a New Zealand judge said Thursday (local time) in sentencing him to eight months of home detention for threatening to kill his ex-personal assistant.

Rudd, 61, will be monitored round the clock and must also undergo rehab, the national newspaper agency Fairfax Media and the national broadcaster TV New Zealand reported.

Rudd was arrested late last year and pleaded guilty in April to "threatening to kill" and possession of methamphetamine and cannabis. AC/DC announced after his arrest that he wouldn't be joining the band for its current tour.

Tauranga District Judge Thomas Ingram noted that Rudd had reconciled with his ex-assistant — who hasn't been identified under New Zealand law — and had even paid him an undisclosed settlement. But he said Rudd's pattern of behavior and the sheer amount of drugs he was found with meant he couldn't go Scot free.

Rudd's lawyers had asked that he be discharged because he could lose millions of dollars by missing AC/DC's future tour dates. But Ingram said that not only was there no evidence that the band wanted him back but that AC/DC was also doing just fine without him.

After all, he said, "Queen replaced Freddie Mercury."