Phil Is NOT Happy!
Phil Rudd may not be the technically flashy drummer in the world, and his drumming is known to be pretty straight-forward, it goes without saying that his drumming was arguably the foundation for one of the (if not THE) greatest rock bands in the world, AC/DC. While other bands would try to impress with their wizard-like technical ability, AC/DC stuck true to themselves and performed consistently awesome music that is and always will timeless.
Despite this truth, there have been to judge and over-criticize Phil’s saying that it’s ‘too simple’ or ‘too easy’ etc. Well, if you’re one of those people, then Phil’s got some tough words for you!
In an interview with Rhythm Magazine, Phil Rudd responds to his critics claiming that he had an ‘easy gig’.
“If you think it’s easy you start playing it! It’s good to play stuff that’s hard to play. If it sounds like it’s easy to play then you’re not playing the right thing and you should play something else. You can’t just fuckin’ play, with that song Let There Be Rock you’re always working thanks to those railroad tracks of guitar strings that Malcolm used to use.”
“I set up a couple of guitars with strings that size while we were recording the new album, no one could fuckin’ play them! Malcolm played those guitars every single night. You can’t make things easy for yourself, you have to keep on working and that keeps you real.”
“It’s hard work to play that one, especially live. We would always play that towards the end of the show. So by the time that one came around I’d already have had an hour and a half of slogging my guts out. You’d think, ‘What shall we do now, something easy? Nah, let’s do something fuckin’ harder!’ That’s all good character building stuff though.”
Upon reading his words, I myself was curious to see what people’s reactions to his words would be, and I couldn’t help but notice that they were still hyper-critical of his playing saying that ‘anyone could do it. In my humble opinion, Phil Rudd was the foundation of the AC/DC, always consistent, always on time, and always holding it down. His timing and precision are impeccable and if you ask me, He’s one of the best drummers… in the world!