AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd is set to learn his fate after he was charged with threatening to kill and drug possession in New Zealand.
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In April, Rudd, 61, pleaded guilty to charges of making murder threats and possession of methamphetamine and cannabis.
Police raided Rudd’s Bureta home on November 6 and found 0.487grams of methamphetamine and 91grams of cannabis.
The 61-year-old drummer was sentenced in Tauranga District Court on New Zealand’s North Island on Thursday.
The BBC adds that he had originally faced a jail term of up to seven years for the threat charges. The judge was unmoved by the drummer’s argument that the convictions would hurt his chances of playing with AC/DC again.
AC/DC went on 55-show concert tour in May without Rudd, promoting their 2014 album “Rock or Bust“.
Rudd has lived within the seaside metropolis of Tauranga, about 200 km (one hundred twenty five miles) southeast of Auckland, since he was sacked from the heavy metallic band in 1983.
He said a conviction might result in Phil Rudd losing tens of millions of dollars in future earnings, and asked for a discharge without conviction.
Judge Thomas Ingram dismissed this, though accepted that Rudd had reconciled with the victim and paid compensation.
The whole things started in August when Rudd threw a party at his marina restaurant, Phil’s Place, to mark his solo album Head Job’s launch.
When charges were first filed against Rudd in November, interest in his case reportedly prompted a bump in sales for “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”, the band’s classic song about a hit man vaunting his services.
Lawyer Craig Tuck says whole thing just an mad phone call and they’ll be looking into damages.
“You know who your friends are don’t you”, he said.
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Rudd is not now a member of AC/DC, one of the world’s biggest rock bands, and has not been invited to join them on their tour of New Zealand and Australia later this year.
