AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has pleaded not guilty to breaching his home detention sentence.
The troubled musician was arrested for drinking alcohol last month but has insisted he did not break the terms of his sentence, eight days after he was given an eight-month home detention sentence for drug possession and making threats to kill.
A New Zealand judge has allowed the 61-year-old star to remain in home confinement on bail until a hearing on the breach in November, although could face harsher sanctions including jail time if he is found guilty.
But Australian-born Phil insisted he wasn’t nervous before entering the courtroom on Monday (03.08.15) because he was unsure what was happening.
Asked if his nerves were getting to him, he told reporters: "No, the only thing I’m nervous about is I don’t, I don’t actually don’t know what’s going on."
His erratic behaviour outside the courtroom has become a regular occurrence as his case has unfolded, raising his middle finger to journalists on one occasion and jumping on the back of a security guard on another.
And although he has played shows with the band numerous times, Phil has not been invited on AC/DC’s current tour, with his former bandmate Angus Young revealing they haven’t spoken to him since their ‘Black Ice World Tour’ ended in 2010.
Asked if the drummer could make a comeback, he previously said: "It would take a while. From where he’s at right now, he won’t be able to come back soon.
"We didn’t see that [criminal conviction] coming. Phil was kicked out of the band before, but you don’t realise what someone’s getting into at the time. Everyone was on board for the world tour, and then for ages it was very hard to get hold of Phil. The last time we saw him, which was during the tour for ‘Black Ice’, he seemed all right."
AC/DC’s Phil Rudd pleads not guilty to home detention breach
