Chris Slade takes us on a thunderous journey through his remarkable time as the drummer for AC/DC. Chris pulls back the curtain on the band’s creative process, revealing how rock legends Angus and Malcolm Young crafted drum demos to guide him. He shares exhilarating stories from massive shows, including the legendary Monsters of Rock Festival in Moscow in 1991, where the energy was palpable. Slade also describes into his dramatic return to AC/DC in 2015 following Phil Rudd’s departure, recounting the adrenaline rush of his first gig back with the band at the Grammys. Plus, he offers a behind-the-scenes look at the surprising addition of Axl Rose during the Rock or Bust World Tour, adding another chapter to the story of one of rock’s greatest bands.
You’ve been playing live with The Chris Slade Timeline for over a decade. Did it feel like the right time to release your ‘Timescape’ album given this is your first major release as a group?
We’ve been recording for probably eight out of the ten years, when it took our fancy. This was a concerted effort and it was all of last year, really, all of 2023 and beyond. Some of the songs have been going around in my head for a long time. So to get them out was great and I’m very pleased with the result. There’s two sides to the CD. One is originals. The second CD is about the stuff we do on stage. Being The Chris Slade Timeline, the things that are there include ‘Thunderstruck’.
You played with Gary Moore before AC/DC, was it the same management?
Same manager, Stuart Young, no relation to Angus and Malcolm Young. I still had to audition for AC/DC, and I was told after I was number 100, out of 100. That was in England, really top drummers showed up. Not the same day as me.
Versatility again.
I don’t know. They weren’t after versatility.
No but I mean you were able to hit a particular style.
To go from soul stuff with Tom Jones to AC/DC is a bit of a leap for some people.
I don’t know many drummers with the range.
I don’t know about that, but I’m very pleased that I’ve got the range to play it. You know, I can play ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting, you know, as successfully and as fluidly as I can go boom bap, boom bap, boom bap, boom bap. The thing is, you’ve got to feel it, and you have to have a great feel playing it. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. It’s very hard to define feel, actually.
How did it work with AC/DC? There seems to be incredible power behind the kit that you had to do. How directing was the rest of the group or Angus to how you should play, say compared to Gary Moore? Drum patterns.
Angus plays drums and so did Malcolm. Genius, actually, Malcolm. The best rhythm player, I think, ever. I’ve never worked with better and I’ve worked with a lot. So they both played drums. Angus still does. And so they’d do a demo and your job was to play that demo, the same feel and I wouldn’t say fills because there aren’t hardly any. So you play the same things as they play on the demos. They used to alternate, this is me playing this and they still do that today.
It’s the way I’m sure that Phil would have played. He would have learned the songs, and maybe worked it up in the beginning from nothing. But after that, Angus and Mal took over all the parts. And the strange thing was when we recorded demos, I think Angus would play bass and Malcolm guitar.
So a very self-contained unit really. If you could double them up
Yeah, like all good musicians, they can play anything. I can’t play anything, just drums. [laughs]
The first album that you were on was ‘The Razor’s Edge’ and one of the big tracks was ‘Thunderstruck’.
Which is fantastic.
You do a version of that on the Timeline album.
That is on the album. The record company wanted AC/DC on it, and we had it in the can because over the last 10 years we recorded whatever we do on stage in a studio. So I knew it would come in handy one day. We’ve still got a lot of it in the can in the studio. So I was very pleased to be able to use it. So it is on the album. There’s quite a few things on there.
You did some huge shows with AC/DC. Do you remember, going to Moscow in 1991 for the Monsters of Rock Festival.
That was over a million people.
[laughs] You can’t comprehend it.
It’s big enough doing Download, that’s huge when you see the crowd. But this crowd went over the horizon because it was a disused airfield in Moscow from the Second World War.
Just a strip of concrete as the runway. That’s where it was, because the show was on the runway, on the stage. And the speakers were staggered all the way back for like half a mile or a mile. But it was over a million people and people were asked by the government, who did they want to see? Do you want to see the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, who? They went for AC/DC in a vote.
You’re a young Russian coming out of Communism. The idea of seeing AC/DC, ‘Back In Black’ and ‘Highway To Hell’. It’s a perfect fit, isn’t it?
Yeah, you can’t beat them live, you just cannot. It’s impossible. People have tried. The Stones tried it after I was with them, with Phil Rudd playing drums. AC/DC play for a minimum of two hours every night.
The Stones gave them like an hour and 20. I think Phil Rudd famously said, you don’t give AC/DC an hour and 20 minutes. They tore the place apart. It was a Canadian gig, I think, and a huge stadium. That’s the biggest one in the world. It holds about 150 ,000 people. They did so well, AC/DC, in that show that the Stones couldn’t go on for about an hour or three hours. It was a huge gap between the two of them. I saw the Stones a couple of years ago in Paris, actually, and they were really good. I was surprised because I saw them in the 60s and I wasn’t that impressed.
They matured well, the Stones.
Yeah, they have matured well and matured is the word. They’re older than me.
So by the mid 90s Phil came back into AC/DC and after that you went into Asia.
Yeah, believe it or not, they wrote to me. No phone call, no email. Asia wrote a letter because they didn’t know how to get hold of me. Somebody knew my address and there was no other way to contact me.
You got a letter, opened it and it said “Do you want to play with Asia?”.
Yes, I did. Honestly, I probably still got it somewhere. I couldn’t believe it. Like, oh, this would be good. Yeah, of course I’d like to do it.
About a decade after that, Phil didn’t play with AC/DC and you were brought back in. That must have been a surprise.
It was a massive surprise. People were saying to me, “Have you heard anything?” And I’d go, “No, look, they’re not going to ring me.”. And then they did. I was on the road with Timeline in Switzerland and the tour manager came looking at me like, come on, you’re late. I pointed my mobile to the man and went [mouthing] “AC/DC”. And then went, “Oh, okay, okay. Take your time, take your time.” [laughs[
Did you have much notice? Because you were playing live dates.
No notice. I genuinely was not expecting it. So that was a huge surprise. Very nice though, to be asked back in the band.
I don’t know if it was relatively soon after, you’re playing at the Grammys with them.
That was my first gig.
That was your first gig?!
Yeah, so we’d done rehearsals and I said to the manager, “How many people are gonna watch this?” He said, “Oh, about 800 million, I think.” I said, “What?”. He said, “No, it’s okay, it’s only eight million.” I said, “Oh, thank God for that.” [laughs] Tom Jones was at that Grammy show.
Did you get to see Tom? That must have been amazing.
Tom and his son were in the audience. I could see them. They were standing at the front.
That must have added something to that moment.
Yeah, it’s bizarre, there’s Tom and his son Mark, who’s his manager, watching me play drums with AC/DC, a hundred years after I’d left home! [laughs]
Then Brian left because he was having issues with his hearing and then a bit out of left field, Axl Rose joined. But that worked surprisingly well.
I was amazed, actually, Axl’s voice. I didn’t know he could sing like that. Honestly, I didn’t. I just heard his Guns N’ Roses sort of voice.
I couldn’t see it, but it works.
I couldn’t see it. Then I met him and shook his hand. And I thought this guy’s all right. He was always telling jokes. Always. I’ve heard all the horror stories, everybody has. But he was never late. He used to warm up for two hours every day, warm down for two hours every day. I knew that because he was in the room next to me.
Do you think it was because he hero worshiped AC/DC. So it was a privilege for him.
I think it was. He felt that way, definitely. He asked Angus if we could do ‘Touch Too Much’, for instance, and ‘If You Want Blood’. He asked Angus, “Do you know that? Can we do that?” Angus said, “Well, we don’t know it, but we will by next week”, which we did. “Touch Too Much” is one of my favourite songs, actually.
It was digging back to some of the Bon Scott material.
Yes, I think Axl was a huge Bon fan, as well as AC/DC, of course, as a band. But Bon Scott was a one -off, wasn’t he?
Absolutely. An incredible front man.
And as a writer too, all that older stuff.
Further information
The Chris Slade Timeline – Timescape Exclusive Pre Sale
