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"Phil Rudd, the beleaguered former AC/DC&amp;#xA0;drummer who pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill and possession of marijuana and methamphetamine earlier this year, was sentenced to eight months of home detention by a New Zealand judge.\r\n\r\nThe judgment came down Thursday afternoon local time in a harsh admonition by Judge Thomas Ingram, who appeared to downplay Rudd&amp;apos;s nebulous role in AC/DC. &amp;quot;Queen replaced Freddie Mercury,&amp;quot; Ingram said, according to Stuff.co.nz. &amp;quot;AC/DC are still going on without you. Your place in the band for the moment does not exist, and will not exist until you address your addiction issues.\r\n&amp;quot;The reality, Mr Rudd, is this. I consider you badly need help with your drug problem and I consider the best way to deal with that is to give you the sentence I&amp;apos;ve given you here,&amp;quot; Ingram added, according to the Bay of Plenty Times&amp;#xA0;in New Zealand.\r\nRudd will be monitored 24 hours a day in his Tauranga, New Zealand home, with Ingram telling the drummer that he will be sent to prison should he violate the terms of his detention.&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;I stone cold guarantee that&amp;apos;s where you&amp;apos;ll end up,&amp;quot; Ingram said. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m not your&amp;#xA0;headmaster; I&amp;apos;m not your father. I&amp;apos;m a judge.&amp;quot;&amp;#xA0;\r\n&amp;quot;I understand,&amp;quot; Rudd said repeatedly, according to Stuff.&amp;#xA0;Rudd had faced a maximum of seven years in prison on the charges.\r\nRudd, whom Ingram called a&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;relatively fragile man who has felt bound to live the rock star lifestyle,&amp;quot; will face time in prison if caught with drugs or alcohol, according to Television New Zealand, and must also complete a rehabilitation program. &amp;quot;There is simply no place to hide,&amp;quot; Ingram said.\r\nA representative for the band declined to comment, but Rudd&amp;apos;s lawyer, Craig Tuck, tells Rolling Stone that he has already filed an appeal on behalf of the drummer.\r\n&amp;quot;We will be appealing the conviction and sentence as it was manifestly excessive,&amp;quot; Tuck says.\r\nThursday&amp;apos;s sentencing is the latest update in a case&amp;#xA0;that began last November when Rudd was arrested&amp;#xA0;for attempting to procure a murder, threatening to kill and drug charges. One day later, prosecutors dropped the murder procurement charge&amp;#xA0;due to &amp;quot;insufficient evidence,&amp;quot; but continued prosecuting the other charges.\r\n&amp;quot;Mr. Rudd has suffered unnecessary and extremely damaging publicity as a result of widespread and sensational reporting of a very serious allegation, which on any basis was never justified,&amp;quot; Rudd&amp;apos;s original lawyer Paul Mabey said at the time. &amp;quot;The damage to Mr. Rudd is incalculable.&amp;quot; Mabey would eventually&amp;#xA0;part ways with Rudd&amp;#xA0;in February, stating&amp;#xA0;only,&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s just a professional decision that we have made.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nRudd originally&amp;#xA0;pleaded not guilty&amp;#xA0;to all charges, but changed his plea to guilty&amp;#xA0;in April.&amp;#xA0;Tuck had unsuccessfully argued for Rudd&amp;apos;s discharge without conviction when facing&amp;#xA0;Judge Ingram.\r\nThe details of the case painted Rudd as a musician unhappy with the release and reception of his 2014 solo album Head Job.&amp;#xA0;The drummer asked that his former security guard-turned-personal assistant be &amp;quot;taken out&amp;quot; following the failure of the album, according to a summary of facts presented. The release of that album &amp;quot;didn&amp;apos;t go well,&amp;quot; which infuriated Rudd to the point where he fired much of his staff, including the assistant. On September 25th, Rudd phoned an unnamed associate&amp;#xA0;and asked&amp;#xA0;if they would murder his former assistant in exchange for $200,000, a car, a motorbike or&amp;#xA0;a house.\r\nThe following day, Rudd made several threatening phone calls to his former assistant, culminating in one call where the drummer stated, &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m going to come over and kill you.&amp;quot; Earlier reports stated that Rudd threatened both the personal assistant and the man&amp;apos;s young daughter, but a&amp;#xA0;second threatening to kill charge was dismissed in April.\r\nThe drug charges stem from 91 grams of marijuana police found while searching Rudd&amp;apos;s property alongside&amp;#xA0;methamphetamine Rudd had in his pockets.\r\nIn May, Rudd broke his silence&amp;#xA0;in an interview with Australia&amp;apos;s&amp;#xA0;A Current Affair.&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;I&amp;apos;ve seen the error of my ways,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;Onward and upward from here.&amp;#xA0;You make your own mistakes and it was a mistake of the charges. We all make mistakes.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nAmidst the whole arrest and trial, AC/DC had prepped and released their latest album,&amp;#xA0;Rock or Bust. &amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;Phil&amp;#x2019;s absence will not affect the release of our new album Rock or Bust&amp;#xA0;and upcoming tour next year,&amp;quot; the band told&amp;#xA0;Rolling Stone after the drummer&amp;apos;s arrest.&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;I want my job back, I want my reputation back and I&amp;apos;m gonna get it back,&amp;quot; Rudd said in December. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m gonna fucking take it back.&amp;quot;\r\nDespite Rudd&amp;apos;s insistence that he was &amp;quot;fit and ready to go&amp;quot; on tour, the group enlisted&amp;#xA0;Chris Slade, who played on AC/DC&amp;apos;s The Razors Edge, single &amp;quot;Big Gun&amp;quot; and early Nineties live albums, for both live shows&amp;#xA0;and television appearances. The group&amp;#xA0;kicked off this year&amp;apos;s Grammys&amp;#xA0;with Slade behind the kit.\r\nRudd said he&amp;apos;d tried to get in contact with his bandmates, to no avail. &amp;quot;They haven&amp;apos;t called me,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I wrote them a letter and I tried to get in touch with [guitarist] Angus [Young] and no contact. I&amp;apos;m very disappointed, yeah. But that&amp;apos;s life.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;quot;I&amp;apos;ve seen him in better shape,&amp;quot; Young told Rolling Stone&amp;#xA0;following Rudd&amp;apos;s arrest.&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;It was not the Phil we had known, after we had finished the last tour. He&amp;apos;d let himself go.&amp;quot; Young admitted that&amp;#xA0;Rudd&amp;apos;s arrest was &amp;quot;a big blow to us,&amp;quot; but added, &amp;quot;We will definitely be out there. We are committed to this.&amp;quot;\r\nRudd became AC/DC&amp;apos;s drummer in 1975 and stayed with the band until 1983, moving to Tauranga after leaving the group. He rejoined AC/DC in 1994 and had been a permanent member ever since.\r\n&amp;quot;This has just been a big ball of cheese, and all the rats are gathering and having a piece,&amp;quot; Rudd said of the charges in December. &amp;quot;That&amp;apos;s just life. But that&amp;apos;s not who I am. Everyone listens to the wrong people. They should listen to me. I&amp;apos;m a good guy.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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