“Back up. I don’t want to break your face.” That’s what an eyewitness to Phil Rudd’s argument outside a coffee shop said the AC/DC drummer was warned before being taken away by police. The New Zealand Herald reports that the owner of Columbus Coffee cafe in Gate Pa, Tauranga, Leo Rojas, witnessed the scuffle, in which a man thought to be Rudd’s former security guard threatened the drummer, who was much smaller than the other guy:
“I thought the big guy was trying to abuse an old man. Then I released it was the old man trying to fight the big guy.”
Mr Rojas initially tried to separate the pair, then fell back, at which point the warning was issued.
“The big guy lost his cool. He pushed Phil really strongly. Phil fell to the floor.”
While the larger man tried to make it to his car, Mr Rojas said the altercation continued.“Then the big guy pushed him to the floor again. Phil shouted out ‘that’s why you don’t work with the mafia’. It was weird.
“The big guy is saying ‘Phil, get out of my way. That’s why I don’t work for you anymore.’
“Phil was saying motherf***er’.”
Mr Rojas said Rudd’s bodyguard then tried to hold his employer back to allow the larger man to get to his car.
“Phil started punching and kicking his own bodyguard, which I don’t understand.”
The police were called and found Rudd walking along a road, where he was handcuffed and taken to a police station. Rudd was bailed out without being charged , but only on condition that he not consume illicit substances. According to the Herald, that further condition was made because Rudd’s behavior has been erratic. Ya don’t say?
