Former AC/DC drummer Chris Slade announces his retirement
"With a heavy heart, it's bye for now."
Last updated 17 hours ago
Former AC/DC member Chris Slade has announced his retirement from drumming.
The Pontypridd-born Welsh rocker shared a video to his band The Chris Slade Timeline’s Facebook page on Saturday (22nd August) confirming he’s hanging up his drumsticks for good.
"Hello, everybody. It's with a heavy heart that I'm announcing my retirement from drumming,” 79-year-old Slade said.
"I'm near enough 80 years old. I've been drumming professionally since I was 16 with Tom Jones. I've had a good innings. And thank you all for coming to the shows. And I'd like to thank my band also, The Chris Slade Timeline, and all you lot for coming to the shows and having a good time.
“We know you have, because you told us you have, which was, to get that feedback, is great. So please stay on The Chris Slade Timeline on Facebook because I'll be posting, we'll be posting stuff from now and again to try to keep you interested.”
Slade went on to reveal that health issues are behind his decision, explaining: "So, what happened was that I had a stroke, as you probably know, about seven years ago. A small stroke, but it's got worse and I'm afraid that has screwed me up.
“I'm really jealous of people like The Stones or Paul McCartney who are going well into their 80s, and I wanted to do that. But it looks like I can't. So, as I say, with a heavy heart, it's bye for now."
Chris Slade was also a member of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band from its inception in 1971 to 1978, and he’s played with Michael Schenker, Toomorrow, Gary Numan, Uriah Heep, David Gilmour, The Firm, Gary Moore, Asia and the aforementioned Tom Jones.
He joined AC/DC in 1989 and played on their 12th studio album ‘The Razor’s Edge’, which features one of the band’s defining anthems ‘Thunderstruck’, before departing in 1994.
In 2015, he returned to AC/DC for the Rock or Bust World Tour as Phil Rudd was embroiled in legal problems in New Zealand.