AC/DC have released a short snippet of audio of the band rehearsing for next month's Power Trip festival in California, and it's not Phil Rudd behind the kit.
"PWR UP for Power Trip!" say the band. "Listen to the rehearsal of the boys powering up with Cliff Williams, who's coming out of retirement for the festival and Matt Laug on drums."
Laug is the drummer in The Dirty Knobs, the band formed by former Tom Petty sideman Mike Campbell, and has previously played with the likes of Alice Cooper, Slash's Snakepit and Alanis Morissette (he played on the latter's multi-million-selling Jagged Little Pill album). He also contributed to Beth Hart's Tribute To Led Zeppelin album.
Laug also appears to be something of an AC/DC superfan, annually sharing posts on his Facebook page celebrating the birthdays of Angus Young and Bon Scott. He's also a Rudd fan: in 2014, when police in New Zealand dropped charges against the drummer, he shared the story and wrote "F**KING AWESOME NEWS!", and in 2018 he shared a picture of a 'Play Drums With The Best Of AC/DC' CD set alongside the message "My pocket troubles are over!" and the hashtags #philrudd and #goat.
In 2001, Laug supported AC/DC as part of Slash's Snakepit, on the North American and European legs of the Stiff Upper Lip tour.
The Power Trip festival is scheduled to take place on October 6-8 at the Empire Polo Club (home of the Coachella Festival) in Indio, California, with a line-up starring Guns N’ Roses and Iron Maiden (Friday, October 6), AC/DC and Judas Priest (Saturday, October 7) and Metallica and Tool (Sunday, October 8).
