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Title: AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd rocks the high-rollers
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URL Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/art ... c9af1c58dc0b377f44747a1ee38d4c
Published: Oct 24, 2014
Author: LEX HALL
Post Date: 2014-10-24 18:33:10 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 1147
Comments: 3
The Sightgeist: Jon Kudelka Source: TheAustralian IF you’re looking for some masochistic pleasure in these straitened times you need only peruse the Forbes rich list to see that the rich are getting farcically richer. Microsoft founder Bill Gates still reigns. His fortune now tops $80 billion. With help from his investment guru, former bond-fund manager Michael Larson, Gates added $9bn to the kitty last year. While Gates is renowned for giving away his money, the goodwill we feel towards him is somewhat tainted when you consider how the black art of high-end investment can generate such gargantuan sums in such a little time. As business site GuruFocus puts it, “Few people know much about Mr Gates’s assets or Mr Larson’s tactics — and the two men want to keep it that way.” Another man with a goodish pile, although he’s far from reaching Gates’s fiscal stratosphere, is Phil Rudd, the drummer in AC/DC, one of the highest grossing bands of all time. And in contrast to Gates and Larson, he is refreshingly forthcoming about his fiscal philosophy. He works hard for his money, and he works hard at spending it. “When I came back from the last tour I was richer than I had ever been,” he said in a recent interview in his new home in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty. “I bought $9 million worth of cars in one year.” AC/DC is renowned as a metronome-perfect, meat-and-potatoes rock band. And Rudd has come to epitomise that image. Normally media shy, he is promoting his first solo album. Its title is Head Job, but don’t bother looking for any quaint irony. It’s just a straightforward lyric about a man getting whacked over the head. And this candour gives him a lot of larrikin appeal, so it’s a safe bet that hearing him reveal his growing wealth provokes no feelings of envy or resentment among his legion of flannelette-wearing, Victoria Bitter-sipping fans. In an age when the operations of high earners are becoming increasingly mysterious, they’re probably rejoicing with him. The media, however, seems reluctant to come to the party. The most striking part of Rudd’s interview is not the reporter’s appreciation of his blunt irreverence or the quality of what is a pretty good record, full of muscular riffs that recall Rose Tattoo’s early work. Call me cynical, but the reporter seemed more interested in painting Rudd as reckless high-roller. “Phil is quite successful,” the reporter quips, as he watches Rudd roll up in his matt-black Lamborghini. “He has made a lot of money, which he prefers to spend rather than invest.” Curious turn of phrase. (Rudd, after all, owns a sheep farm and restaurant.) Unwittingly or not, it suggests a moral subtext: behold another artist “blowing” his hard-earned. It may be a long way to the top if you want to rock ’n’ roll, but once there it’s easy to get shot down in flames. While he bristles at the implication, Rudd, in fact, comes across as somewhat of an old-fashioned fiscal moralist. To hear him eschew talk of investing is almost like hearing a modern-day Cato, putting usury in the same realm as murder. “People say, ‘Invest your money,’” Rudd says. “I say, ‘F..k off, mate, I earn my money. I’m not gonna gamble it somewhere. It’s in the bank. It’s gonna stay there until I spend it. I’m not gonna give it to someone else to make more money with it.” Rudd doesn’t hide the fact his music has generated vast sums, nor does he pretend to live modestly or intellectualise what he does. As far as he’s concerned the market has, for 40 years, valued his labour and creativity. The entertainment value of the interview lies no doubt in its incongruity: hearing a grizzled old rock star express disdain, in his own philosophical way, for the art of using money to accrue more money. Whereas Rudd’s labour is tangible he, perhaps short-sightedly, sees investment as a cheap, labour-free ride to riches; in other words, and as he says, he sees it as gambling. There was, however, one pertinent question: in light of rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young succumbing to dementia: was AC/DC up to another album? “If the Stones can do it, anyone can.”
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Good read, Stoney. I'd have to agree with Rudd's philosophy. Buy something tangible with that money. Something you can touch or hold. Have something to show for your hard work. Electronic money can disappear with the push of a button. Tangible assets can't.
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#2. To: Logsplitter (#1)
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