AC DC star Angus Young has joked about his bandmate Phil Rudd's legal problems and compared the troubled drummer to movie gangster Scarface.

Rudd hit headlines across the globe earlier this month (Nov14) when he was arrested in New Zealand and accused of plotting to have two men killed.

The murder-for-hire accusation was dropped a day after his court appearance, but Rudd still faces charges of drug possession and threatening to kill.

His bandmate Angus Young has now made light of his colleague's situation, revealing he "fell out of bed" when he heard the news, and even compares Rudd to Al Pacino's murderous Tony Montana character in 1983 mob movie Scarface.

When asked about the alleged murder plot during an interview with shock jock Howard Stern on his Sirius Xm radio show, Young replies, "That was Tony Montana, Scarface... Well with rock drummers they come with a safety belt and a straitjacket... I fell out of bed actually (when I heard the news) - my wife woke me up and said, 'Hey, hey... Phil's been up to no good'... When you're in a rock and roll band you move to the front, you never look what's going on behind you."

The conversation later turned serious when Stern asked Young whether Rudd is still in the band. The rocker replies, "We've got to resolve that," before lead singer Brian Johnson adds, "The thing is, I don't think we have to do any firing or anything like that. I think the situation is going to take care of itself. He's got himself into a pickle and there's nothing we can do about it. We're talking about criminal courts here and we're talking about judges... we're talking about juries... People are saying 'You're not getting your passport back'. We are going to go on tour and nothing is going to stop us."