Just as it looked as if AC/DC were on the verge of becoming extinct through a combination of age, illness and death, the legendary heavy-rockers are now rumoured to be planning a new project together, possibly a new album, after former frontman Brian Johnson and ex-drummer Phil Rudd were spotted together.

Over the past three years, lead singer Johnson was forced to quit the band in 2016, for touring purposes at least, after suffering severe damage to his hearing, while sticksman Rudd departed the year previously under a cloud of criminal charges and legal problems.

All of this was on top of the death of founding member and guitarist Malcolm Young in November last year, making his brother Angus the only original member of AC/DC left.

Brian JohnsonBrian Johnson performing live in early 2016

However, it now appears that bygones might be bygones regarding Johnson and Rudd, after the pair were spotted together outside the band’s Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, Canada, where the group have recorded all of their albums from the previous 20 years.

More: Brian Johnson details why he left AC/DC tour, and discusses possible future with the band [archive]

Vancouver music site The Straight claims the rest of the band are in the studio, too, quoting a local who said he had spoken to AC/DC drummer Stevie Young.

“The guy tells me that he had a quick chat with a couple of members of AC/DC in downtown Vancouver this morning,” the website’s Steve Newton claimed.

“One of the rockers that he talked to was Stevie Young, Angus Young’s nephew, who took over the rhythm-guitar spot in AC/DC from Angus’s brother Malcolm in 2014… the other rocker my source talked to was none other than, get this: Phil Rudd! Yes, Phil Rudd, the long-time AC/DC drummer who was himself replaced behind the kit by Chris “Thunderstruck” Slade in 2015.”

AC/DC last released an album, Rock Or Bust, in November 2014, with the accompanying world tour ending in September 2016 with Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose taking over from Johnson on vocals.

More: AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd pleads not guilty to home detention breach [archive]