Ratt
Ratt | |
|---|---|
| File:ClassicRatt2.jpg The "classic" lineup of Ratt, 1982-1990. | |
| Background information | |
| Years active | 1978-1992 1997-present |
| Members | Jizzy Pearl Warren DeMartini John Corabi Robbie Crane Bobby Blotzer |
Ratt is an American glam metal band that enjoyed significant commercial success in the 1980s. The band is most famous for one of their hits; Round and Round.
The band has sold an estimated 10 million records in the US alone and 8 million records sold outside the US, the total number of worldwide album sales is approximately 18 million.[1]
They are named #79 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.[1]
Music
Ratt's music was influenced by 1970s hard rock and glam rock bands such as; Aerosmith, Sweet, Van Halen and KISS. They fused this with heavy metal influences from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest.
Though they later incoporated more of a blues sound into their music, the band was one of the first glam metal style groups that appeared in the early 1980s in California.
Their image bore similarities to that of Aerosmith and the New York Dolls.
History
The origins of Ratt go back to 1978 with a San Diego band called Mickey Ratt, which was formed by founding member vocalist Stephen Pearcy. Guitarist Chris Hagar, bassist Matt Thorr, and drummer John Turner, completed the four-piece line-up. Guitarist Jake E. Lee briefly joined in 1980.
In 1980, Mickey Ratt recorded a single called Dr. Rock / Drivin' on E, which was given to fans at early Los Angeles club shows.
By early 1982, the band's name was shortened to Ratt. In 1982, Ratt also included the song Tell the World on the first Metal Massacre album, which is also known as the first album to have a Metallica song (Hit the Lights). After this album release, Jake E. Lee, Chris Hagar, and Matt Thorr all left Ratt to form another band called Rough Cutt. Jake E. Lee was with Mickey Ratt for about a year before joining Ozzy Osbourne's band in October 1982. The three members would be replaced by bassist Juan Croucier (who in 1982 left the band Dokken) and guitarists Robbin Crosby and Warren DeMartini.
By late 1982, the classic Ratt line-up of Stephen Pearcy (vocals), Robbin Crosby (guitar), Warren DeMartini (lead guitar), Juan Croucier (bass guitar), and Bobby Blotzer (drums) was complete.
Ratt EP
In 1983 the band released an independent EP, titled Ratt EP. Designed to draw public attention of the band outside of San Diego, the EP contained the hit "You Think You're Tough" and a cover of Rufus Thomas' hit "Walking the Dog". The song "Back for More" that appeared on the EP was a slightly different vesion of the one that appeared on their follow-up "Out of the Cellar". The EP was a success selling over one million copies and later was certified platinum and fans and critics outside the San Diego area began to take notice of the band. The legs on the album cover are those of model Tawny Kitaen. The EP has been out of print for many years and is today considered a collectors' item.
Out of the Cellar
Ratt's breakthrough album Out of the Cellar was released March 1984. The album was their major label debut and was critically praised by both fans and critics. Out of the Cellar combined the prevalent Van Halen and Aerosmith elements with the staccato guitar-picking style of Judas Priest. Scoring a huge radio and MTV hit with "Round and Round," and minor hits with "Wanted Man," "Back for More," "Lack of Communication and "I'm Insane", and Pearcy's raspy yet bluesy vocals along with the catchy riffs and guitar solos by guitarist Warren DeMartini, also backed up with somewhat comedic music videos with the video for "Round and Round" which became popular and was about a wealthy family getting the worst of the band's mischief and loud music and also featuring comedian Milton Berle who apparently crossdressed in the music video, and the "Back for More" video which had Mötley Crüe members Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee playing as the cops and Berle made the motorcycle crash scene towards the ending of the video, Out of the Cellar became a commercial success, thus selling over three million units and Ratt gained popularity in the USA and Japan, and catapulted the band to a world tour, and sold out stadiums and arenas. The album today is considered to be the band's best album and a glam metal classic.
Tawny Kitaen made another appearence on a Ratt album cover, she would later go on dates with some of the band members, primarily with guitarist Robbin Crosby.
Invasion of Your Privacy
The band's second full-length album Invasion of Your Privacy was released July 1985. The album met mostly positive reaactions from fans and critics. Many called it "another batch of solid pop-metal tunes". [2] However many fans and critics began to take notice that Pearcy's limited vocal range became more apparent. It contained the hits "You're In Love" and "Lay It Down" that assured the band a presence on the radio and MTV. Despite the positive reviews and the hit singles, Invasion of Your Privacy failed to match the commercial success of its predecessor Out of the Cellar and sold over two million copies and was certified double platinum. Warren DeMartini's impressive guitar solos and Stephen Pearcy's dripping-with-sex lyrics helped to further define the Ratt sound.
The model on the album cover is Playmate Marianne Gravatte who also made an appearance in the Lay It Down music video. A model on the album cover would later become a trend that would be copied by many bands throughout the 1980's. The cover was one of the many album covers that received the attention of the PMRC and they would later present it at the Congress hearing on September 19,1985 to put parental advisory label on the album that display inappropriate content. Ratt had never gotten a parental warning label on their albums since their lyrics were appropriate, however some considered the album cover for Invasion of Your Privacy offensive, since it had a half-naked woman.
Dancing Undercover
Ratt's next release was Dancing Undercover in September 1986. The album was a relative disappointment critically and commercially after their two multi-platinum albums with Out of the Cellar and Invasion of Your Privacy, however it still reached platinum sales status by selling over a million copies. It contained the hits "Dance", Slip of the Lip and Body Talk" which was later featured as a soundtrack for the Eddie Murphy film The Golden Child and the song also incoporated more of a thrash metal sound, which led many fans to think that Ratt were going to a more heavy metal direction since the song sounded very similar to other thrash metal bands during the 1980's such as Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer. However that proved to not be the case as the song was probably only experimental and Ratt countinued with their glam metal sound.
The album cover was the first Ratt album to not feature a model of any kind. Instead it had only all five of the band members and showed fans it became more of an adult album and the music videos they used to help promote the album were somewhat less comedic.
Reach for the Sky
The group's follow-up, Reach for the Sky was released November 1988. The album, although earning single platinum status, was widely panned by critics with many complaining for the album being "dumb" and "clichéd".[3] It spawned the hits "Way Cool Jr." and "I Want a Woman". The music video for Way Cool Jr. was widely hailed by Ratt fans with many claiming it was their first comedic music video since the Out of the Cellar videos.
The album cover featured a statue wearing night vision goggles, a hand popping out twine, a World War II fighter plane, and a wicker chair. It is unknown what the album cover is supposed to mean, however many fans believe it is a commentary on society. Early pressings of the album cover revealed the breast part of the statue as requested by lead singer Stephen Pearcy. According to Pearcy, he wanted to use that version of the cover but the band members feared that the version would not get the album into certain music stores. Also the track listing would have been different, it contained "No one Can Stop You Now" (aka "Wishing Well"). Mainly it was the same tracks but in a different order. After the revised album hit the music stores, producer Beau Hill stepped down from producer duties and tensions in the band increased.
Detonator
Ratt's fifth album Detonator was released August 1990. After producer Beau Hill stepped down from being Ratt's producer two years before, Sir Arthur Payson took over as producer for the band. The album met mixed reactions from critics with many saying it lacked the live sounding energy of the band's earlier work.[4] However it received a positive reaction from fans with many saying it was more "hair metalish" than Out of the Cellar and called it another solid glam metal album.[5] Detonator had the hits "Shame Shame Shame" and "Lovin' You's A Dirty Job". Most of the album's songs were co-written by famed songwriter Desmond Child and Jon Bon Jovi of Bon Jovi fame appeared as a guest backround vocalist on "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose". It also became the first Ratt album to not achieve platinum sales status and was instead certified gold, and the fact that it was released on the eve of the grunge explosion in the early 1990's may be the main reason for that. Although the album met overall mixed reviews, five of the album's songs were featured on their greatest hits collection Ratt & Roll 81-91.
Ratt was featured on the first season of MTV Unplugged, sharing the stage with all-female rock band Vixen.
During Ratt's tour to promote their album Detonator, guitarist Robbin Crosby's use of drugs became painfully clear, on one of the shows when the band was performing their biggest hit "Round and Round", Crosby allegedly grabbed the wrong guitar and during the song's guitar solo, every fan in the arena and the band began staring at Crosby since his guitar was way out of tune. After the show Robbin quit the band due to the shame he placed on the band and himself. Guitarist Michael Schenker subsequently played for a short time with the band. In 1991, Ratt became a four piece with the release of Nobody Rides For Free, which appeared on the Point Break soundtrack album. After releasing a compilation album Ratt & Roll 81-91, Pearcy and DeMartini had abruptly left the group after this Ratt went on indefinate hiatus in early 1992.
Post-breakup
Alternative Rock/Grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam became popular and glam metal bands like Ratt were no longer in vogue. Pearcy left the group to form a new hard rock band, Arcade, before moving on to another new band, the industrial-tinged trio called Vertex. Blotzer and Croucier both started to live more normal lives outside the public eye and the two of them became producers for underground bands. While DeMartini issued a two solo albums titled Surf's Up! in 1995 and Crazy Enough to Sing to You in 1996, while the rest of the band waited for metal to be popular again. In 1994 former guitarist Robbin Crosby was diagnosed with HIV, which would later become AIDS. AIDS was the disease that infamously took the life of legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury three years before.
Reunion
In 1997, Ratt re-formed as a four piece with Pearcy, DeMartini, Blotzer, and new member Robbie Crane (formerly of Vince Neil's solo band) on bass guitar. The band issued a compilation album called Collage, which consisted of B-sides, alternate recordings, and new versions of songs from the Mickey Ratt period. In 1999, Ratt secured a worldwide record deal with Sony. The 1999 self-titled Ratt album featured new material with a more conventional blues rock feel and was heavily criticized by fans and critics which many felt that it had a weak sound to it and Pearcy's vocals sounded very worn out. The album then became a commercial failure. After this, Ratt added Keri Kelli as a second lead guitarist. In 2000, Pearcy left the group again, forming two more bands: Vicious Delite and Nitronic, then he moved on to a solo career. He also started a record label named Top Fuel Records, which released some archived Ratt material and Pearcy solo work.
Ratt then replaced Pearcy with singer Jizzy Pearl. Keri Kelli was replaced by lead guitarist and former Mötley Crüe vocalist John Corabi. In 2001, former guitarist Robbin Crosby publicly announced that he suffered from AIDS. He died in 2002 from AIDS related complications. The last two years, they've been featured in the Rock Never Stops Tour alongside other 1980's hard rock/heavy metal bands. In 2001 Pearcy attempted to sue the band for touring under the "Ratt" name, claiming he owned the rights to the name. The lawsuit was a failure, after Blotzer and DeMartini were awarded the rights to tour with the name.
Current
On January 7, 2005 a fan asked Juan Croucier on his message board how long Blotzer and Croucier called it a day for the band back in 1992 after Pearcy and DeMartini left the group to which he responded:[2]
OK, I'm going to make this statement one more time and move on.
Bobby and I never quit Ratt. And the way our partnership was set up, we could not fire each other either. We were stuck owning the name but not being able to use it. However, bankruptcy could still eliminate a partner and Bobby went bankrupt in 1995/96. That essentially and eventually left me as the sole partner left in the partnership but again not being able to use the name. Having said that, before that happened in 1993/94 we tried out a few people (The Salty Dog guy, etc.) but it wasn't Ratt by any stretch of the imagination and I was skeptical about using the name Ratt at that point, because that would have been a lie and also because of the aforementioned. It was just an attempt to start a new band and somehow move on. What we were going to call it was undecided and we never got to the point where the name we were going to use was an issue. After a while, it just kinda fizzled. Bobby, was really hard to deal with back in those days so, we lost interest in pursuing another band situation together at that point.
Later on in 1997, Bobby came back, foaming at the mouth, with his, "shit or get off the pot Croucier, we're doing this with or without you," attitude, desperate to make money with the name Ratt. He lied about the fact that Stephen had quit the band, leading to things like the Winterland lawsuit (among other lawsuits) that I helped Bobby settle. It's funny how in 1993, according to Bobby himself as said to my attorney Robert Tauro, "Stephen quit the band and he's not coming back. How can we get out of this Winterland lawsuit?" That was right about the time he started to think about going bankrupt. Believe me, Bobby loathed him for quitting the band, leaving us in debt and high and dry! But suddenly in 1997, he acted like that just never happened. So, once he was back in bed with Stephen, they (Bobby and Stephen) attempted to fire me from the partnership, it was laughable, and despite my overwhelming, consistent objections and legally stated position in that regard (in accordance with the Ratt Partnership agreement), they went on to illegally form WBS, Inc., and play and record as Ratt again with Warren. Against my strong objections and wishes. Nice guys ay? That is the truth. All I have is the truth. Their position was, "fuck Juan." And fuck Juan they did. And then their lies about me as to, "why I was not a part of it," started in the press and on radio interviews, etc... Needless to say, I was livid and never got a chance to tell my side of the story or rebuke what they were saying about me at that time. Apparently, the concept was that eventually, people would start believing their lies as the truth. Especially, if I was not around to defend myself. It's the old, "if you lie about something long enough and consistently enough, pretty soon people will start believing the lies as the truth." From this point on, I'm not going to talk about Ratt legal stuff on here. For all I know, anyone could come on here and pretend that they are a fan when they are a lawyer for who knows who...
After making the message on his website, it may have become clear that Ratt never did breakup in 1992 and were instead only on indefinate hiatus, however in interviews most of the band members such as Pearcy, Blotzer and DeMartini had said they broke up in 1992. Many fans also became very heartfelt for Croucier and blamed Blotzer for mistreating Croucier only for money and never gave Croucier a chance to reunite with the band.
On July 29, 2005 Ratt was featured on Classic Rock Magazine. The issue focused mainly on Blotzer and DeMartini using the Ratt name even after Pearcy the main member had departed. However some time after Pearcy quit the group there was an attempt to re-unite Pearcy, Croucier, Blotzer and DeMartini. Blotzer was quoted as saying in the interview:
- Pearcy tried to get this thing back together, but his terms were asinine beyond belief.
- He sent some nutty email stating he wants half the merchandise, he wants to manage, produce,
- call all the shots. It was a joke. Stephen badly needs counselling in my opinion.
However Pearcy made a different offer, claiming it was his band down to the logo, he proposed an album and a tour, however Blotzer and DeMartini shot the offer down, if they accepted it would have given fans a 20-year anniversary album and tour.
Juan Croucier the group's former bassist for didn't quite agree with either side:
- I'm embarrased by Bobby (Blotzer) and Warren (DeMartini) calling themselves Ratt.
- It's not Ratt. Three-Fifths of the guys are gone; the guys who did most of the writing are no
- longer in the band. I can understand they need to make money, but to take the name and abuse it doesn't
- seem like a respectful and intelligent thing to do. Ironically, I know if Stephen (Pearcy) had the chance,
- he'd be out there doing it too. The damage is done at this point.
On May 11, 2006, Ratt were profiled on VH1's Behind the Music.
The future of the band seems unpredictable. DeMartini and Blotzer are the only two original members still in the band. In 2001 Blotzer and DeMartini won a court case over former lead singer Stephen Pearcy to tour under the "Ratt" name. However Pearcy, who tours as Stephen Pearcy and the Rat Bastards, still owns some of the rights to the name and he would have the right to sue Ratt if they released any new music, because of this, it is highly unlikely that Ratt will release any albums in the future, or have any plans to do so. Today Ratt still continues to tour and have appeared in package tours with W.A.S.P. and L.A. Guns, also the band memebers still work with side-projects such as Blotzer, Corabi and Crane countinue to work and record with "Angel City Outlaws", and Warren DeMartini and Jizzy Pearl still release solo records to this day. Juan Croucier and Stephen Pearcy are scheduled to tour with each other for the summer of 2006.
Current Members
- Jizzy Pearl - Lead Vocals (2000-present)
- Warren DeMartini - co-Lead Guitar (1982-1992, 1997-present)
- John Corabi - co-Lead guitar (2000-present)
- Robbie Crane - Bass (1997-present)
- Bobby Blotzer - Drums (1982-1992, 1997-present)
Former members
- Stephen Pearcy- Lead Vocals (1978-1991, 1997-2000)
- Juan Croucier - Bass (1982-1992)
- Robbin Crosby - Lead Guitar (1982-1990)
- Michael Schenker - Lead Guitar (1990)
- Keri Kelli - Lead Guitar (1999-2000)
Discography
Studio Albums
- Ratt EP, 1983
- Out of the Cellar, 1984
- Invasion of Your Privacy, 1985
- Dancing Undercover, 1986
- Reach For The Sky, 1988
- Detonator, 1990
- Ratt, 1999
Compilations
- Ratt & Roll 81-91, 1991
- Collage, 1997
- The Essentials: Ratt, 2002
- Rhino Hi-Five: Ratt, 2005
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
| Billboard Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | UK | |||
| 1983 | "Walkin' the Dog" | - | - | - | - | Ratt EP |
| 1983 | "You Think You're Tough" | - | - | - | - | Ratt EP |
| 1984 | "Round and Round" | 12 | - | - | - | Out of the Cellar |
| 1984 | "Lack of Communication" | - | - | - | - | Out of the Cellar |
| 1984 | "Wanted Man" | 87 | - | 38 | - | Out of the Cellar |
| 1985 | "Lay It Down" | 40 | - | 11 | - | Invasion of Your Privacy |
| 1985 | "You're In Love" | 89 | - | 34 | - | Invasion of Your Privacy |
| 1985 | "What You Give Is What You Get" | - | - | - | - | Invasion of Your Privacy |
| 1986 | "Dance" | 59 | - | 36 | - | Dancing Undercover |
| 1986 | "Slip of the Lip" | - | - | - | - | Dancing Undercover |
| 1986 | "Body Talk" | - | - | - | - | Dancing Undercover |
| 1988 | "I Want a Woman" | - | - | - | - | Reach for the Sky |
| 1989 | "Way Cool Jr." | 75 | - | 16 | - | Reach for the Sky |
| 1990 | "Shame Shame Shame" | - | - | - | - | Detonator |
| 1990 | "Lovin' You's A Dirty Job" | - | - | 18 | - | Detonator |
| 1991 | "Givin' Yourself Away" | - | - | 39 | - | Detonator |
| 1991 | "Nobody Rides For Free" | - | - | - | - | Point Break |
| 1997 | "Hold Tight" | - | - | - | - | Collage |
| 1999 | "Over the Edge" | - | - | 36 | - | Ratt |
| 1999 | "Live for Today" | - | - | - | - | Ratt |
Trivia
- Ratt had a couple of their songs used as soundtracks for movies such as "Body Talk" on their album Dancing Undercover was a soundtrack in the Eddie Murphy film The Golden Child, Wanted Man was also featured as a soundtrack on 1985 film Weird Science, their most well known movie soundtrack today is most likely "Nobody Rides For Free" that appeared on Point Break.
- Ratt is sometimes featured on VH1 Classic commercials, the commercial takes place in the summer of 1985, it's actually quite a basic one, it shows a person peeling a Winnie the Pooh car sticker off a car window and replacing it with a Ratt car sticker.
References
External links
Other uses
RATT is also an acronym for radio teletype.