RATT Tried to Reform Original Line Up but Can't Agree on Lucrative Contract

Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy said the band was recently offered a “lucrative” deal for a reunion of the classic lineup, but they couldn’t reach an agreement to make it happen.
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However, he insisted he was comfortable with the situation, despite retaining some hopes of regrouping with the bandmates who helped make the glam-metal outfit’s name. While Pearcy and bassist Juan Croucier are part of the most recent lineup, guitarist Warren DeMartini and drummer Bobby Blotzer are absent. Guitarist Robbin Crosby died in 2002.
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“There was an opportunity presented to all of us,” Pearcy told Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM. “Besides [being] a lucrative thing, it would be amazing.” He said he didn’t know why an agreement couldn’t be reached. “I have no qualms either way. I keep moving. All I can do is make my own assessment of the situation. When you make a phone call and you get no response – and I won’t say with who or what or where or when or why – fuck it. I don’t care. We’re all alive. We’re all healthy. We’re all groovy. I don’t know. I hope everybody’s cool.”

He said he’s become disillusioned with people who object to Ratt lineups that don't include enough original members. “So I just stepped out for a bit,” he explained. “And, hey, it’s nobody's fault but the way things just happened. A tour didn't go down [because of] COVID … and I went, ‘I have no time for this, to start up again, to rehash or do something.’”

He described the band’s membership turnover as “a little convoluted,” and although expressing respect for everyone who’s taken part, he concluded, "It’s gotta stop. ... And then out of the blue we were presented with this opportunity recently, and I'm thinking, 'Wow. Maybe this might … . For shits and giggles, the guys might dig it, besides lucratively.’ But it just ain't gonna fly. And that's where you just leave it alone. Leave it alone. Sorry – but that’s life, man."

The singer mixed optimism with pessimism as he reflected, “I love that the opportunity was presented. And, hey, let’s hope. I will not let there be another Ratt record unless all of us are involved, so you probably will never get one. All I can do is give you some of the archives, which will happen soon enough.”



Read More: Ratt Couldn't Agree Over 'Lucrative' Classic Lineup Reunion

The thing with Ratt...I mean, that band has indeed had so many configurations since they first reunited in...was it 1996? 1997? Somewhere in there.

I do seem to recall they were basically as reformed as they could get without Crosby around...2012 or so, in that they had Pearcy, Croucier, Blotzer and DeMartini along with Carlos Cavazo.

The live results from that 2012 lineup weren't any quantum leap forward from what the band had been doing under various lineups from 1996 to 2012. Pearcy's voice still sounded like shit. The rest of the band was perfunctory...competent enough but not particularly inspired.

What original music I have heard from the band over the last 25 years has been along the same lines. With RATT, their best album was easily their first.

I dunno. For me, when RATT first broke up in 1992, it didn't feel like their was any 'unfinished business' or it being a case that the band ended prematurely. Their last album, Detonator, was a dud and a flop and deservedly so: it had weak material and the band had clearly just run their course. And this was a year or so prior to anybody even hearing about Nirvana or Pearl Jam, so the 'grunge killed us off' rationale that Pearcy and DeMartini have at times claimed just wasn't so. Rather, it was just a case of the fans they had in the 1980s sort of growing out of it and moving on.

Eddie Trunk may well be hoping for a RATT reunion and new RATT music, but I'd have a hard time believing anybody else is these days.

Blotzer is by all accounts a complete fuckwit and the saga of his ongoing destruction of the band has been documented in extreme detail at www.metalsludge.tv but I wonder if it was Stephen Pearcy that held them back a bit. His singing live was not good in the 80s never mind the last couple of decades.

As a rock fan lyrics usually aren't an important feature of songs and a good one is a bonus but its not essential. SP though I think fell below a bar so low that it started to actually became embarrassing. You mention Detonator and who can forget the poetry of

Quote:

---

Heads I win, tails you lose
I may not be Sherlock
But you ain't got a clue
Heads I win, tails you lose
I may not be a doctor
But you're sick as a flu
Heads I win, tails you lose
I may not be a surgeon
But I'll cut you right through
Heads I win, tails you lose
I may not be a preacher
But it's hell I'll send you to

---

This was written by a 34 year old man.

It is mainly funny but sometimes it did get in the way of a song. Around the same time if Pearcy had written the lyrics on Appetite for Destruction I don't think it would have sold anywhere near as many. Same vocals, melodies and music but Pearcy lyrics?

On the album before that, Reach For The Sky, even in 1988 the lyrics to the standout song were just cringe. It could be a Steel Panther song if written now with absolutely no changes needed.

That said 3 million views on YouTube so what do I know. :)

https://youtu.be/RLS_W_2eyzY

As far as a reunion goes I was told that the Infestation album was actually good and I've only got around to listening to a couple of songs so far and it seemed decent but it came out 12 years ago so I guess that's the level of interest at this point.

I do remember reading quite a bit about the lawsuits and countersuits between various band members over the use of the RATT name, and who had ownership of the name.

There again, over the last twenty years you had RATT touring, then you had Stephen Pearcy's RATT touring (or RATT featuring Pearcy) and at one point you had Bobby Blotzer's Ratt. I mean, it all seemed beyond the point of absurdity. I do understand there was some value in who owned the RATT name in terms of being able to legally use that to advertise or promote whoever was in the band at whatever point in time...from what I read, in the mid-2000's/early 2010's the band could still command somewhere in the $25-50k range per show depending on the size of the venue or type of gig. Split 4 or 5 ways and after expenses it wasn't going to make anybody a millionaire, but if you strung 50 to 100 shows per year in that range it added up to a decent living...a couple hundred thousand dollars net profit per member per year.

I saw RATT twice. Once in 1984 and once in...what the fuck was it...it was somewhere in late 1985 to early 1987...I remember RATT opened up for Billy Squier in 1984 and Poison opened up for RATT for that 1985-1987 gig. I recall Pearcy wasn't a particularly good singer live at either gig - noticeably less effective than he was on record, which is something I also noticed about Vince Neil in 1984 - and that overall RATT weren't all that great of a live band. At least not in the two arena shows I saw back in the 1980s. And as you say, this WAS the band in their heyday. I'm not now saying RATT were 'the worst live band I saw...EVER' but I do remember at the time thinking RATT weren't all that great as a live act.

But Pearcy holding them back? I mean, one will never know now, but I thought at least on record Pearcy's vocals were good enough and in terms of the image (music videos, etc.) Pearcy fit the band well enough. I mean, the songs the band were writing were pretty straight-up/typical 1980s MTV hard rock, so Pearcy in the band...it wasn't like having, say, Kevin DuBrow trying to front Yngwie Malmsteen in terms of Pearcy holding the music back or anything. I think the same is basically true of Don Dokken or Vince Neil...not technically accomplished singers, but they fit the bands they were in well enough to my ears.

But...yeah, that Detonator album...I mean, as you point out, tracks like I Want A Woman and other tunes released prior to Detonator were no great shakes lyrically...but at least on prior albums sometimes the instrumentation could sort of compensate for Pearcy's meathead lyrics. With Detonator, the whole band sounded bored, tired, going through the motions...uninspired. Post-Reach For The Sky, RATT were just...spent.