I don’t know if you heard but Ratt are a little dysfunctional and not the best of friends. They had just released Infestation which is as good a comeback as you are going to get and then the drummer Bobby Blotzer threatens to ruin everything by throwing the whole band under the bus in his memoir. He was particularly harsh on Stephen Pearcy with whom he has a love/hate relationship, mostly hate after reading his book. So now it’s Pearcy’s turn to tell his side.
Anyone expecting to find how certain songs and albums were crafted will be disapointed. Other then saying the band went in the studio and recorded within a certain time frame there is little or no detail. Nothing on the troubles he had with Beau Hill, little or next to nothing on Mike Stone who was fired during the Reach For The Sky sessions and the self-titled Ratt album in 1999, well not a mention at all.
Recording the albums were a means to an end. It’s when the touring starts that the fun begins and there are stories here, lots and lots of them. Some will make you laugh out loud and others will make you cringe. The cast of characters are many from Eddie Van Halen to Michael Jackson to Drew Barrymore. The bands lifestyle was a product of the times. Adulation was everywhere and if you wanted something all you had to do was crack your fingers and it was yours.
Of course everything comes at a price and the further you go in the book not only are the band having less fun but feel powerless to do anything about it. Record, tour, record, tour, no breaks. Something had to give and the band were more or less done on the Detonator tour, grunge was an excuse. Robbin Crosby was gone and the band began to experience something alien to them, doubt. Pearcy goes into great detail about his times with Robbin who was his best friend in the band. He describes what it was like to live in L.A in the 80’s where anything goes. Stories about women, yes there are lots of those and not all complimentary. He also allows some of the crew members from this time to have a say and it’s not all good. He was no angel.
It’s when Ratt broke up that his addictions really kicked in. Booze was now mixed with cocaine and painkillers and finally heroin. Stephen Pearcy is still alive to tell the tale, Robbin Crosby is not. Even the birth of his child couldn’t make him come to his senses.
As for his revenge on Bobby Blotzer, well there’s not as much there as you would expect. There are some stories that make Blotzer out to be a less then generous guy but most of them are just funny groupie stories done by band members who should have known better. As for the lawsuit when Pearcy went out under the Ratt name, tellingly there is no mention of this at all. Maybe it’s because he lost the case, maybe because it’s all a matter of public record, maybe it’s because he wants to let bygones be bygones. After all it’s all about the music.
Great read, buy it.
http://stephen-pearcy.com/website/
Richie.
