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The 2007 RATT re-union is well underway featuring Stephen Pearcy on vocals, Warren Demartini on guitar, Bobby Blotzer on drums, John Corabi on rhythm guitar, and Robbie Crane on bass replacing original RATT bassist Juan Croucier.
RATT is also gearing up for their performance at Rocklahoma on July 13th. In 1987, Poison joined RATT on their first Arena tour together. One of the most exciting concert bills of the summer featuring Poison/Ratt and Vains of Jenna is currently underway, as lead RATT vocalist Stephen Pearcy states,” It seems likes only yesterday, and now the audience is "Back For More."
Currently, the line-up of RATT is re-charged and ready to Ratt and Roll to a whole new generation of RATT fans. RATT will return to stores with new DVD and CD releases on July 31st: the first-ever DVD release from the band, "Ratt: Videos From The Cellar: The Atlantic Years", and the audio collection "Tell The World: The Very Best Of Ratt” on Rhino Records.
I recently caught up with RATT vocalist in Boston at The Tweeter Center. In this Exclusive Interview for GLAMMETAL.COM. Stephen Pearcy discusses the recent RATT re-union, Behind The Music Special, new RATT music, and why RATT has remained so popular for over twenty years. www.myspace.com/stephenpearcy www.therattpack.com www.topfuelrecords.com
Stephen, Thank you so much for doing this Exclusive RATT Interview for GLAMMETAL.COM. First of all, let me congratulate you on the RATT re-union. The Boston Tweeter Center show was phenomenal. How do you feel the tour is going so far?
PEARCY: It is going fine. We just had to get our life back, which we did. We are keeping the set list interesting. We are changing songs here and there. We are having a good time. Poison and us go way back. It is way cool.
Was it hard to get the set list together for the tour? I know you have so many great songs? How did you go about picking out your favorites? In Boston you performed so many great songs like, "City To City", Nobody Rides For Free", and "Lack Of Communication".
PEARCY: Yes, some of them are standards. It is difficult, because we wanted to play,” Closer To The Heart", which we did. We wanted to play some other songs. We will see what happens. We still got a lot more shows to go.
How does it feel back to be touring with Poison again? I know your first full-blown tour with Poison was in 1986. Then you did the 1999 Poison tour.
PEARCY: Well good, yeah know I have always been on the road. To me playing to 1000 people, 10,000 people are all the same. We went on the road with Poison in 1999 I believe. It wasn't executed properly. This is a better timing. We got the new CD and DVD coming out, Tell The World: The Very Best Of RATT, at the end of the month on Rhino Records. It should be very cool. The CD is a best of, and songs that we actually wanted to put on there. The DVD features videos at the time that we weren't able to present. back then and they went platinum and gold. So we are excited about just getting them out, and letting people seeing all of them at all at once.
One of the things, I noticed at your concert the other night, is that the RATT songs are really timeless. It felt so good to hear them being played live again. Everybody was on there feet from "Lay it down" to your last song,” Round and round". Why do you think RATT Music has remained so popular and garnering a whole generation of RATT fans?
PEARCY: Well, we never claimed or wanted to be press darlings. From day one, we always just wanted to do our own kind of music. Which we called RATT and ROLL. Nothing has changed. You learn a lot more. We are survivors. We have as many original members involved. There is a certain element. To have this style of music, or whatever they label it hair bands, it was just that era that was timeless. That will never happen again. It will never go down again. To be part of it, and have the success that we did and continue. It is new again. It is all-good. Whatever defends the faith, yeah know?
You mentioned, most of the band is together. RATT is missing one person, bassist Juan Croucier. You have Robbie Crane on bass. How did you get Robbie Crane to replace Juan?
PEARCY: Yeah, I brought Robbie in from Vertex, a side project. We got John Corabi on guitar. It is working out well. We are very happy right now. The set is really getting together now. We are comfortable.
Yes, the band sounds really tight. Now you are gearing up to perform at Rocklahoma on July 13th. Are you looking forward to the festival?
PEARCY: Yeah, we go that gig going on. Like I say, the shows are all the same to me. It depends on how big the party is. If it is crazy, we will get crazy. (Laughter)
Who initiated the RATT re-union? I know we talked prior to the debut of the RATT- VH-1 Behind The Music and possible a RATT re-union in 2005. It is so great that it is finally happening.
PEARCY: Well, we wished that Juan had been a part of it. But it didn't happen. It is a way of life. It is a full commitment. We are already working on some new music. Again, we will see what that gets us at the end of this tour.
Well, I know you have the mobile recording studio out. How is the songwriting going?
PEARCY: Yes, we have a studio out here digital. It is real cool. We are already working on stuff. We will continue to work on music, until the end of the tour. Hopefully, we will have a big bag of RATT songs.
What has your favorite part of the set been so far? I know the set list features songs from your extensive career. What songs do you enjoy performing most? What do you hold special to your heart?
PEARCY: I like them all. Songs like,” Body Talk". There are certain songs, that are not like the expected songs and those are the ones so to speak. Everybody, wants to hear,” Round and Round", we were doing "Drive Me Crazy", in the beginning of the tour, and that was cool and "Closer to My Heart". It depends on the mood, the crowd is everything. Right now it seems like a lot of the good portion of the audience is new. Who knows maybe there is a bunch of kids out there that I don't know about that are mine? (Laughter) I am just kidding. Little rodents out there. No, (Laughter) it is all good and people are digging it. That is all that matters. That is what it is all about.
It is very good timing too, to release the compilation CD Tell The World- The Very Best of RATT, and video DVD. A lot of these kids probably never even have seen these videos. It is so exciting. To see a whole new generation of RATT fans. You just can't beat your music.
PEARCY: Yes, it on Rhino Records. Bobby, Warren and I are narrating the DVD. It is pretty cool; it gives you an insight of what we think about the projects, the songs, the time, the history of the band.
Will there be any live footage too on the DVD?
PEARCY: There is new footage. A lot of new edits on it. There is a lot of festival footage that we did. There are some surprises going down.
I talked to you prior the VH-1 RATT Behind The Music Special. Were you happy with the presentation?
Like I said once again, RATT has never been a band to give it all away. They played what was interesting to them and went with it. I think it was all sincere and real. It was enough of the history to let people in on it some of the background. But some of the nonsense was just so fictional.
Will RATT remain on the road after the Poison tour wraps up in September?
PEARCY: Yes, we have a lot of ground to cover. We have some international stuff, and finish up some stuff in The States. As I say, we are trying to get a record going. That is the plan and we will see where it will take us. We got a lot of things to do. It is a whole new breed of RATT. This time, we are having a real patience with things.
Well, Stephen, your voice sounds awesome, and just to see the band out there again onstage was so phenomenal. How is the racecar driving going? I know you have Clay Millican driving.
PEARCY: Yes, we have Clay Millican, And Evan Knoll. We got the Torco Racing Fuels/Skull Gear/Top Fuel RATT Dragster. You can watch ESPN 2 any weekend and check out NRHA.COM. We are out there kicking some ass. Clay is doing great. The car is running fast and it is all good. We will be supporting the cars in as many races, as we can on the schedule.
Stephen, Looking back on your career, is there anything that you would change?
PEARCY: Some in business, but yeah know what comes around goes around. No pun intended. There are no complaints. As long as we are part of history.
Stephen, Thank you so much for your support at GLAMMETAL.COM. It is so great to see RATT back. Again, your concert in Boston was so much fun to review.
PEARCY: Well I appreciate it man. We had a good time. We are out here like I say to have a good time. When we do have a good time, all hell breaks lose.
Stephen, Do you know what was so cute too? Seeing the Vains of Jenna guys up there on stage watching RATT and Poison perform.
PEARCY: I like those little fuckers. Those guys are cool man. I will be dragging that singer up there sometime soon. I will have him go out there and yell something out. It is good to have new bands out there.
How is your studio Top Fuel doing? I know you have been producing some new bands too. Will you be getting back into producing soon?
PEARCY: Yes, my record company Top Fuel Records, I have been releasing stuff, some personal stuff and anthologies. You can go to www.topfuelrecords.com or
www.stephen-pearcy.com and find out all the information about the label. We are constantly developing. One of the new projects out is the AntiDivsion. You can check that out. We have so much patience working with the artists and there is not much of that going around in this music industry. We are having a good time that. We are always working on songs for movie, TV, and NHR.
You will be performing in your hometown of LA soon in August.
Yes, we will be out on the West Coast soon. Right now we are enjoying things out here on the East Coast.
Stephen, Again, Thank you so much for the support at GLAMMETAL.COM. The readers really appreciate it. I will out to see you perform again on July 16th at Meadowbrook Farms, and my Associates will be out, when you hit Buffalo.
We will see you guy’s real soon. It is all good, we are having a good time.
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