Ratt ... HERE THEY COME!
On a brain-melting, late summer afternoon, Robbin Crosby, Juan Croucier, Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer pushed open the heavy glass doors of L.A.’s Village Recorder Studios and swayed in the relentless sun. “Ohh, what a shock!”
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Ratt ... HERE THEY COME!
Judy Wieder
On a brain-melting, late summer afternoon, Robbin Crosby, Juan Croucier, Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer pushed open the heavy glass doors of L.A.’s Village Recorder Studios and swayed in the relentless sun.
“Ohh, what a shock!” Robbin mumbled, shading his eyes and looking for cover. Hard at work on their third album, the five members of Ratt darted across Santa Monica Boulevard and headed for their favorite lunch joint.
Explaining his clients’ weariness, manager Marshall Berle remarked: “The band has been collectively writing for months now. Beau Hill, the same man who did Ratt’s last two albums, is the producer again. Our goal here is for the album to be released by mid-September.”
My surprise at seeing all the Ratt boys attending every session was even more surprising to Marshall. "Well, of course!” he huffed at me. ‘They’re doing all the writing and playing, of course they're at all the sessions.” I explained how often I’d gone to band recording sessions only to find outside players and drum machines doing most of the work. He softened: "That’s true, but not for Ratt. They make their own music.”
Unlike Ratt’s last album, Invasion Of Your Privacy, all the recording, including the final mixing, is being done in Los Angeles.
"Last time I had to go to New York for the mixing sessions,” Robbin remembered, more than pleased to be fixed in one piece this summer.
With Invasion Of Your Privacy selling nearly as much (double platinum) as Out of the Cellar, which had the Top 10 single "Round And Round” drag it up the charts, Ratt is no longer concerned about the socalled necessity of coming up with a hit radio song.
“Our fans are behind us with or without the hit single,” Stephen said. “We didn’t have one with Invasion Of Your Privacy and we did just fine!”
Of course Ratt wouldn’t mind hearing themselves on all the Top 40 radio stations, but their world-wide popularity has more or less made that an unnecessary luxury.
"There was a Billboard article of the top grossing 50 tours,” Marshall reports, "and as far as dollars, Ratt was number 7 of the 50! Ratt played over 145 concerts in the U.S.A. alone. That means they toured more than any band has ever toured.
When this album is on the streets, we intend to hit another 140 cities during 1986 and 1987. I intend for them to be touring all the way through to the summer of 1987—and I’m just talking about the U.S.A. alone.”
I looked over at the five exhausted bandmates with wonder. What price glory indeed?
‘‘Thank goodness we’ve been writing ongoingly,” Stephen offered. "We didn’t want to go into the studio without songs. The only pressure now is picking which songs, because we have so many. There are all the new songs plus the ones that we didn’t use in the past.”
As for the subjects of Ratt’s current songwriting, five smiles flash across the table.
‘‘We like to talk about love and lost love and all that good shit,” Robbin reveals. “That’s what it’s all about anyway, right? We don’t like our songs to be too macho or any of that anti-feminine stuff because if you cut out the female population, you’re cutting your left hand off. We always try to incorporate or assume the position that is tempting for both sexes. Ratt is definitely a low-down, dirty band. Don’t misunderstand me. We do talk frankly about sex on our albums, but we don’t put woman down, no.”
Whatever they're doing, they’re doing it right. Ratt is not only one of the highest grossing rock bands in America, they are currently the biggest band in Japan—the second biggest record-buying country in the world.
And unlike many bands who voice anywhere from negative to ambivalent feelings about the necessity of making videos, Ratt is raring to go.
"I love it,” Stephen confessed shamelessly. “I always wanted to do films, ever since I was a kid. I took a lot of drama classes in school and stuff like that. I was never into anything else. As soon as we get our single choices made on the new album, we’ll be making some new videos. Personally, I’m ready any time.”
After reviewing the songs they’ve written, the tracks they’ve cut in the studio, the decisions that have to be made, the videos that have to be shot and the year long tour that looms in back of everything else, the Ratt boys checked their watches and paid their tab hastily.
‘‘We got a couple of things to do,” Robbin joked.
I should say!
