RATT singer Stephen Pearcy was recently a guest of ‘Waste Some Time With Jason Green and talked about his reunion with his longtime RATT bandmate Warren DeMartini (for a handful of shows this spring and summer).
“It’s always been going around, ‘You guys should get together.’ I believe I actually approached Warren a few years ago. I go, ‘Hey, why don’t we try doing this (Jimmy) Page-(Robert) Plant (-style) thing or something.’ And nothing became of it. So, I’m, like, hey, well, he’s grooving. He’s still that guy — he’s the lead guitar player in RATT, the guy who co-wrote those songs; he’s the guy. So I went about my business, as you know, and do my solo thing. And I have great players, but this is the real deal.”
“So what happened was, over seven years later here, we get a contact from a promoter at M3 (Rock Festival), and it was, like, ‘Well, I have this idea. Maybe we can get you guys back together and you can headline one of these nights.’ And I’m, like, ‘Okay. Yeah, right. Okay, well, let’s see what happens.’ So anyway, long story short, I said, ‘Hey, whatever it takes, I’m in. Let’s see if we can make this happen.’ Well, it just happened to be the right timing for Warren too, to go, ‘Hey, why not? Let’s play again.’ And here we are.”
Pearcy and DeMartini played their first reunion show last Saturday night (April 5) at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. Former RATT / QUIET RIOT guitarist Carlos Cavazo, former RATT / ROUGH CUTT bassist Matt “Thorr” Thorne and former SLAUGHTER drummer Blas Elias fill out the rest of the band. Thorne and Elias are both current touring members of Pearcy’s solo band.
“It was fucking amazing,” Pearcy told Waste Some Time With Jason Green of the Mohegan Sun show, “And we kind of blundered here and there and it’s a given. We had a few rehearsals. The way Warren and I worked in RATT was we do like to be loosely tight. We don’t wanna be that technical out there when we play. So it kinda worked out the other day, like, ‘Okay, we got our feet wet. Now we know what’s happening.’ So, some of those songs you may never hear us play again, that we played.”
As for why classic RATT members drummer Bobby Blotzer and bassist Juan Croucier aren’t playing with Pearcy and DeMartini? “People are already going, ‘Oh, bring back the other guys.’ Well, I don’t really think they know how complicated it is or it would be, or if it even need be. Because the reason Warren and I are out here in the first place is to kick about the legacy of the music. Hey, we had great songs.”
“It wouldn’t have worked (with the other members), nor would I think I would’ve… Of course if you’re really doing ‘business business’, you have to consider all aspects. But do I wanna fuck with our fans or our friends and go out there and pretend it’s fucking cool and it’s really not? You know what I mean? I mean, look, it took seven years for Warren and I (to play together again), and it was, like, ‘Hey. Wow.’ I never thought it would happen, but now we’re talking about writing new music. So what the fuck?”
Meanwhile, Pearcy and DeMartini will play RATT classics at the 2025 edition of the M3 Rock Festival, May 2-4 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, and at Rock The Dam 8 in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, on July 26.
RATT hasn’t released any new music since 2010’s “Infestation” LP. So we’re due.
RATT n’ ROLL baby!
