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Ratt
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Miami Vice Performer
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Members (Original)
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Stephen Pearcy (born 1959, lead vocals)
Warren DeMartini (born 1963, lead guitar) Carlos Cavazo (born 1957, guitar) Bobby Blotzer (born 1958, drums) |
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Active
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1976-1992
1996-present |
Ratt is an American metal/glam band whose song "Dance" appeared in the episode "Down for the Count (Part I)" of the series Miami Vice.
Career[]
Ratt was formed by vocalist Stephen Pearcy in 1976 as Mickey Ratt, which went through various lineups and played the L.A. club scene before shortening their name to Ratt in 1981 and several members left leaving Pearcy, Robbin Crosby (1959-2002, lead guitar), Warren DeMartini (guitar), Juan Croucier (bass), and Bobby Blotzer (drums) and they recorded their first EP in 1983. Their debut album, Out Of The Cellar, was their breakthrough, with their single "Round and Round" reaching the Billboard Top 20 and the video featuring actor Milton Berle in both normal and his drag "Uncle Miltie" character receiving heavy airplay on MTV. The album cover featured model Tawny Kitaen (a common practice among metal/glam bands, featuring female models on their album covers), who would later grace the videos of Whitesnake later in the 1980s, and the band opened for such acts as Billy Squier, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, and other metal acts.
Their followup, Invasion of Your Privacy, also did well though it only had one Top 40 single ("Lay It Down"), their video compilation Ratt: The Video became the first music compilation video to reach Gold (later Platinum) status. Ratt appeared with ZZ Top and Bon Jovi in the 1985 Monsters of Rock show in England. Ratt's third album Dancing Undercover (featuring "Dance") was not well received critically but sold well, and their tour with a new metal band, Poison, was the sixth highest grossing tour of 1987. In 1989 their fourth album, Reach For The Sky, was a disappointment, and their tour with fellow metal bands Kix and Warrant was a failure due to low ticket sales, as music tastes began to change toward the emerging "grunge" style. 1990's Detonator continued Ratt's slide to mediocrity, and during their 1991 tour Crosby was having substance abuse problems, which reached the point he left the band during that tour. In 1992 Pearcy formed another band and Ratt's status was in limbo, and would remain that way for four years. Crosby during this time was diagnosed with HIV (not announced publicly until 2001).
In 1996 Ratt reunited, except for Croucier (replaced by Robbie Crane) and Crosby (due to his health) and recorded a self-titled album for a new label, the album did not approach Ratt's previous successes. In 2002 Crosby died of a heroin overdose, and Ratt's band splintered into two versions, Ratt (led by DeMartini and Blotzer) and Rat Bastards (led by Pearcy), then after an appearance on VH-1's Behind The Music, the group reunited (without Croucier again) and began to tour. In 2010 they released Infestation which introduced Ratt to a new audience. In 2012, the band lost Crane but Croucier rejoined. In 2014 Pearcy left the band again, and Blotzer began touring using the Ratt logo, which angered the remaining members. Blotzer was removed from the band and Croucier, Pearcy, and DeMartini touring in 2017 under the Ratt name. In 2018 Pearcy and Croucier were the only remaining original members, Blotzer continues to perform in his own band but lost numerous trademark infringement suits against Croucier regarding the use of the Ratt trademarks, DeMartini left Pearcy's group and new members Pete Holmes, Jordan Ziff and Chris Sanders began Ratt: The New Breed.