Drummer BOBBY BLOTZER Wants To Relive RATT Headlining Arenas

Rock Street Reviews recently conducted an interview with RATT drummer Bobby Blotzer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rock Street Reviews: You wrote "Look Out Below". What was inspiration for it?

Blotzer: Well when I wrote "Look Out Below" it had different lyrics and melody to it. Which I presented to Stephen [Pearcy, vocals], and as Stephen does, he likes to write his own melodies and lyrics and story lines. Sometimes he uses parts of stuff I've written so I try not to get to married to my part because I don't want to have to try and force, "Hey, dude, you gotta sing this like this or with these lyrics," 'cause then it will turn into a possible squabble over it, and it takes the vibe outta the song. So I give him a copy of it musically, and then what we do is I play it and I sing the lyrics, give him a copy of the lyrics sheet, and say, "OK, here's what I got." So he came and basically rewrote it, with the title "Look Out Below". It's basically his interpretation of what the lyrics mean.

Rock Street Reviews: If you could relive any moment in RATT what would it be and why?

Blotzer: The only thing in RATT I'd like to relive is having RATT headline arenas and packing 13,000-14,000-seat venues. We still get to play in front of that many people, not on a nightly basis, but we pick up different tours, and support slots and special guest slots that kind of thing. I think RATT really fits well on the bigger stages and bigger gigs. A lot of people like to see the band in smaller venues — 1300-1400 seaters — but I personally love playing in arenas and on bigger stages. So I just hope we can shimmy our way back up the ladder, ya know. I'm working, I'm thankful for that. There are people without jobs and I'm still getting to be this "rock personality" and play and have people love what you're doing, is a blessing from god, and I don't take it lightly!

Rock Street Reviews: What tracks on the album best highlight your drum style?

Blotzer: All of them. I was able to have free reign pretty much on this record. I thought Michael "Elvis" Baskette producing skills were pretty good and open minded. Beau Hill used to really hold me back and everyone in turn in doing that, I guess. If I argued the point, he (Beau) would get the other guys and it would be like me against the band. On this one pretty much everyone got doin' what they wanted to do, interpreting the songs the way they want to interpret them.

Rock Street Reviews: Do you like him better as a producer?

Blotzer: I respect what Beau did for this band. But there's alot of stuff I don't like. And his approaches, he has definitely got musical talent and definitely helped create the sound of RATT in our recordings. I like Elvis' approach better and the other producers, I like their approach better. I don't like manipulation, I don't like separatism and we had a lot of that with him. And, again, I'm not disrespecting him, just telling you my point of view.

Rock Street Reviews: So how do you feel about that and the current resurgence in metal?

Blotzer: I never wanted to break up. As far as a resurgence and business doing good, if you have good music, people are gonna come — it's as simple as that. I don't ever see a revival of the bands from 2000. It's like, oh, there was a ton of us from the '80s that had multi-platinum records, most of us headlined three or four tours. I just don't see a lot of that happening in the '90s. Most of those bands came and went pretty quick. I'm not saying they were not good. I don't know, man. It's just a different vibe, I think. The '80s metal stuff is more fun to go out and rock to.

Rock Street Reviews: So were you happy with the way the outcome of VH1 "Behind The Music" episode they did a couple of years back?

Blotzer: It's OK. They missed a few parts and edited things, too. I realized it's a drama series going in but I wish they would have at least focused on some of the bigger accomplishments we had other than just we were a bunch of drunken idiots. The [Robbin] Crosby [late RATT guitarist] portion was pretty sad, I watched it in my house in Texas with about 25 friends and I hadn't seen it and everyone kept looking over at and looking over at me and trying to get my reaction. That was interesting. I felt a little bit like I was on the hot seat, but anything that keeps RATT out there in people's minds and introduces it to people who may not know is a good thing.

Rock Street Reviews: Is there a certain type of life style or hunger you feel is required within you to write catchy quality songs?

Blotzer: I try to just write hook-heavy, catchy music that will stick in your mind, whether it's lyrics or melodies. I can pull from experiences in relationships but I don't generally have any kind of political inspiration in tunes. I'm not that kind of writer, you know what I mean? It's more like life experiences over things I see on the news or wherever. I'm not comparing myself, obviously, to someone like Bono — he's a superstar writer, of course — but he tends to seem to do the opposite of what I think; he's socially conscious on everything he writes. I just want to have a good time. And I don't write anything trying to be gu ball, it doesn't necessarily have to have to deep a meaning to be a great song. Fun is fun. You can have a decent meaning to it, of course, but I'm just saying it doesn't have to be too serious. Not that there's anything wrong with people who write like that, but our brand of music I think is more fun orientated.

Read the entire interview from Rock Street Reviews. The chat can also be streamed in three parts below.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: