Former RATT Bassist Says He Never Quit The Band

Former RATT bassist Juan Croucier was recently asked by a fan on his message board how long it was before he and RATT drummer Bobby Blotzer decided to call it a day with the group after original singer Stephen Pearcy and guitarist Warren DiMartini left the band in 1992.

"OK, I'm going to make this statement one more time and move on," he responded. "Bobby and I never quit RATT. And the way our partnership was set up, we could not fire each other either. We were stuck owning the name but not being able to use it. However, bankruptcy could still eliminate a partner and Bobby went bankrupt in 1995/96. That essentially and eventually left me as the sole partner left in the partnership but again not being able to use the name. Having said that, before that happened in 1993/94 we tried out a few people (THE SALTY DOG guy, etc.) but it wasn't RATT by any stretch of the imagination and I was skeptical about using the name RATT at that point, because that would have been a lie and also because of the aforementioned. It was just an attempt to start a new band and somehow move on. What we were going to call it was undecided and we never got to the point where the name we were going to use was an issue. After a while, it just kinda fizzled. Bobby was really hard to deal with back in those days so, we lost interest in pursuing another band situation together at that point.

"Later on in 1997, Bobby came back, foaming at the mouth, with his, 'Shit or get off the pot Croucier, we're doing this with or without you,' attitude, desperate to make money with the name RATT. He lied about the fact that Stephen had quit the band, leading to things like the Winterland lawsuit (among other lawsuits) that I helped Bobby settle. It's funny how in 1993, according to Bobby himself as said to my attorney Robert Tauro, 'Stephen quit the band and he's not coming back. How can we get out of this Winterland lawsuit?' That was right about the time he started to think about going bankrupt. Believe me, Bobby loathed him for quitting the band, leaving us in debt and high and dry! But suddenly in 1997, he acted like that just never happened. So, once he was back in bed with Stephen, they (Bobby and Stephen) attempted to fire me from the partnership, it was laughable, and despite my overwhelming, consistent objections and legally stated position in that regard (in accordance with the RATT partnership agreement),they went on to illegally form WBS, Inc., and play and record as RATT again with Warren. Against my strong objections and wishes.

"Nice guys, ay? That is the truth. All I have is the truth. Their position was, 'Fuck Juan.' And fuck Juan they did. And then their lies about me as to, 'Why I was not a part of it,' started in the press and on radio interviews, etc... Needless to say, I was livid and never got a chance to tell my side of the story or rebuke what they were saying about me at that time. Apparently, the concept was that eventually, people would start believing their lies as the truth. Especially if I was not around to defend myself. It's the old, 'If you lie about something long enough and consistently enough, pretty soon people will start believing the lies as the truth.'

"From this point on, I'm not going to talk about RATT legal stuff on here. For all I know, anyone could come on here and pretend that they are a fan when they are a lawyer for who knows who..."