RATT Drummer Talks About Lineup Changes, Possible New Record

Debby Rao of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with RATT drummer Bobby Blotzer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

KNAC.COM: Who initiated RATT getting back together again?

Blotzer: I am going to step out and just say on both re-unions, '97 and this one, it was I calling everybody. Stephen [Pearcy, vocals] may have made the claim that he did, but he might be forgetting I spent three years talking to him, talking to Warren [DeMartini, guitar], talking to Juan [Croucier, bass]. I knew the moment we step into a room, or get on the phone and everybody hears each other and we start with the pleasantries first, and then we dig into the bullshit that is all it is going to take. Because everybody realizes there is a lot more good times, than there were bad times. The bad times tend to outshine the good shit. Fact of the matter is, we had a lot of good times; we made a huge stamp in history.

KNAC.COM: The rhythm section sounds awesome along with bassist Robbie Crane.

Blotzer: Well, he is a great bass player and one of the greatest human beings you will ever meet. Everybody loves the guy. I wish I had a personality like his. I need him in RATT. For the fans, I wanted Juan to come back, just so the fans could see the four surviving members. But Juan is unreasonable. Completely unreasonable to deal with. The fact that he axed himself out of the equation was good for me because I love playing with Robbie. We never fight, we never argue, he is not an ego freak. Robbie is a total team player. He is a good buffer between all the people on the tour. Anybody that knows Robbie will understand that quote right there. [John] Corabi is playing rhythm [guitar]. This is Corabi's seventh year with us. Corabi started with us in the summer of 2000. It is like; these guys aren't new really anymore. Except with Stephen in the fold now.

KNAC.COM: Yes, and it feels good to have Stephen back I might add. In the past, Stephen has told me that Robbin [Crosby] was the gentle giant. Would you say in a way that Robbie Crane is the new peacemaker of the band?

Blotzer: That is a very good question. He is a little more diplomatic. Robbin did that a lot of times. But Robbin, I am not saying anything bad about Robbin, because I loved him, and deeply miss him, but Robbin would ride the fence on lot stuff, yeah know? At times, I would be going, "Dude speak up right now what you said to me on the phone last night." Which I would say to anybody in this band if they changed their tune in the middle of having a meeting pertaining to something. Crane is pretty good, it hard to explain and not be long-winded on it, but they both equally have that diplomatic flair and it is very welcome. Because, I knew Juan, he created so many problems in the initial phone calls of trying to get this thing together. I was telling these guys, "Do you not see what I am seeing here? We haven't even stepped into a rehearsal room yet and this cat is making all of all these demands and saying all this junk. I am telling you right now, you can out vote me on it, but I give it a month into the tour and it is going to be unbearable. It is going to be back to the same hijinks and it is going to be a drag." Unfortunately, Juan and I go back to bands, when we were sixteen years old. I respect him as a musician and everything. He is making decisions again that is affecting him, he is probably going to definitely regret. He has so much animosity, it is like, "Dude, let it go." It is not benefiting him by harboring this junk. Get over it, OK?! He has been out of the band sixteen years. I am onstage every night, and I thank God every night, at least two or three times a night. I am amazed that I ever made it this far. There are so many great bands and musicians in the world. Not everybody gets his or her shot. Thank God, I got the break. I go to Juan, "You should be on your knees right now thanking the guy upstairs for giving you the opportunity to do this again." I go to Juan, "Dude, once you get on this stage, you will understand. It has been a long time, since you have been up there and you are a great performer." I don't take it for granted anymore. I still don't like the whole traveling trip. The fans coming out, and spending their hard earned money and giving you the support and backing you, means more than anything.

KNAC.COM: What about new music? Stephen told me that you have the mobile studio out on the road on the bus.

Blotzer: Yes, we do. Right now Stephen and Warren have been writing. I have some stuff in the can that I have written. I talked to Stephen and said I know you are working with Warren right now, but when you have some time if you want to mess with this… So there is talk about a new record here for 2008. We have two new things coming out on Rhino Records, which is a greatest-hits [collection] called "Tell The World: The Very Best Of Ratt", which is going to have a bunch of the singles stuff again and some other stuff that hasn't been on any best of collection. That is July 31, it comes out on Rhino. At that same time, we have a DVD, with all of the old videos. That is also available on Rhino. We were going to (include) one (song) that we wrote with Juan. It was his initial writing on the song, and we did the RATT touch on it. He has prevented it from being on this record, for spiteful reasons, is my guess. It was within our rights to put it on there, but it was this sort of thing, he has this lawyer contact us. We really don't want to go through this bullshit with the lawyer. So we are like, "Hey, dude, whatever. See ya later." But it was a good song, and we wanted to put it on. It is sitting there doing nothing. It was recorded for "Reach For The Sky", and it never made it on the record. It was a good song and recorded real well. It is like; he is doing nothing with music, and being he is just being spiteful, it will ultimately cost him money in royalties for not being there in publishing. Good move, Juan, thank you. So that is what is going on with the new stuff.

KNAC.COM: Will RATT remain out on the road after the POISON tour wraps up?

Blotzer: There is a bunch of different scenarios being kicked around. We might go to Europe and tour there for three weeks and then Japan. Or we might go back here and tour with a "yet-to-be-named" other band and due theatres and stuff like that. I was hoping we do that because it is just a lot of markets we are not hitting. I would like to go to Europe; we haven't been there in a long time. We haven't been to Japan for ten years… nine years, actually.

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.