RATT Frontman On Forthcoming CD: 'It's Exactly What Everybody's Going To Want But A Lot More'

Ryan E. Smith of ToledoBlade.com recently conducted an interview with RATT singer Stephen Pearcy. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ToledoBlade.com: RATT has a new album coming out ... Is there going to be any kind of different sound or anything that you think fans will notice?

Pearcy: Well, it's going to be RATT music, but it's going to be back to basics. Very happy with it. No outside writers, and it's RATT circa '84, '86. It's exactly what everybody's going to want but a lot more.

ToledoBlade.com: Who is your audience today and how do you think that compares to back when you guys got started?

Pearcy: Our audience today is quite variable. Even like last night's front row, there's got to be this kid, must have been like 12 years old or 13 or something. I mean, my daughter, she's 13. It's the youth and it's our fans from 25 years ago who are now probably 45, 50, who knows. Our audience is a wide range, which is good. We're in all these video games and things, so the audience is a wide margin now.

ToledoBlade.com: What do you think attracts [kids] to that kind of music these days.

Pearcy: I tend to think it's the same thing that attracted them in the beginning. It's colorful. It's exciting. It's dangerous. It's all these elements that make rock entertaining.

ToledoBlade.com: Do you guys blame grunge for pushing out heavy metal?

Pearcy: No, not at all. We did it in our own screwed up way. I pulled out and we really didn't break up and nobody really did anything to pull the band out of the scene. We pulled ourselves out, which is a good thing. And then we came back.

I think the '90s and even early 2000s were all about cookie-cutter bands — not really exciting and not really colorful. You didn't know if the crew guy, the roadie, was a band member, you know? At least you have some identifying characters with our genre of music.

ToledoBlade.com: So what were you up to in the years when RATT wasn't together?

Pearcy: I was doing side projects, getting my label developed, and just kind of trying to do something different than "Ratt 'n' Roll." I like trying different things and doing different things and that's exactly what I was doing — getting into my auto racing and entertaining myself instead of each other.

ToledoBlade.com: You mentioned "The Wrestler" and the music that you did for that. ... That's a movie about coming to terms with past fame. ... As a group that has put our four platinum over the years, is that an issue that you ... have dealt with?

Pearcy: The music business per se, it's an up and down thing. We did arenas for so many years and we still do. If you get into it seriously and you're fortunate enough to have success you'll see it'll go up and down and you hang in there and you'll ride it up again because what comes around goes around, you know?

Read the entire interview from ToledoBlade.com (also available are audio excerpts from the chat).