Ratt's World Infestation with Author Greg Prato [Episode 183]

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Rat through Spotify, and also theirmusic was in Stranger Things and also Cobra
Khai, so they reached a wholenew audience as well. So yeah,
it's just a shame that you thinkthat they should have put aside their differences
if they wouldn't have done the Stadiumtour and promoted the box set with the
Stadium tour, and then this yearis the forty year anniversary of Out of

(00:20):
the Seller, So if they couldhave just put aside their differences and just
did with this one last tour,they probably could have hashed in. We're
totally rock and roll. I mean, I'll leave you you're reading little hens
this. It's time to rock androll, roll out. I totally booked.

(00:42):
Welcome back to Booked on Rock,the podcast for those about to read
and rock. You can find thepodcast online at booked on rock dot com.
That's where you can get every episode, along with links to listening platforms.
You've got exclusive videos, blogs,and the latest rock book releases.
One of those new releases is WorldInfestation The Rat Story by Greg Predo.

(01:03):
Greg recounts Rat's in tire tale fromtheir beginnings as a band slugging it out
on the Sunset strip to its riseto Faint, the breakups, the tragedy,
and the lawsuits right up through totoday. This book tells the Rat
story through interviews Greg has conducted overthe years, with several being exclusive for
this book. He also includes quotesfrom one of the last interviews with late
guitarist Robin Crosby, conducted by journalistsand podcaster Mitch Lafon. He's here to

(01:30):
share what's inside of the book,and of course we find a way to
somehow have a discussion about van Halenand David Lee Roth, Greg and I
can't resist talking about van Halen.A playlist of Rat on the show notes
page. But first here is GregPredo, Greg Predo, welcome back.
What's up? Greg? Hello,Eric, how you doing? Thanks for
having me back. Oh, it'sgreat to have you back. And for

(01:53):
this one Rat World infestation, theRat story, and this is told by
a bunch of different people members ofthe band. Tell us about all the
people you spoke with for this bookand the contributions too from Mitch Lafon.
Earlier on in my writing career,back in the early two thousands, I
did a large feature for Classic Rockmagazine which covered the whole entire RAT history,

(02:16):
and for that article I interviewed allthe surviving members, which is Stephen
Pearcy, Warren, d Martini,Juan Crusier, and also Bobby Blotzer.
And then a few years later Iinterviewed Warren for another book of mine about
MTV called MTV Ruled the World,which focused on the early years of music

(02:36):
video. Then last year, whenRATT put out their box set, I
did brand new interviews with Stephen Pearcyand I did a huge two part interview
with one for two different sites Iwrite for. And after I did that,
I think maybe one of the fansof my books might have emailed me
or messaged me and said, youknow, did you ever think of doing
a book about RATT? And thenI realized, with all the interviews I've

(02:58):
done with all the members, thatright there in itself is just a book
you're just waiting to be written.So I looked back at all the quotes.
All the quotes were good, coveredthe whole entire history, and then
I realized, let me go backand I was able to get some classic
magazine articles, so there were likemodern day quotes mixed with older quotes.
I did a few exclusive interviews forthis book, such as Bunny Carlos from

(03:23):
Cheap Trick because not too many peoplerealize Cheap Trick during one of their lower
points of their popularity, which iskind of hard to believe because Cheap Trick
at this point is considered like oneof the greatest rock bands of all time,
which I totally agree with. Innineteen eighty six they were at a
low point. They actually had toopen up for Rat on a tour of
arenas. I also interviewed Ricky Rackmanbecause he also crossed paths with Ratt,

(03:46):
and I also interviewed Don Jamison forsome comic relief, and also he is
a legitimate fan of heavy metals,so he had some interesting things to say.
And also Mitch Lafon, who isthe host of a podcast. He
did one of the last ever interviews, extensive interviews with Robin Crosby, and
I'm friendly with Mitch, so Igot in contact with him and I said,

(04:08):
hey, can I use your interview? And he said, by all
means, So I was able touse that whole entire interview, which was
very very nice of Mitch because thatwas such a revealing interview that was one
of the most revealing interviews I've probablyever read. I mean, Mitch got
Robin at a point where he justwanted to come clean and just just tell
the truth from his point of view. So I was able to include that.
So I think I have written thedefinitive story about Ratt. To be

(04:30):
honest with you, I would say, So, when was that interview with
Crosby? Do you remember? Thatwas two thousand and one. I think
he passed away in two thousand andtwo, if I'm not mistaken, And
it was like I think just afew months before he passed. Wow,
Yeah, he was sadly in verybad shape healthwise. He had aids,
he had he was very very badlyoverweight because he had some kind of condition

(04:53):
that he couldn't i think, metabolizefood correctly or something like that. And
it's sad because he even said duringthe interview, he says, like,
I don't eat badly. I don'teat a lot of food. It's just
that my food's not being broken upcorrectly, you know. It's just it's
sad that he Uh, They're justa very sad ending to his life.
When Yeah, it was a soberingmoment when he came out and talked about

(05:13):
it. He got it through druguse. I believe it he was addicted
to heroin. And again it saidbecause like Freddie Mercury, if he was
diagnosed with that, maybe just afew years later, like now they're able
to I think God treat AIDS patientswith you know, like drugs and stuff
like that, like they know whatto do. Whereas I guess up to
like the mid to late nineties,it was still kind of like hit or

(05:35):
miss or they just didn't know whatthey were doing with medication. One thing
that's interesting about Rat, and Ididn't realize this probably maybe until the nineties,
that they go back to the seventiessunset strip scene. Like I thought
early eighties they formed and playing insense to strip, but they go back

(05:55):
to like the days of Van Halenand Don Dokin and well, yeah,
well what it is. They startedout as a band called they were called
Mickey Rat and that was named afteran adult comic book, and that was
from the seventies. They're originally basedin San Diego, though they don't move.
Steven doesn't come to La until Ithink the dawn of nineteen eighty and

(06:15):
then he hooks up with Jakie Lee, who was also originally from San Diego,
and he then puts he basically movedrat from San Diego to LA.
And the reason why he moved isbecause he saw Van Halen in the late
seventies before they were even signed,So I guess that must have been seventy
six or seventy seven, and herealized something was going on and he said,

(06:35):
there's like, I have to goto LA because that's where it's all
happening if there's bands like Van Helen, because I guess San Diego wasn't as
you know, Rich Jay seen asfar as metal and hard rock went.
So he very wisely took a moveand obviously paid off for him. Yeah,
a friend of his told him,you got to check this band out,
and then he went there. Andthen the other thing that's interesting,

(06:56):
none of the guys are from LosAngeles, right, right, that's the
other thing why they're all they're alltransplants. It's true. How does the
lineup come together that the original lineup? Because there are some guys in and
out like Jack Lee, which isfascinating too, future Ozzie Osbourne guitars,
right. And then also something Ilearned from the book. I totally forgot
about it is jak Lee was brieflya member of Dio before he was an
Azzie, which yes, I kindof knew about that, but I forgot

(07:19):
about that. So that, youknow, going through all, I was
lucky to get my hands, likeI said, get my hands on some
older hit paraders and karrangs and circusmagazines. So it took me back and
I was able to get some goodquotes from that, you know, put
it all in perspective. But yeah, what happened was all of RAT members.
It seems like a lot of people, whether it was the band Poison,

(07:40):
whether it was RAT, a lotof guys came from out of town
to LA, and I don't know. It was probably because of Van Halen
because Van Halen was really the firstmetal or hard rock band from LA to
hit it big in the late seventies. Quiet Riot wasn't well known because their
albums just came out in Japan.It wasn't until eighty three if they hit
it big. So I guess itwas Van hell and just attracted all these

(08:01):
bands to uh to to LA.I mean, even Nikki six isn't even
from l A originally he was fromSeattle. I believe Duff from Guns N'
rosesn't from LA. He's from He'sfrom Seattle. So a lot of the
guys that wound up hitting it bigin the eighties were not from la which
is kind of interesting. And IAlson interviewed George Lynch for the He's quoted

(08:22):
in the book and he he sayshow it was a very incestuous scene at
the time. How at one pointWarren was playing guitar in Docin and George
was in Rat, even though theywere previously in the bands that we know
them with. Mean, Warren wasin RAT and then George was in Dockin.
Then they switched. Then at onepoint they were in a rehearsal studio

(08:43):
and they they met in the hallwayand they're like, what the hell are
we doing? Like you belong inthis band, I belong in that band,
and they just switched, which iskind of funny, but he just
yeah. And then also Jan wasin Docin. He played on the Breaking
the Chains album, So yeh,it's kind of funny how it was a
very incestuous scene at the time,with you know, guys playing in the

(09:03):
bands that like rotating around. Whatwas the name of the house the guys
from Motley Crue hung out with theguys from Rat right, was that Stevens
all right? Yeah, they hada gang called the Gladiators, Yes,
and they said it wasn't like agang that they would go in like you
know, mug people or stuff likethat. Were just like a party type
gang. But you know, somethingthat people talk a little bit about though,

(09:24):
there was a divide in the earlyeighties on the Sunset Strip. In
the very early eighties punk and newwave, where it was the most popular
type of music. There's a greatdocumentary called The Cline of Western Civilization,
not to be confused with the Clineof Western Civilization Part two. This is

(09:45):
part one from nineteen eighty eighty one. It came out and it's one of
the best documentaries. It focuses onlike Black Flag, the Germs, the
Circle Jerks. It's a fantastic documentary. I actually prefer that one more than
the heavy metal one. The heavymetal one is kind of like a goof
kind of, but the first oneI think is fantastic. It's directed by
the same person, Penelope Spirit Spiritright, right. But my point is

(10:09):
that heavy metal was not the populartype of music that was playing all the
clubs in say nineteen eighty eighty one. It was punk. It was you
know, Black Flag, Circle,Druks, those bands. It wasn't Ntil.
Motley Crue in eighty one starts tobreak through. Then it turned back
to metal. It was like hardrock and metal in the late seventies with
Quiet Riot and early version of Docand Van Hale, and then it went

(10:33):
to punk, then with Motley Crueand bands like Dubrow and Great White.
Then it slowly started to go backto metal in the early eighties. Yeah,
quite a ride with the number onealbum Metal Health and then also US
Festival I think was a bit playeda role in RAT. Finally, they
were like one of the last bandsfrom that senset trip scene to get signed.

(10:54):
I believe in the book, yeah, they were, And I think
Bobby Blotzer is quoted in the booksaying that they were kind of down in
the dumps because all their friends weregetting signed and all their friends were having
success, and it seemed like RATTwas going to be left behind. But
luckily they were able to put itall together. And like I say in
the book, some people tend tooverlook. For a period of time,
RAT was, without a without question, one of the top hard rock heavy

(11:18):
metal bands here in the States.In nineteen eighty four, they were more
popular than even Motley Crue. Invasionof Your Privacy charted higher and sold more
than Shout at the Devil. Thesong Round and Round was a top ten
hit, or I go into itwas either top ten or top top fifteen.
I forget round and Round was wasit twelve? Twelve? Twelve?

(11:39):
Okay? Yeah, and Motley Cruedidn't. I think they peaked at number
forty with Looks That Kill. Thatwas the highest they got. Then a
year later Rat towards Arenas and theiropening bands none other than bon Jovi.
So that just puts in perspective,how eighty four, eighty five, even
early eighty six, Rat is upthere with Motley Crue, Kiss Iron Made

(12:01):
Nausey like the top top hard rockmetal bands. Yeah, eighty five.
The RAT logo was inspired by kissYEP, we've learned that from the book.
Yet, Yes, Stephen talks aboutthat. He went for the block
letters kind of kind of look whichit's funny. I never really put two
and two together, but after Icame across what he said. It actually
makes sense. Producer bo Hill,his work with Rat well known, but

(12:24):
that was kind of a chance atthe time that Atlantic took to have him
work on out of the cellar.He had only produced some scare acts Airborne
and Shanghai. You mentioned in thebook he was actually a band. He
was a member of those bands,and I think he may have produced maybe
just one or two things prior tothat. But that decision pays off,

(12:46):
as we know. The only thingthat I will say, listening back to
the Rat albums today, it isa bit dated sounding, but then again,
a lot of the eighties hard rockand metal albums are. But you
know the thing their first e PitThat to me is my favorite RAT sound
and approach. It's very raw.It's definitely the hardest, hardest rock sounding

(13:07):
album. In fact, Robin Crosbysays that's his favorite sounding Rat. He
felt that's the way they should havestayed. But then again, you could
look at the other side of thecoin as if they didn't maybe go for
the Bowhill glossy type production, theywouldn't have scored such a big hit with
Randon Round. So yeah, thatwas the sound of the time, for

(13:28):
sure, exactly exactly. I listenedto a bunch of rat over the weekend
after I read the book, andthey had such a great groove. They
had this chemistry, which is theirony of that is none of that.
All of their personalities were so differentfive I think you've read in the book
five different personalities, extremely different,but they had this chemistry. Musically,

(13:52):
these guys had some skills well.I think Warren D. Martini is one
of the most underrated metal guitars fromthat area. The thing is, you
could make the argument. Seattle inthe early nineties gave us so many great
singers, you could make the argument. Then in the eighties the Sunset Strip
gave us so many great guitarists,and I mean singers with grunge that you
hear, like a few seconds ofLane Stale, you know it's him,

(14:13):
a few seconds of Chris Cornell,you know it's him. The same with
guitarists from the Sunset Strip. Theyall put their own unique thing. You
could hear a little bit of GeorgeLynch, you know it's him, Jaki
Lee, Eddie Van Hallen, ofcourse, Randy Rhoades, Warren D.
Martini, You just hear just alittle bit of them. And the thing
that the guitarists I just mentioned.They're considered shredders pretty much, but the

(14:33):
thing that made Warren D. Martiniso great, and of course also Eddie
van Halen. They could shred,but the majority of their solos aren't shredding
solos. They're melodic. You couldsing along to them. They fit the
song perfectly. They all put theimportance of the song above shredding away,
which I think is horribly missed nowadays. And now it's just all a generation

(14:54):
of gymnastics and how fast you canplay, and how many strings you have
in your guitar, and how expensiveyour guitar is. People tend to overlook
that Eddie van Halen was playing acrap guitar that he just slapped together himself.
You know, much more, yeah, much more than how many notes
you play, That's that's for sure. The song Round and Round, there
was quite a few comments that youget on this song random Round was written

(15:20):
Supposedly Warren D. Martini was sopoor that he was squatting inside a building
someplace, but I don't know.It must have had some kind of electricity,
because they would also somehow reverse there, so they must have had some
kind of electricity and Warren came upwith the riff in a building that he
was squatting in and somehow they puttwo and two together and then that was

(15:43):
how they came up with the song. And then Marshall Burrow, who we
know from the early days of ofcourse Van Hallen. He was Van Helen's
manager up to what Van Halen too, I think, right, yeah,
I think they got no Monk maybemaybe even before that. I think it
was after the first Van Halen tourwrapped up. Yeah, I think they

(16:04):
went to him and said we wantyou to be the manager. Yep.
Yeah, But anyway, he woundup eventually managing Rat and he even a
Rat's first EP was on Timecost Recorders, which is which was an indie label
through Marshall Burrow. And anyway,Marshall Burrell was the nephew of Milton Burle,

(16:27):
who was a TV legend from thefifties, and they were able to
get him involved in video and he'sa big star. He was the star
in the video for Random Round.He plays a man and also a woman.
Yes, Uncle Milty, yeah,Uncle Milty exactly. Oh. Also
something else that's interesting about that songis they were trying to work out a

(16:49):
solo as far as when it cameto who was going to play what with
the song's guitar solo, and Robinwas having difficulty coming up with something and
he was like, a you know, Warren, you just play the whole
thing. And Warren, to hiscredit, was like, no, no,
let's see work something out. Howabout I'll start with the solo and
then why don't you and I workout like a dual harmony type thing.
And that's one of the standout pointsof the song for me personally. That's

(17:11):
the song that launches rat. Likewe said, number twelve single the album
top ten. I believe that wasnumber seven. I was gonna say number
seven. Yeah. Yeah. Nowtell me about bow Hill and Steven Piercy's
vocals. He he had him todo. He had him always do three
takes and then he had him startsinging the end of the song. Yeah.

(17:33):
That was interesting. Yeah, that'ssomething that I've never really heard anyone
say before that he would start Stephensinging towards the end of the song to
have him warm up his voice,and then he would and then would go
to the beginning, and then alsosomething that they would do with his vocal,
with his vocal takes, which whichis now a pretty commonplace. I
know this is much more common whenit comes to solos with guitar. I

(17:56):
know, for instance, like whatthey would do is they would have a
few takes and they would take likeone part of one take to say,
from like take one, then anotherpart from take two, Take one,
take three. They would kind ofmush all the they would edit it all
all together. I know that RichieBlackmore did his solos that way. Alex
Liifsen has told me they also didthat with also Rush that actually he would

(18:19):
pretty trusting he would let gedty Leepretty much just decide what was going to
be what he would I recently interviewedhim. He said he would just leave
the room after he did a fewtakes with guitar solos and just let Terry
Brown the producer, and also geedtyLee just decide what went with what,
So he wouldn't even know what thesolo would went up sounding like. And
it's pretty crazy when you think ofclassic solos like in a Limelight And also

(18:41):
Tom Sawyer that theoretically that's probably likea few different solos that are all different
parts. Yeah, there's early versionof Round and Round two that I wonder
if it's out there somewhere. There'sa couple different versions that they played live
before they recorded it. I wonderif those are out there somewhere. Yeah,
you know, I was able tocome up. Interestingly, I was
able to come across a few interestingbootlegs while I was doing the book,

(19:07):
and then they just vanished, SoI don't know why or who took them
down. But also they were onYouTube but then got pulled. Hey,
yeah, they were on YouTube.There was a good one of them,
and I think Pasadena from eighty toeighty three, which was good. They
do an early version of I ThinkIt's Back for More and it has the
extra part in it that was onthe EP that was deleted from the version

(19:30):
on Out of the Cellar, soyou hear that. And they also do
I Believe, Round and Round andthere's slightly different lyrics and I think there's
even like a different part in there. So it's interesting to hear the embryonic
versions some of those songs. Yeah, that'd be a'd make a cool box
set. Yeah, but they justreleased a box set, which we'll get
to. That was something that you'vementioned the book, so out of the
seller, huge hit, and thenthey follow with nineteen eighty five's Invasion of

(19:53):
Your Privacy, the top forty layit Down, and then You're in Love
also, I believe was that mighthave been top forty two, two hits
from the album, number seven album, two platinum plus albums to their credit.
Their headlining arenas Now Your nineteen eightyfive rat is at the peak of
its popularity. But it seems likethis is the beginning of problems within the
band. During the tour with bonJovi opening, Robin notices his bandmates just

(20:17):
complaining a lot, egos getting bigger. The drugs and alcohol start to become
a problem around this time, right, yeah, he talks. I mean
at the time, they in thepress were making it seem like that it
was all it was all for one, one for all pretty much. But
then when you go back and hearthat indy that Mitchell finded with Robin,
it's not that way at all.He says, how the writing for that

(20:40):
album it star that they went ona band vacation to Hawaii and they brought
all their families with them, andit just so happened that whatever hotel they
were staying at, they didn't haveenough space for Robin. So it was
the whole entire band at one hoteland then the other hotel it wasn't that
close had Robin by himself, sothere wasn't that much hanging out or that

(21:00):
much like camaraderie as as previously.And he said that that was when the
beginning of the end kind of happened. I think that's when he started dabbling
with heroin. And also it justseemed just for just for whatever reason things
I guess maybe they just weren't onthe same page or what exactly happened.
But he also feels that they werea little bit rushed with that album,

(21:23):
and then as the albums go on, he feels they were even more rushed,
especially the third album that we'll getto Dancing Undercover. Yeah, I
mean, Robin was dating Tawny Katine, but at this time she's and she's
also on the first two album coversfor rat, isn't she yeah? He
or no, she's She's on theEP and then that's her, that's her
legs on the EP. She's onthe cover of Out of the Cellar,

(21:47):
and she's in the video for thesong called Back for More. She's actually
the head starlet in the video.Yeah, amazing. Neither of them are
around. They both passed. Yeah, they they were tight too, like
they were really close. She hadgreat things to say about him in that
documentary. I think there was something, there was some magic there because we
know she was with David Coverdale inlater years, but she seemed to really

(22:11):
really care about him, and theywere together for quite a long time.
I think I think, yeah,I mean, I think at that point
they weren't even boyfriend girlfriend. Ithink they just stayed friends because they know
he also dated the actress Apollonia fromthe movie Purple Rain. She was with
Prince and then he winds up marryinga playboy playmate, Lori Carr. I
believe it's her name, around eightysix, So that's all kind of like

(22:34):
in the same time. But yeah, but he seemed like he always remained
on good terms with Tony Katain,and like you said in the dh one
Behind the Music, she had nothingbut very very positive things to say about
Robin. The book Down Rock Podcastswill be back after this world investation.
The rat story it's out now,and we have the author of the book,

(22:57):
Greg Prato, to talk about thebook and Rats that third album,
Dancing Undercover from nineteen eighty six.The quotes from Robin, they paint the
picture of a band that's really headingtowards big trouble. Now, Warren's not
happy that Steven and Robin are gettingon the cover of the magazines and that
they're interviewed more than he is.But really Warren didn't talk much, right,

(23:18):
He was kind of shy, soit just made more sense that the
media would kind of gravitate towards thosetwo guys. But he was kind of
pissed off at that, right.And then there was a couple what's that
got to do with Rat moments?One with Robin on Howard Stern and then
another with Steven and Playgirl, Yesexactly. Yeah. What happened was Robin
went on Howard Stern with Steven,I believe, and they did an interview.

(23:40):
And Howard Stern back in those daysis a totally different interviewer than Howard
Stern is now. He was veryshall we say, rough round the edges,
and he was all about strippers andpornos, stars and things like that.
So when he found out that RobinCrosby had dated Towny Kataine Apollonia,
and he was, I think atthe time then just dating Lori Carr,

(24:02):
the Playboy playmate. I think that'slike all he wanted to talk about pretty
much, and it kind of rubbedthe rest of the band the wrong way.
And then also on top of that, in nineteen eighty six, the
summer of eighty six, Stephen Piercyposed in Playgirl magazine but was not naked,
though he had a thong or somekind of thing that was covering his
private parts, like a Burt Reynoldsthing. Yes, yeah, yes,

(24:25):
but that's where things start to happen. This is boy, this story.
You hear it so many times overthese bands. You know, the jealousy
and the riffs that start. Howcome he's on the cover of the magazine.
Although you know, one thing Iwill say, and I pointed sat
in the book, is that's alittle bit of it's not totally true because
in early nineteen eighty seven, whichwould still would have been the Dancing undercover
era, Warren was on at leasttwo guitar magazine covers, which I talked

(24:48):
about in the book he was.He was the sole cover feature of a
Guitar Player magazine in early eighty seven, and then him and Jakie Lee Or
together on a cover of Guitar forThe Practicing Musician also in early nineteen eighty
seven. So it's not totally correctthat he wasn't getting pressed because he actually
was. Yeah. I think itjust goes back to again, five very

(25:11):
different personalities, all trying to worktogether, and they were able to think,
is that's what makes bands like thatgreat. You need the push and
pull and people not necessarily getting together. That's what makes all the bands great.
That's what made Kiss great, thePolice great, the Rolling Stones great,
the Kink's great. Van Hallen withDavid Leagroth. I mean, you
can't. Sometimes bands get to allget along. Sometimes they don't. But

(25:33):
that's how it seems like the bestmusic is made. Yeah, absolutely,
and Dancing Undercover still successful. Dancewas a top forty single and the album
reaches number twenty six, but it'sstill underperformed. As far as the band
and the label was concerned, theywere hoping this was going to be where
they reached that next level. Andthen Warren's quoted in the book about the
album, saying it wasn't a badalbum, but could have been better.

(25:56):
The band had the chance to reallybreak it bigger than before, but it
was just that you were mentioning it. They rushed through it too much,
or they were being rushed being rushed. And also you can tell from Invasion
of Your Privacy on, as eachalbum goes along further, it has more
and more filler material like the EP. All the EP was great. I'd

(26:18):
say pretty much all of Invasion ofYour Privacy was great, or at least
you know, strong that you couldhear, you could listen to the whole
thing. Then with Invasion of YourPrivacy you could definitely point out or or
realize that, oh, yeah,this is the single. I don't know
what this song is. This songis a strong track, this is you
know. You could tell that theywere starting to pad the albums, and

(26:41):
it became very apparent on Dancing underCover. I believe Bobby Blatzer is quoted
as saying that he can't even listento the second side of the album because
he wasn't I forget if he saidhe didn't like Stevens's lyrics or it just
sounded like it was rushed, andI remember Robin Crosby also talks in the
book about he only like maybe likehalf the songs are just like a handful

(27:03):
of songs. So Detonator sounds likedef Leopard. Yeah, you know,
there is a song on Reach forthe Sky that actually starts with a deaf
leopard sounding vocoder sound, which isthe exact sound of the beginning of love
Bites, I believe. Yeah,like I love and use a dirty job,
and it's not necessarily a bad thing. It just I noticed that that

(27:26):
was very similar to the deaf leftsound and that day also I think Desmond
Child played a role in that.We'll talk about that, but I mean
the thing too, which all isjumping quick, you know, the thing
that one like. Of course,now hindsight's twenty twenty, but if RATT
would have gone back to their EPsound that was more rough and raw,

(27:47):
it definitely would it would have heldup better and also fit in. I
think it would have been more comparableto say Metallic and also Guns n' Roses,
who at the time in the lateeighties we had more of a raw
or at least more in your facetype sound compared to say Your Poisons and
were like, what you know Kisswas doing at the time, and Ozzie

(28:07):
was very glossy and poppy. Youknow. I forgot to mention too.
Warren a lot younger than the restof the guys in the band, wasn't
He was like eighteen and those guyswere the mid twenties. Yes, yeah.
He When he was invited to joinRAT, he was still in high
school. Steven Here called him andhe told him, you know, would
you like to join Rat? AndWarren was like, yeah, yeah,

(28:27):
let me just finish, you know, my last semester of high school.
And he's like, the last semester, I mean to come out tonight.
Yeah, yeah, we got agig tomorrow. Yeah. Right, And
then he thought about it and hewound up going. One thing I did
not find out. I wonder ifWarren ever finished high school. I did
not, Yeah, find that out. Maybe I speak to him. I'll

(28:48):
ask him that A ton of greatphotos between chapters eight and nine in the
book, I mean a ton ofthem. I mean, yeah, there's
so many good. Chapter ten,titled Reach for the Sky, This is
when we get into the late eightiesand Reached for the Sky featuring way Cole
Junior, which is one of myall time favorites. I want a woman's
on there too. Tell me aboutthe creation of way Cole Junior, one
of my favorite rat tunes. Warrentold you the Frank Zappa influence, right,

(29:11):
Yes, he became friends with DuezlZappa, and of course that is
the son of the legendary Frank Zappa, and Duezel at the time was pretty
popular. He was a VJ onMTV. He had a album out that
had a video that was also beingplayed at the time, so he I
remember watching him on MTV and himintroducing a rat video on him even saying

(29:33):
like this is one of my favoriteguitarists, Warren D. Martini. And
then he became friends with Warren maybethrough that, and he would bring Warren
to meet his father because I thinkDeezel still lived at home and Frank played
a little guitar thing and an influencedstory. It inspired Warren to come up
with the part that is featured inthe song Waykele Junior. That's cool.

(29:56):
Warren D. Martini is a greatguitarist. Name. That's his real name
too, is it? I believeit is. I just wanted to you
talked about the pictures in the book. I just want to give a shot
a shout out to the photographer ChristopherLee Helton. He's the gentleman that did
the pictures on the cover. Really, I mean phenomenal shots. He's just
looking through him here. Yeah.He took great photos of the band on

(30:18):
the Invasion tour the for Billy Squirein nineteen eighty four, really Squire yep,
also dancing under cover. He alsotook great photos of them playing some
like softball game or something like that. So I got lucky that I was
able to get in contact with Christopherand he let me use a lot of
his classic photos, which a lotof them I never even saw. And
I remember reading a lot of ratarticles back in the day and I never

(30:42):
saw a lot of those photos before. Yeah, definitely see Waning his doing
his moves, right. They alwaystease him with Wanda the dancer was a
spin around, yeah right right,yeah, yeah. They jan used to
do a lot of flamboyant stage moves, which is kind of because when I
interview him, he's very laid back, very friendly, like he's not a

(31:03):
flamboyant party. He doesn't strike meas that, but I when I asked
him how he came up with that, and he said that he had a
background in karate and how some ofthe moves were karate influenced to karate based
or something like that. So likea davidly Roth on bass, and Robin
was super tall man. That dudewas like it was he like six foot
five or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's

(31:26):
why he got the named King Robin. Yeah. There's a picture of Steven
doing a Roth kick here, DavidYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's called December of eighty five.Yeah, let's talk about all the lyrics
to Waykele Junior. I always youthought it was Axel Rose. I always
thought it was Frank Sinatra. Ithought I heard that somewhere. Who is

(31:48):
it about? When I asked Stephenthat, he said, it's not about
anybody in particular. I always thoughtit was Axel Rose because that came out
in late eighty eight, and thatwas when Guns n' Roses just became super
duperstar. They were all over MTVand everything, so that was what I
thought it was about. But no, Stephen told me that it is not
about anybody in particular. So thealbum, each number seventeen. Interesting to
read how Robin Crosby started producing andthen Steven he gets to live out his

(32:14):
childhood fantasy by becoming a race cardriver. He got into it with Vince
Neil of Motley Crue, which thatmade me think about when Vince was on
a Motley Crue in ninety one,ninety two, whatever it was. When
he was on MTV, he's talkingabout, well, they got rid of
me because they say I was moreinterested in racing cars. I'll never forget

(32:35):
that. So it's interesting. Sohim and Steven were racing cars. And
then going back to Robin, younoticed some interesting things that were said by
him during interviews that hinted at hisdrug problems. Yeah. He going back
to some of the interviews he didin Circus and things like that he associated
being on stage with like I forgetwhat amount of either a snorting Cokee Cain

(33:00):
or doing heroin or something like that. Yeah, I can find now,
My god, it's kind of likea weird That's not something that you would
really read. Wasn't that common toread that back in the late eighties and
a Circus magazine article Let's see thatwould be let's see is it chapter ten.
Is that in Yeah, it's eitherin the Reach for the Sky chapter
or the oh here we go,Yeah, yeah yeah. Rereading some of
this is in chapter ten. Rereadingsome of Crosby's quotes from back in the

(33:22):
day, he makes reference to druguse more than many might remember, such
as the time he was quoted assaying, the highlights keep getting higher and
it's not over yet. Playing MadisonSquare Garden, the Forum in full stadiums
in Japan. It's all like Heroin. There's no other high like it.
This might be a quote I thinkfrom Mitch's interview. He says Reach for
the Sky got bad for me becauseI got real strung out because we had

(33:45):
all that time off. Plus there'sa lot of animosity, and everybody was
doing their family thing. We sortof drifted apart, and when we got
to doing it again, I knowa lot of us were really ready to
get back into it and get awayfrom the domestic bullshit, which I was
never cut out. Four should haveknown from the beginning that getting married and
shit just was not me who alreadymarried. He didn't marry Tony Katin,

(34:06):
though he married Lori Carr, whowas the Playboy playmate and they were only
married for a few years and theywound up getting divorced. So that last
album that Robbins a part of wouldbe Reached for the Sky Right. Well,
no, he was on Detonator.He was on Detonator, but his
role in the band was definitely diminishingbecause he was at that point. I

(34:27):
think the band knew he had abad drug problem, so he tried to
go into rehab. That album,too, was a bit of a misfire
because some of the band wanted tobe raw, and they wound up hooking
up with none other than Desmond Child, who I mean, Desmond Child is
great if you're trying to write atop forty hot rock metal hit at that

(34:47):
time. I mean, there's nodenying the success he had with bon Jovi
at the time, But if you'retrying to get a raw rock sam Desmond
Child is not the producer you'd wantto go with. And they wound up
going with him, and they woundup with a very poppy, glossy album,
which in late nineteen ninety that's whenFaith No More The Real Thing is

(35:07):
a big hit. Soundguarden is justkind of starring a little bit. Jane's
addiction just put a ritual Daleo Habitualand that's also a surprise hit. So
that was not the time to startputting keep putting up pop metal things.
That would have been the time toget a little more raw, a little
bit more direct. You interviewed Desmond, didn't you You asked him about because

(35:27):
you said to him, it's oneof those albums that people don't talk about
a lot. What did you thinkof it? Right? Didn't he comment
on that album himself? I thinkhe was happy with it. Yeah,
he was. He didn't go toodeep into it. He just said that.
He just admitted that the band wasin a bit they were experiencing a
lot of turmoil about with what wasgoing on with Robin, that Robin wasn't

(35:50):
as involved as he once was.And I know Robin talks in the book
that he was in rehab at somepoint during the making of it and he
was hurt. That's supposedly not moreband members went to visit him. But
then he talks about at one pointsome of the members or one or two
members went with Desmond to meet himand rehab and talk to him. And
so they did at least go once. According to you, know Robin,

(36:14):
but yeah, Desmond not only wrotesongs, he produced it. Yeah,
co producer with Arthur Payson. Yes. And then it's interesting John bon Jovi
backing vocals on heads, I win, Tails, you lose. Michael Shanker
he's on Shame, Shame, Shame. It says tag on shame shamee.
I don't know what that means,but I guess he contributes guitar to that

(36:35):
track. Yeah, Yeah, Ilove and use a dirty job. I
love that song. It's a greatsong. It went gold, the album
went gold. I was gonna say, I'll be honest, that was the
first rat album I did not buy. Yeah, well yeah, because everybody
was kind of steering away when Iwas. Yeah, at that point,
I was kind of I started tolisten because, like in the late mid
toly eighties, all I listened tois really heavy metal and also hard rock.

(36:58):
I was maybe a little bit differentthan some of the heavy metal fans
that I went back into the sixtiesand seventies, and I loved Jimi Hendrix
and Mauntain and early Alice Cooper andthings like that. Robin Trauer, I
loved the Bridge of Size album.I remember listening to that a lot at
the time Grand Funk, you know, like those bands, but late in
the eighties and definitely by nineteen ninety. At that point, I'm listening to

(37:19):
other styles of music. I stilllike hard rock and heavy metal, but
who knows. I mean again,if RATT was maybe a little bit more
raw and a little bit more liketheir early albums, maybe I would have
stuck it out. But yeah,at point I would just so burnt down
on like what pop metal and hairmetal sounded alike. I just didn't want
to hear any more of it.The book Done Rock Podcasts will be back
after this. What happens to Ratin the nineties, everything just falls apart,

(37:45):
but not just for Rat, justfor all those bands from that era.
But if you give a brief summaryof what happens with RATT in the
nineties and into the two thousands,because they did get back together in the
late nineties, but then that fellapart, and then there's lawsuits, and
I remember Stephen being replaced new singer. I remember seeing them live and it
just wasn't the same thing. Andthen there was one version of Rat with

(38:06):
Bobby Blatzer, another version of Ratwith Steve. I mean let's start with
I guess the nineties. They breakup around what ninety two or three,
early ninety two. I believe whathappened is they they tried to tour and
support of the album Detonator, andit was horrible. They wound up taking
out they they had an advance fora big March deal that they took the

(38:28):
money, and then the app thetour wasn't selling well. They were playing
like half full arenas and they hadthey then had to owe the money back
or something like that, so thatwas stressful. Then on top of it,
you have Robin struggling with drug addictionto the point that he wounds up
leaving the band mid tour. He'sreplaced by Michael Schanker. Then, for

(38:49):
some reason, now you think ifyou have Michael Schanker in the band,
you would want to feature him throughoutthe show. But for some weird reason,
and even Steven and Stephen says,I don't still don't understand why we
did this. They play half theshow with just one guitars, which is
just Warren. They have a keyboardistplaying. Then halfway through the show Michael

(39:10):
Schanker comes out, So like,why you waste talking about why the keyboardist
and Rat too, you know that, you know Rats, the main the
main thing I think of with Rat, beside Stevens vocals is the whole,
the whole two guitars playing off eachother. Shanker had name value too,

(39:30):
exactly, so I don't know why. Yes, anyway, so from exactly,
Yeah, they even covered lights Outon that tour. There's a cool
clip of it on YouTube that youcan. I got to check it out.
But then what happened so so sothat that that tour bombs. They
put out a Greatest Hits album,which is a sin that they put five

(39:52):
songs off off of the Detonator albumon it, which Ratt and Roll Lady
one to ninety one. Right,Yes, they they only put two songs
off of Invasion of Your Privacy,which was a big hit, and they
put so it's two songs off ofthat, and then five songs off of
Detonator, which was oh my god. Yeah, I'm looking at the track.
That was clearly someone at the recordlabel trying to hope that one of

(40:13):
those songs would catch on or somethinglike that, you know. But yeah,
they wound up breaking up in earlyninety two because everything that's going on
is a lot of friction and fighting, and then, like you said,
they try to get They get backtogether in the late nineties, but without
Wan and without Robin because Robin isvery bad off health wise and he's still
badly addicted to drugs. The Behindthe Music ran around that time. Right

(40:37):
Behind the Music was an early theearly two thousands. That was early two
thousands, okay, what happened,which was interesting, which they decided they
were going to do it Behind theMusic in the early two thousands, they
filmed Robin's segment. Then they shelvedit for some reason because it went one
or two years, and during thatinterim period is when Robin sadly passed away.
Then they eventually the surviving members thenon board, and then they finish

(41:00):
it off and they were able touse Robin's parts, which which when I
spoke to Wan, he said,he's very thankful because it's like, you
know, nice that he wound upbeing involved to and it's kind of like
seeing an old friend that he wasable to at least share his viewpoints and
everything. Right now, what's thealbum? So nineteen ninety nine, they

(41:20):
have an album that comes out it'soften referred to as nineteen ninety nine.
So this is really just a selftitled album. Okay, So who's this
is? Stephen Warren, Robbie andSteve Yes. Stephen, Bobby Blotzer and
Warren are the only three RAT membersfrom the classic RAT lineup. And you

(41:42):
know that album was okay. Imean again, you know at that point,
I'm not really listening to that styleof music that much. The album
they put out years later with CarlosCavazo on guitar that I thought was on
par with Rat in the eighties andit was more of a raw production.
So, like, I listened tothat and I'm thinking thinking, oh,
now, this is what RAT shouldhave been going for in the late eighties.

(42:02):
That would have, I think,probably aged better. And also that's
is that infestation you're talking about?Yeah, that's a good That is a
really good album exactly is the singleyep, really good track? And something
else. I went back and listenedto a lot of the solo material that
Stephen Piercey did. Steven Piercy didsolo band in the nineties. He did

(42:24):
a industrial type band and then hedid a thing called Arcade and Arcade he
did one or two solo albums theywent back and listened to and again it
was a very dry production, verystraight ahead, and they're just no comparison.
So that, to me is thebiggest mistake with Rats. I wish
their eighties albums had a more raw, in your face production because whenever I

(42:46):
hear what they did later on,it just it just sounds just like so
much better and it's not dated.And then I think showcases his voice better,
the guitars, the riffs, everything. Yeah, he had the band's
fireedome, Crystal Pistol, Arcade,Vicious, Delight, and Vertex White I
think is the one I'm talking about. Is it okay? Because Vertex I

(43:07):
thought I see someone Vertex. Maybeit's actually Vertex. I don't know.
It's like nine inch nails type.That must be the industrial thing. And
like I said, also, Arcade, I remember came out in the mid
nineties. I think, okay,So then there's a bunch of lawsuits about
who owns the rights to the namethe name, yeah, and then you
have a couple of well you knowwhat's funny actually kind of said they were

(43:29):
Rat was not the only band fromthat from the Sunset Strip that had two
different Rats touring at the same time. During that era, I think you
had two La Guns touring. Youhad two great Whites toaring. Right now
you have two great yeah still doyeah? Right and now sadly you well,
I mean now it happened, we'reskipping ahead. But now with Rat

(43:49):
there's no Rat band touring. It'sStephen solo. And now Bobby Blotzer is
going to go out. I forgetwhat the name is, but it's something
Rat. Yeah, Bobby Blotzer's RatAttack. Okay, there you go.
Yeah yeah, so all right,yeah, so now we don't really I
mean, these guys they do notlike Bobby, Stephen Lawn and Warren,

(44:10):
but also Warren doesn't like Steve.I don't know what this. Yeah,
it's so very hard to get aread on who doesn't get along with who.
I mean really it comes down tomoney, because they they have been
able to get together every so oftenfor tours or albums. I mean again,
it's the same, similar to thewhole Van Hill and David Lee Roth
and also the same a Hagar thingthat it seems like like why can't grown

(44:35):
men just put aside their differences andact like adults split everything equally, and
you know we'll take either separate tourbuses and stay in separate hotels. Because
something that Ricky Rackman says in thebook, which I totally agree with,
that stadium tour that happened a coupleof years ago with def Leppard, Motley
Crue, Poison and Joan Jet.I love Joon Jet, but I think

(44:57):
it or Ricky says it's Rat shouldhave been the BA and Man not Jone
Jet, that that would have madethe most sense, that it would have
been perfect. Yeah, because becauseRatt was more like a glam metal hair
metal band from that time, andthey were just as popular as those bands.
In fact, I think Ratt holdsup better than most most of Motley
Crue's albums, to be honest withyou, I mean Motley Crue is the

(45:17):
king of pet of albums, paddingwith filler and stuff. After after Shout
at the Devil was right hanging.Also Girls Girls Girls, Yeah, and
until Doctor Field Good is when theykind of got to shit together and put
together a real consistent album. Andalso Stephen Pearcy had that type of voice
where he didn't blow it out sohe could still from what I hear and

(45:39):
see on YouTube. He still soundsgreat. He's sixty seven now, according
to Will, sounds good. Imean, you know, not to make
not to make fun of anybody,but here what Vince Neil sounds like now,
and then you compare it to StephenPearcy, there's really no comparison.
I mean, I'm also a hugefan of Paul Stanley. But I think
Paul Stanley's even admitted he had wroteproblems and serges and stuff, so his

(46:00):
vocals towards the end of Kiss weren'tas strong as say the seventies or eighties.
I mean eighties was when Paul Stanleywas at his peak. Oh yeah,
yeah, but even though I was, I mean, Kiss in the
seventies is really my favorite Kiss.But anyway, even curiously, I think
sounds good still left. Yeah.I'm really interested though, in hearing what

(46:20):
this Motley crewmus is going to soundlike with John five on guitar. They're
recording an album. They are reallyinterested in that. The other thing is
John bon Jovi was another guy whosevoice really really went downhill. But he's
been talking recently about there was anissue, there was something that he had
to go under the knife for hedid he did, which you know,
I give him credit for going publicwith that because he doesn't have to go

(46:44):
public. I mean, but athe answers the question like what the hell
happened? Right, yeah, becausesome people have throat problems. I mean,
I know, like Robert Plant inthe early seventies had like a secret
throat operator procedure after I think theHouses of the Holy tour that people that
kind of got swept under the rug. And I know there was like people
on YouTube and on the internet,which they do a comparison, and like

(47:07):
Robert Plant's voice was never as stellaras it was prior to that. But
that's just part of the human body, you know, and just the human
voice is a very fickle thing.You know, everyone's different. So we
know, though, if rat wereto get back together for one last tour,
they could maybe maybe do small arenaswith a solid opening act. Maybe.
But my question is why weren't theybigger than they felt they should have

(47:30):
been? Right? I mean ineighty five they reached the peak, but
like they say, just it,it's just that there were missteps along the
way or they rushed through albums becausethey really should have been bigger. Than
they were. Well, I mean, they were as big as they were,
you know, I mean, youknow, in that eighty forty definitely
eighty five, they were in thetop five metal bands here in the States.

(47:52):
What's funny is, though, Rattis one of those bands that they
never were as big outside of wellnot they were big in Japan. I
know, they're probably big, andalso Canada because Canada and also the US
seem to have the same tastes,but they were never as popular in Europe
and also in England. In fact, they didn't do a proper tour of

(48:12):
England, I believe, until theend of the Invasion of Your Privacy tour
cycle. They opened up a stringof dates for Ozzy. Okay's funny is
Ozzy started his Ultimate Sin tour inEurope with Rat opening up. Then he
comes to America with the band Metallicopening up on the Master of Puppets tour.
That's totally opposite ends of kind ofmetal at that point. You know,

(48:36):
we have the glam metal and thenwe have the back to basics thrash
metal right there. I just think, man, they have that Doctor Feel
Good album in them. If theyhad really just gotten that focus, maybe
but hey, you know, likeI said, they were huge, man,
I remember, I just feel likethey should. I just I listened
to the music, and like yousay, it just holds up so well,
and I just feel like, youknow, who would have helped them,

(48:57):
Mike Clink and the late eighties,probably to help him as a producer,
because he was one of the fewproducers that was doing hard rock metal
albums that was not doing the horriblecannon drum sound and like the overprocessed and
all the You know, when youlistened to certain eighties metal and hard rock
or really pop metal type stuff,it just sounds so dated. That you

(49:21):
listened to Appetite for Destruction, itdoes sound a little bit like the eighties,
but it's more a throwback to theseventies or maybe like the they Well,
I know because I've interviewed my Clinkin the past that Guns N' Roses
on Appetite for Destruction wanted a Aerosmithsound from the seventies. Yeah, and
it does have a great sound toit well. But by the way,
speaking of Aerosmith, where Rat usedto get the used to get teased for

(49:44):
being an Aerosmith ripoff, and thenJoe Perry said something really cool to the
guys, I think backstage after ashow. Right, Yeah, there's a
whole chapter in the book that therewere two Bends that early in their career,
Rat was compared to a lot.It seemed like almost every article and
circus and Hip Parader they would geta comparison. They were either compared compared
to seventies era Arrowsmith, or theywere compared to as well Motley Crowe.

(50:09):
But I don't think Rat was anythinglike Motley Crue personally. They were just
both popular at the same time,came from the same you know location.
I guess maybe similar production. Butyeah, I think there's I think that
there's a difference and Arrowsmith and Ratt. I don't think that. I know

(50:30):
that Rat covered the song Walking theDog, which are also Arrowsmith covered,
But besides that, I don't mean, I don't really hear too much like
Ratt never really got that bluesy.I guess walking and not Walking the Dog,
I guess way Cole Junior without beginningguitar part was was kind of bluesy,
but everybody got as bluesy as likeTran kept the rolling or anything like

(50:51):
that. Right, No, Ithink they just had a sound all their
own. It's just that groove.They had a killer groove on those tunes.
The thing too, which you saidabout, like you know, how
come they came get back together?Really it's a shame they can't because since
they've since maybe the late eighties orearly nineties, I would say Rat is
probably like there's more I think peoplethere's a wide variety of people that want

(51:12):
to go see Rat now because Ratthrough Spotify and Stranger Things, right,
Yeah, and also their music wasin Stranger Things and also Cobra Kai had
Kai Rat songs, so they've reacheda whole new audience as well. So
yeah, it's just a shame thatyou think that they should have put it
away, put aside their differences,if they would have done the Stadium tour
and promoted the box set with thestadium tour, and then this year is

(51:37):
the forty year anniversary of Out ofthe Seller, so they should if they
could have just put aside their differencesand just did with this one last tour,
they probably could have cashed in.Yeah, that box that came out
when last okay almost exactly one yearago, and that box set, what's
in that are the rarities are therethings that? Yeah, what it is?
It's every album, It's all therealbums on Atlantic. It's from Invasion

(52:01):
of Your Privacy through Detonator with asingle that has a song and nobody rides
for free. And the only thingthough was they really should have put the
EP in there, but they didn'tbecause the EP at one point was reissued
through Atlantic. So I don't knowif it was like a licensing issue of
maybe the rights reverted back to MarshallBurrell or what the story is with that.

(52:24):
But yeah, I mean to me, the EP is Rat's best thing.
It's kind of a shame that wasn'tincluded. Well, the book is
out now, right, World Infestationthe rat story exactly, doubt now.
So people can find whoever books aresold? And where could people find you
online? Greg? All the USsay probably the best place to find the
book is Amazon. It's available askindle, paperback, hardcover, or if

(52:49):
you want to hear my Beautiful LongIsland Accent, it's also available as an
audiobook narrated by me. Yes,and by the way, you did send
a copy to mister Stephen Percy,so you just sent him. Yeah,
it's true. I did send acopy of the book to Stephen Pearcy.
I'm curious to see what he thinksof it. Hopefully he enjoys it,
but I'm sure he will. Yeah, And if people want to check out
what I'm up to, because Iwrite for a bunch of websites and magazines,

(53:12):
always doing books. If you wantto go to Twitter or X what
is it is? Twitter? Old? Now? I go with X.
Okay, I go with X.Actually I actually still go with Twitter,
but X is easier. Right.Well, anyway, if you go to
Twitter dot com or x dot comslash Greg Predo writer, that's g r
G pure Ato writer. I'm alwaysposting my latest articles and interviews. I

(53:35):
just interviewed Buck Dharma from l Yeah. Yeah, they got a new single
out and an album coming out.They have a new album coming out and
the album is very good. Whatit is is they found a lot of
songs that were never finished. Theywere like demoed or leftover songs from the
late seventies early eighties. They wentback and finished them off and it's like
a long lost voyster cult album fromthat there. It's actually very strong and

(53:58):
also very good. It's called Ghosts. Okay, and You've contributed a lot
of great stuff to the Van Hilland News desk. You just did one
on David le Ross Skyscraper. Yes, and the guys from the DLR cast
Darren Peltchwitz and Steve Roth mentioned thatthey talked about it in their last episode.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Ido a lot of news articles for

(54:20):
the Ultimate Guitar site Ultimate Guitar dotcom. Yes, yeah, and they're
kind enough to let me for columnsand features. Sometimes do excerpts for my
books, because I've done post offorty books, if you can believe that.
Yeah, man, that's all I'veand I read your very first one
exactly, thank you very much,yet called a devil on one shoulder an
angel on the other of the showstory. But yeah, So I was

(54:44):
able to do a article recently fromquotes from one from my book called Tredder's
and it was it was quotes fromBilly Shean talking about how Skyscraper he thinks
that that was pretty much davidly Rothtrying to merge rock with disco or dance
dance. Yeah. But the thingis, like, and if you give
d LAR cast to listen to thatepisode, they brought up a good point.

(55:07):
I think the only song that youcan dance to is stand Up.
I don't think it was really dance. I think it was more like new
wave pop, like keyboard pop,kind of which I don't know. I
mean, you know again, Davidsee you know what it is. If
it did not follow, if itdid not come right after Eat Him and
Smile, Eat Him and Smile,I think is front to back phenomena that

(55:29):
that's besides Van Halen. I don'tthink there's any comparison that that's Daily Roy.
I mean all the Van Hellen albumsor at the top of Mount Everest
right below it is Eat Him andSmile for me. But the fact that
he would have just done such ana about face, and if you do
a song for song comparison to EatHim and Smile, I just don't think
it's as strong. It's not asrocking, it's not it's just too dated

(55:52):
sounding. I mean, I'm sureif you heard some of Edom and Smiles
probably dated too, but just Idon't know. I don't think Going Going
Crazy has a little bit of synthin there, but yeah, but yeah,
but I and it also just EatHim and Smiles sound like you hear
the band really Gelling and yeah,yeah, davidly Roth, just you know,

(56:13):
on one side, I want tokiss him on the cheek, the
other side, I want to wringhis neck because I mean, that's the
episode. Yeah, I mean toleave Van Halen when he left when they
were going to become the US ledZeppelin, and then he manages to pull
off the impossible and put together aband that I think was on par or

(56:37):
at least close to Van Hallen,and then you just I know, it
just breaks it up. And aswe know, like to this day,
there's a lot of head scratcher thingsthat he'll do, and I don't think
he likes to do the same thingtwice. So Skyscraper, Yeah, And
the funny thing is like he wasalways against jump the keyboards with Eddie and
Gyscrapers, like you know. Butthen that what I understand is anything heavy.

(56:59):
What I understand is he goes fromSkyscraper and then he tries to go
back to kind of a more rockeat him but yeah, exactly, And
that album to this day I've neverlistened to I'll be really really okay,
But did you know Bob Ezrin wassupposed to produce that at first? Yeah,
And then Bob Rock found that.But just at that point, you

(57:19):
know, around that era, Iwas a huge Steve I fan, and
I love Steve Vine and Billy Sheentogether, So at that point I was
just over it, and I justcouldn't really stomach. Although I mean,
I I do appreciate Jason Becker andeverything Skyscraper, it's like Billy was underutilized,
like even on Just Like Paradise,and I love Just Like Paradise.
But I was just listening to itthe other day, listen closely, and
I'm like, there's no way ifBilly's playing bass on that he did it

(57:43):
in his sleep, because you know, I think it's a synth bass.
It sounds like a synth bassline.It's not doesn't sound like Billy at all.
What I understand is how come DavidLee Roth couldn't have just given Billy
Sheen like one or two songs,say look, Billy, Billy, do
whatever you want these two songs likeplay your ass off, I don't care.
But all these other songs we're gonnado, you know, the stuff
that you know, But he didn't. He didn't, so well anyway,

(58:04):
that's well, that's for another discussionwe'll have a whole other Yeah, we
we could talk van Halen next month, maybe really get into Hey, we
got the Alex van Halen book.Man, that's the Oh my god,
I already put in a request tosee if Alex van hall is doing interviews
and support this. But yes,oh my god, I write for absolutely
man. That would be so great, so cool. The Rat Story,

(58:28):
World Infestation. The Rat Story isout now, that's the book to get
and Greg, we'll have you backon soon. I am sure. What
do you have coming up next?Nineties fans have something looking I have a
book that I'm working on. Ican't give way too much because I don't
want you know, I just wantpeople to always be on their toes.
But it is a style of musicin the nineties, not grunge, but

(58:50):
a style of music in the ninetiesthat was very, very popular. You
know what, I'm just gonna comeout. I'm just going to tell you
what it is. Backstreet Boys,Wow, and that one of the greatest
rock and roll bands of all time. And then in Sync that's the next
one, yes, now, Buthonestly, it is a nineties rock style.
When's it coming out? Well,I'm still in the stage of doing

(59:14):
interviews for it. Okay, soI'm still at that stage. Hopefully I'll
be wrapping it up in the nearfuture, you know, that stage of
the book process, putting it togetherand then shopping it around. So hope,
hopefully twenty twenty five I'm looking forwardto. All Right, all right,
well, keep me posted. We'llhave you back on to talk about
it. Greg, thanks man.Always love having you on. Thank you,

(59:35):
Eric, I appreciate it. That'sit. It's in the books.

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Ratt's World Infestation with Author Greg Prato [Episode 183]

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