Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Ratt's World Infestation with Author Greg Prato [Episode 183]

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Ratt's World Infestation with Author Greg Prato [Episode 183] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

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Rat through Spotify, and also their music was in Stranger Things and also Cobra
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Khai, so they reached a whole new audience as well. So yeah,
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it's just a shame that you think that they should have put aside their differences
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if they wouldn't have done the Stadium tour and promoted the box set with the
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Stadium tour, and then this year is the forty year anniversary of Out of
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the Seller, So if they could have just put aside their differences and just
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did with this one last tour, they probably could have hashed in. We're
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totally rock and roll. I mean, I'll leave you you're reading little hens
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this. It's time to rock and roll, roll out. I totally booked.
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Welcome back to Booked on Rock, the podcast for those about to read
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and rock. You can find the podcast online at booked on rock dot com.
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That's where you can get every episode, along with links to listening platforms.
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You've got exclusive videos, blogs, and the latest rock book releases.
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One of those new releases is World Infestation The Rat Story by Greg Predo.
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Greg recounts Rat's in tire tale from their beginnings as a band slugging it out
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on the Sunset strip to its rise to Faint, the breakups, the tragedy,
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and the lawsuits right up through to today. This book tells the Rat
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story through interviews Greg has conducted over the years, with several being exclusive for
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this book. He also includes quotes from one of the last interviews with late
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guitarist Robin Crosby, conducted by journalists and podcaster Mitch Lafon. He's here to
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share what's inside of the book, and of course we find a way to
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somehow have a discussion about van Halen and David Lee Roth, Greg and I
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can't resist talking about van Halen. A playlist of Rat on the show notes
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page. But first here is Greg Predo, Greg Predo, welcome back.
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What's up? Greg? Hello, Eric, how you doing? Thanks for
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having me back. Oh, it's great to have you back. And for
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this one Rat World infestation, the Rat story, and this is told by
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a bunch of different people members of the band. Tell us about all the
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people you spoke with for this book and the contributions too from Mitch Lafon.
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Earlier on in my writing career, back in the early two thousands, I
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did a large feature for Classic Rock magazine which covered the whole entire RAT history,
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and for that article I interviewed all the surviving members, which is Stephen
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Pearcy, Warren, d Martini, Juan Crusier, and also Bobby Blotzer.
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And then a few years later I interviewed Warren for another book of mine about
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MTV called MTV Ruled the World, which focused on the early years of music
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video. Then last year, when RATT put out their box set, I
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did brand new interviews with Stephen Pearcy and I did a huge two part interview
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with one for two different sites I write for. And after I did that,
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I think maybe one of the fans of my books might have emailed me
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or messaged me and said, you know, did you ever think of doing
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a book about RATT? And then I realized, with all the interviews I've
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done with all the members, that right there in itself is just a book
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you're just waiting to be written. So I looked back at all the quotes.
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All the quotes were good, covered the whole entire history, and then
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I realized, let me go back and I was able to get some classic
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magazine articles, so there were like modern day quotes mixed with older quotes.
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I did a few exclusive interviews for this book, such as Bunny Carlos from
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Cheap Trick because not too many people realize Cheap Trick during one of their lower
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points of their popularity, which is kind of hard to believe because Cheap Trick
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at this point is considered like one of the greatest rock bands of all time,
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which I totally agree with. In nineteen eighty six they were at a
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low point. They actually had to open up for Rat on a tour of
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arenas. I also interviewed Ricky Rackman because he also crossed paths with Ratt,
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and I also interviewed Don Jamison for some comic relief, and also he is
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a legitimate fan of heavy metals, so he had some interesting things to say.
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And also Mitch Lafon, who is the host of a podcast. He
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did one of the last ever interviews, extensive interviews with Robin Crosby, and
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I'm friendly with Mitch, so I got in contact with him and I said,
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hey, can I use your interview? And he said, by all
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means, So I was able to use that whole entire interview, which was
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very very nice of Mitch because that was such a revealing interview that was one
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of the most revealing interviews I've probably ever read. I mean, Mitch got
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Robin at a point where he just wanted to come clean and just just tell
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the truth from his point of view. So I was able to include that.
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So I think I have written the definitive story about Ratt. To be
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honest with you, I would say, So, when was that interview with
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Crosby? Do you remember? That was two thousand and one. I think
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he passed away in two thousand and two, if I'm not mistaken, And
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it was like I think just a few months before he passed. Wow,
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Yeah, he was sadly in very bad shape healthwise. He had aids,
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he had he was very very badly overweight because he had some kind of condition
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that he couldn't i think, metabolize food correctly or something like that. And
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it's sad because he even said during the interview, he says, like,
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I don't eat badly. I don't eat a lot of food. It's just
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that my food's not being broken up correctly, you know. It's just it's
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sad that he Uh, They're just a very sad ending to his life.
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When Yeah, it was a sobering moment when he came out and talked about
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it. He got it through drug use. I believe it he was addicted
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to heroin. And again it said because like Freddie Mercury, if he was
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diagnosed with that, maybe just a few years later, like now they're able
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to I think God treat AIDS patients with you know, like drugs and stuff
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like that, like they know what to do. Whereas I guess up to
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like the mid to late nineties, it was still kind of like hit or
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miss or they just didn't know what they were doing with medication. One thing
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that's interesting about Rat, and I didn't realize this probably maybe until the nineties,
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that they go back to the seventies sunset strip scene. Like I thought
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early eighties they formed and playing in sense to strip, but they go back
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to like the days of Van Halen and Don Dokin and well, yeah,
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well what it is. They started out as a band called they were called
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Mickey Rat and that was named after an adult comic book, and that was
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from the seventies. They're originally based in San Diego, though they don't move.
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Steven doesn't come to La until I think the dawn of nineteen eighty and
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then he hooks up with Jakie Lee, who was also originally from San Diego,
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and he then puts he basically moved rat from San Diego to LA.
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And the reason why he moved is because he saw Van Halen in the late
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seventies before they were even signed, So I guess that must have been seventy
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six or seventy seven, and he realized something was going on and he said,
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there's like, I have to go to LA because that's where it's all
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happening if there's bands like Van Helen, because I guess San Diego wasn't as
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you know, Rich Jay seen as far as metal and hard rock went.
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So he very wisely took a move and obviously paid off for him. Yeah,
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a friend of his told him, you got to check this band out,
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and then he went there. And then the other thing that's interesting,
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none of the guys are from Los Angeles, right, right, that's the
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other thing why they're all they're all transplants. It's true. How does the
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lineup come together that the original lineup? Because there are some guys in and
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out like Jack Lee, which is fascinating too, future Ozzie Osbourne guitars,
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right. And then also something I learned from the book. I totally forgot
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about it is jak Lee was briefly a member of Dio before he was an
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Azzie, which yes, I kind of knew about that, but I forgot
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about that. So that, you know, going through all, I was
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lucky to get my hands, like I said, get my hands on some
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older hit paraders and karrangs and circus magazines. So it took me back and
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I was able to get some good quotes from that, you know, put
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it all in perspective. But yeah, what happened was all of RAT members.
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It seems like a lot of people, whether it was the band Poison,
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whether it was RAT, a lot of guys came from out of town
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to LA, and I don't know. It was probably because of Van Halen
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because Van Halen was really the first metal or hard rock band from LA to
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hit it big in the late seventies. Quiet Riot wasn't well known because their
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albums just came out in Japan. It wasn't until eighty three if they hit
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it big. So I guess it was Van hell and just attracted all these
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bands to uh to to LA. I mean, even Nikki six isn't even
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from l A originally he was from Seattle. I believe Duff from Guns N'
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rosesn't from LA. He's from He's from Seattle. So a lot of the
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guys that wound up hitting it big in the eighties were not from la which
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is kind of interesting. And I Alson interviewed George Lynch for the He's quoted
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in the book and he he says how it was a very incestuous scene at
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the time. How at one point Warren was playing guitar in Docin and George
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was in Rat, even though they were previously in the bands that we know
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them with. Mean, Warren was in RAT and then George was in Dockin.
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Then they switched. Then at one point they were in a rehearsal studio
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and they they met in the hallway and they're like, what the hell are
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we doing? Like you belong in this band, I belong in that band,
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and they just switched, which is kind of funny, but he just
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yeah. And then also Jan was in Docin. He played on the Breaking
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the Chains album, So yeh, it's kind of funny how it was a
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very incestuous scene at the time, with you know, guys playing in the
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bands that like rotating around. What was the name of the house the guys
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from Motley Crue hung out with the guys from Rat right, was that Stevens
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all right? Yeah, they had a gang called the Gladiators, Yes,
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and they said it wasn't like a gang that they would go in like you
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know, mug people or stuff like that. Were just like a party type
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gang. But you know, something that people talk a little bit about though,
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there was a divide in the early eighties on the Sunset Strip. In
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the very early eighties punk and new wave, where it was the most popular
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type of music. There's a great documentary called The Cline of Western Civilization,
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not to be confused with the Cline of Western Civilization Part two. This is
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part one from nineteen eighty eighty one. It came out and it's one of
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the best documentaries. It focuses on like Black Flag, the Germs, the
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Circle Jerks. It's a fantastic documentary. I actually prefer that one more than
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the heavy metal one. The heavy metal one is kind of like a goof
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kind of, but the first one I think is fantastic. It's directed by
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the same person, Penelope Spirit Spirit right, right. But my point is
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that heavy metal was not the popular type of music that was playing all the
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clubs in say nineteen eighty eighty one. It was punk. It was you
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know, Black Flag, Circle, Druks, those bands. It wasn't Ntil.
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Motley Crue in eighty one starts to break through. Then it turned back
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to metal. It was like hard rock and metal in the late seventies with
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Quiet Riot and early version of Doc and Van Hale, and then it went
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to punk, then with Motley Crue and bands like Dubrow and Great White.
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Then it slowly started to go back to metal in the early eighties. Yeah,
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quite a ride with the number one album Metal Health and then also US
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Festival I think was a bit played a role in RAT. Finally, they
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were like one of the last bands from that senset trip scene to get signed.
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I believe in the book, yeah, they were, And I think
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Bobby Blotzer is quoted in the book saying that they were kind of down in
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the dumps because all their friends were getting signed and all their friends were having
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success, and it seemed like RATT was going to be left behind. But
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luckily they were able to put it all together. And like I say in
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the book, some people tend to overlook. For a period of time,
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RAT was, without a without question, one of the top hard rock heavy
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metal bands here in the States. In nineteen eighty four, they were more
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popular than even Motley Crue. Invasion of Your Privacy charted higher and sold more
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than Shout at the Devil. The song Round and Round was a top ten
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hit, or I go into it was either top ten or top top fifteen.
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I forget round and Round was was it twelve? Twelve? Twelve?
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Okay? Yeah, and Motley Crue didn't. I think they peaked at number
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forty with Looks That Kill. That was the highest they got. Then a
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year later Rat towards Arenas and their opening bands none other than bon Jovi.
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So that just puts in perspective, how eighty four, eighty five, even
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early eighty six, Rat is up there with Motley Crue, Kiss Iron Made
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Nausey like the top top hard rock metal bands. Yeah, eighty five.
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The RAT logo was inspired by kiss YEP, we've learned that from the book.
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Yet, Yes, Stephen talks about that. He went for the block
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letters kind of kind of look which it's funny. I never really put two
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and two together, but after I came across what he said. It actually
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makes sense. Producer bo Hill, his work with Rat well known, but
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that was kind of a chance at the time that Atlantic took to have him
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work on out of the cellar. He had only produced some scare acts Airborne
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and Shanghai. You mentioned in the book he was actually a band. He
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was a member of those bands, and I think he may have produced maybe
12:41
just one or two things prior to that. But that decision pays off,
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as we know. The only thing that I will say, listening back to
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the Rat albums today, it is a bit dated sounding, but then again,
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a lot of the eighties hard rock and metal albums are. But you
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know the thing their first e Pit That to me is my favorite RAT sound
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and approach. It's very raw. It's definitely the hardest, hardest rock sounding
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album. In fact, Robin Crosby says that's his favorite sounding Rat. He
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felt that's the way they should have stayed. But then again, you could
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look at the other side of the coin as if they didn't maybe go for
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the Bowhill glossy type production, they wouldn't have scored such a big hit with
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Randon Round. So yeah, that was the sound of the time, for
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sure, exactly exactly. I listened to a bunch of rat over the weekend
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after I read the book, and they had such a great groove. They
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had this chemistry, which is the irony of that is none of that.
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All of their personalities were so different five I think you've read in the book
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five different personalities, extremely different, but they had this chemistry. Musically,
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these guys had some skills well. I think Warren D. Martini is one
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of the most underrated metal guitars from that area. The thing is, you
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could make the argument. Seattle in the early nineties gave us so many great
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singers, you could make the argument. Then in the eighties the Sunset Strip
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gave us so many great guitarists, and I mean singers with grunge that you
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hear, like a few seconds of Lane Stale, you know it's him,
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a few seconds of Chris Cornell, you know it's him. The same with
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guitarists from the Sunset Strip. They all put their own unique thing. You
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could hear a little bit of George Lynch, you know it's him, Jaki
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Lee, Eddie Van Hallen, of course, Randy Rhoades, Warren D.
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Martini, You just hear just a little bit of them. And the thing
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that the guitarists I just mentioned. They're considered shredders pretty much, but the
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thing that made Warren D. Martini so great, and of course also Eddie
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van Halen. They could shred, but the majority of their solos aren't shredding
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solos. They're melodic. You could sing along to them. They fit the
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song perfectly. They all put the importance of the song above shredding away,
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which I think is horribly missed nowadays. And now it's just all a generation
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of gymnastics and how fast you can play, and how many strings you have
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in your guitar, and how expensive your guitar is. People tend to overlook
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that Eddie van Halen was playing a crap guitar that he just slapped together himself.
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You know, much more, yeah, much more than how many notes
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you play, That's that's for sure. The song Round and Round, there
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was quite a few comments that you get on this song random Round was written
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Supposedly Warren D. Martini was so poor that he was squatting inside a building
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someplace, but I don't know. It must have had some kind of electricity,
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because they would also somehow reverse there, so they must have had some
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kind of electricity and Warren came up with the riff in a building that he
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was squatting in and somehow they put two and two together and then that was
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how they came up with the song. And then Marshall Burrow, who we
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know from the early days of of course Van Hallen. He was Van Helen's
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manager up to what Van Halen too, I think, right, yeah,
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I think they got no Monk maybe maybe even before that. I think it
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was after the first Van Halen tour wrapped up. Yeah, I think they
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went to him and said we want you to be the manager. Yep.
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Yeah, But anyway, he wound up eventually managing Rat and he even a
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Rat's first EP was on Timecost Recorders, which is which was an indie label
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through Marshall Burrow. And anyway, Marshall Burrell was the nephew of Milton Burle,
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who was a TV legend from the fifties, and they were able to
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get him involved in video and he's a big star. He was the star
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in the video for Random Round. He plays a man and also a woman.
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Yes, Uncle Milty, yeah, Uncle Milty exactly. Oh. Also
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something else that's interesting about that song is they were trying to work out a
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solo as far as when it came to who was going to play what with
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the song's guitar solo, and Robin was having difficulty coming up with something and
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he was like, a you know, Warren, you just play the whole
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thing. And Warren, to his credit, was like, no, no,
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let's see work something out. How about I'll start with the solo and
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then why don't you and I work out like a dual harmony type thing.
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And that's one of the standout points of the song for me personally. That's
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the song that launches rat. Like we said, number twelve single the album
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top ten. I believe that was number seven. I was gonna say number
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seven. Yeah. Yeah. Now tell me about bow Hill and Steven Piercy's
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vocals. He he had him to do. He had him always do three
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takes and then he had him start singing the end of the song. Yeah.
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That was interesting. Yeah, that's something that I've never really heard anyone
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say before that he would start Stephen singing towards the end of the song to
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have him warm up his voice, and then he would and then would go
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to the beginning, and then also something that they would do with his vocal,
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with his vocal takes, which which is now a pretty commonplace. I
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know this is much more common when it comes to solos with guitar. I
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know, for instance, like what they would do is they would have a
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few takes and they would take like one part of one take to say,
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from like take one, then another part from take two, Take one,
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take three. They would kind of mush all the they would edit it all
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all together. I know that Richie Blackmore did his solos that way. Alex
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Liifsen has told me they also did that with also Rush that actually he would
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pretty trusting he would let gedty Lee pretty much just decide what was going to
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be what he would I recently interviewed him. He said he would just leave
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the room after he did a few takes with guitar solos and just let Terry
18:30
Brown the producer, and also geedty Lee just decide what went with what,
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So he wouldn't even know what the solo would went up sounding like. And
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it's pretty crazy when you think of classic solos like in a Limelight And also
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Tom Sawyer that theoretically that's probably like a few different solos that are all different
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parts. Yeah, there's early version of Round and Round two that I wonder
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if it's out there somewhere. There's a couple different versions that they played live
18:55
before they recorded it. I wonder if those are out there somewhere. Yeah,
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you know, I was able to come up. Interestingly, I was
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able to come across a few interesting bootlegs while I was doing the book,
19:07
and then they just vanished, So I don't know why or who took them
19:10
down. But also they were on YouTube but then got pulled. Hey,
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yeah, they were on YouTube. There was a good one of them,
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and I think Pasadena from eighty to eighty three, which was good. They
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do an early version of I Think It's Back for More and it has the
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extra part in it that was on the EP that was deleted from the version
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on Out of the Cellar, so you hear that. And they also do
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I Believe, Round and Round and there's slightly different lyrics and I think there's
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even like a different part in there. So it's interesting to hear the embryonic
19:40
versions some of those songs. Yeah, that'd be a'd make a cool box
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set. Yeah, but they just released a box set, which we'll get
19:47
to. That was something that you've mentioned the book, so out of the
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seller, huge hit, and then they follow with nineteen eighty five's Invasion of
19:53
Your Privacy, the top forty lay it Down, and then You're in Love
19:56
also, I believe was that might have been top forty two, two hits
20:00
from the album, number seven album, two platinum plus albums to their credit.
20:04
Their headlining arenas Now Your nineteen eighty five rat is at the peak of
20:08
its popularity. But it seems like this is the beginning of problems within the
20:12
band. During the tour with bon Jovi opening, Robin notices his bandmates just
20:17
complaining a lot, egos getting bigger. The drugs and alcohol start to become
20:21
a problem around this time, right, yeah, he talks. I mean
20:23
at the time, they in the press were making it seem like that it
20:27
was all it was all for one, one for all pretty much. But
20:30
then when you go back and hear that indy that Mitchell finded with Robin,
20:34
it's not that way at all. He says, how the writing for that
20:40
album it star that they went on a band vacation to Hawaii and they brought
20:44
all their families with them, and it just so happened that whatever hotel they
20:48
were staying at, they didn't have enough space for Robin. So it was
20:52
the whole entire band at one hotel and then the other hotel it wasn't that
20:56
close had Robin by himself, so there wasn't that much hanging out or that
21:00
much like camaraderie as as previously. And he said that that was when the
21:07
beginning of the end kind of happened. I think that's when he started dabbling
21:10
with heroin. And also it just seemed just for just for whatever reason things
21:15
I guess maybe they just weren't on the same page or what exactly happened.
21:19
But he also feels that they were a little bit rushed with that album,
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and then as the albums go on, he feels they were even more rushed,
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especially the third album that we'll get to Dancing Undercover. Yeah, I
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mean, Robin was dating Tawny Katine, but at this time she's and she's
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also on the first two album covers for rat, isn't she yeah? He
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or no, she's She's on the EP and then that's her, that's her
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legs on the EP. She's on the cover of Out of the Cellar,
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and she's in the video for the song called Back for More. She's actually
21:52
the head starlet in the video. Yeah, amazing. Neither of them are
21:56
around. They both passed. Yeah, they they were tight too, like
21:59
they were really close. She had great things to say about him in that
22:03
documentary. I think there was something, there was some magic there because we
22:07
know she was with David Coverdale in later years, but she seemed to really
22:11
really care about him, and they were together for quite a long time.
22:15
I think I think, yeah, I mean, I think at that point
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they weren't even boyfriend girlfriend. I think they just stayed friends because they know
22:21
he also dated the actress Apollonia from the movie Purple Rain. She was with
22:26
Prince and then he winds up marrying a playboy playmate, Lori Carr. I
22:30
believe it's her name, around eighty six, So that's all kind of like
22:34
in the same time. But yeah, but he seemed like he always remained
22:38
on good terms with Tony Katain, and like you said in the dh one
22:42
Behind the Music, she had nothing but very very positive things to say about
22:47
Robin. The book Down Rock Podcasts will be back after this world investation.
22:53
The rat story it's out now, and we have the author of the book,
22:57
Greg Prato, to talk about the book and Rats that third album,
23:02
Dancing Undercover from nineteen eighty six. The quotes from Robin, they paint the
23:07
picture of a band that's really heading towards big trouble. Now, Warren's not
23:11
happy that Steven and Robin are getting on the cover of the magazines and that
23:15
they're interviewed more than he is. But really Warren didn't talk much, right,
23:18
He was kind of shy, so it just made more sense that the
23:22
media would kind of gravitate towards those two guys. But he was kind of
23:25
pissed off at that, right. And then there was a couple what's that
23:27
got to do with Rat moments? One with Robin on Howard Stern and then
23:32
another with Steven and Playgirl, Yes exactly. Yeah. What happened was Robin
23:37
went on Howard Stern with Steven, I believe, and they did an interview.
23:40
And Howard Stern back in those days is a totally different interviewer than Howard
23:44
Stern is now. He was very shall we say, rough round the edges,
23:48
and he was all about strippers and pornos, stars and things like that.
23:51
So when he found out that Robin Crosby had dated Towny Kataine Apollonia,
23:59
and he was, I think at the time then just dating Lori Carr,
24:02
the Playboy playmate. I think that's like all he wanted to talk about pretty
24:04
much, and it kind of rubbed the rest of the band the wrong way.
24:08
And then also on top of that, in nineteen eighty six, the
24:11
summer of eighty six, Stephen Piercy posed in Playgirl magazine but was not naked,
24:17
though he had a thong or some kind of thing that was covering his
24:21
private parts, like a Burt Reynolds thing. Yes, yeah, yes,
24:25
but that's where things start to happen. This is boy, this story.
24:27
You hear it so many times over these bands. You know, the jealousy
24:30
and the riffs that start. How come he's on the cover of the magazine.
24:33
Although you know, one thing I will say, and I pointed sat
24:36
in the book, is that's a little bit of it's not totally true because
24:41
in early nineteen eighty seven, which would still would have been the Dancing undercover
24:45
era, Warren was on at least two guitar magazine covers, which I talked
24:48
about in the book he was. He was the sole cover feature of a
24:52
Guitar Player magazine in early eighty seven, and then him and Jakie Lee Or
24:59
together on a cover of Guitar for The Practicing Musician also in early nineteen eighty
25:03
seven. So it's not totally correct that he wasn't getting pressed because he actually
25:07
was. Yeah. I think it just goes back to again, five very
25:11
different personalities, all trying to work together, and they were able to think,
25:15
is that's what makes bands like that great. You need the push and
25:18
pull and people not necessarily getting together. That's what makes all the bands great.
25:22
That's what made Kiss great, the Police great, the Rolling Stones great,
25:26
the Kink's great. Van Hallen with David Leagroth. I mean, you
25:30
can't. Sometimes bands get to all get along. Sometimes they don't. But
25:33
that's how it seems like the best music is made. Yeah, absolutely,
25:37
and Dancing Undercover still successful. Dance was a top forty single and the album
25:42
reaches number twenty six, but it's still underperformed. As far as the band
25:47
and the label was concerned, they were hoping this was going to be where
25:49
they reached that next level. And then Warren's quoted in the book about the
25:53
album, saying it wasn't a bad album, but could have been better.
25:56
The band had the chance to really break it bigger than before, but it
26:02
was just that you were mentioning it. They rushed through it too much,
26:06
or they were being rushed being rushed. And also you can tell from Invasion
26:08
of Your Privacy on, as each album goes along further, it has more
26:12
and more filler material like the EP. All the EP was great. I'd
26:18
say pretty much all of Invasion of Your Privacy was great, or at least
26:22
you know, strong that you could hear, you could listen to the whole
26:26
thing. Then with Invasion of Your Privacy you could definitely point out or or
26:30
realize that, oh, yeah, this is the single. I don't know
26:33
what this song is. This song is a strong track, this is you
26:37
know. You could tell that they were starting to pad the albums, and
26:41
it became very apparent on Dancing under Cover. I believe Bobby Blatzer is quoted
26:45
as saying that he can't even listen to the second side of the album because
26:49
he wasn't I forget if he said he didn't like Stevens's lyrics or it just
26:55
sounded like it was rushed, and I remember Robin Crosby also talks in the
26:57
book about he only like maybe like half the songs are just like a handful
27:03
of songs. So Detonator sounds like def Leopard. Yeah, you know,
27:08
there is a song on Reach for the Sky that actually starts with a deaf
27:14
leopard sounding vocoder sound, which is the exact sound of the beginning of love
27:19
Bites, I believe. Yeah, like I love and use a dirty job,
27:22
and it's not necessarily a bad thing. It just I noticed that that
27:26
was very similar to the deaf left sound and that day also I think Desmond
27:33
Child played a role in that. We'll talk about that, but I mean
27:36
the thing too, which all is jumping quick, you know, the thing
27:37
that one like. Of course, now hindsight's twenty twenty, but if RATT
27:41
would have gone back to their EP sound that was more rough and raw,
27:47
it definitely would it would have held up better and also fit in. I
27:51
think it would have been more comparable to say Metallic and also Guns n' Roses,
27:55
who at the time in the late eighties we had more of a raw
27:59
or at least more in your face type sound compared to say Your Poisons and
28:03
were like, what you know Kiss was doing at the time, and Ozzie
28:07
was very glossy and poppy. You know. I forgot to mention too.
28:10
Warren a lot younger than the rest of the guys in the band, wasn't
28:12
He was like eighteen and those guys were the mid twenties. Yes, yeah.
28:17
He When he was invited to join RAT, he was still in high
28:19
school. Steven Here called him and he told him, you know, would
28:26
you like to join Rat? And Warren was like, yeah, yeah,
28:27
let me just finish, you know, my last semester of high school.
28:32
And he's like, the last semester, I mean to come out tonight.
28:34
Yeah, yeah, we got a gig tomorrow. Yeah. Right, And
28:37
then he thought about it and he wound up going. One thing I did
28:41
not find out. I wonder if Warren ever finished high school. I did
28:44
not, Yeah, find that out. Maybe I speak to him. I'll
28:48
ask him that A ton of great photos between chapters eight and nine in the
28:52
book, I mean a ton of them. I mean, yeah, there's
28:53
so many good. Chapter ten, titled Reach for the Sky, This is
28:57
when we get into the late eighties and Reached for the Sky featuring way Cole
29:02
Junior, which is one of my all time favorites. I want a woman's
29:03
on there too. Tell me about the creation of way Cole Junior, one
29:07
of my favorite rat tunes. Warren told you the Frank Zappa influence, right,
29:11
Yes, he became friends with Duezl Zappa, and of course that is
29:15
the son of the legendary Frank Zappa, and Duezel at the time was pretty
29:19
popular. He was a VJ on MTV. He had a album out that
29:26
had a video that was also being played at the time, so he I
29:29
remember watching him on MTV and him introducing a rat video on him even saying
29:33
like this is one of my favorite guitarists, Warren D. Martini. And
29:37
then he became friends with Warren maybe through that, and he would bring Warren
29:41
to meet his father because I think Deezel still lived at home and Frank played
29:45
a little guitar thing and an influenced story. It inspired Warren to come up
29:51
with the part that is featured in the song Waykele Junior. That's cool.
29:56
Warren D. Martini is a great guitarist. Name. That's his real name
29:59
too, is it? I believe it is. I just wanted to you
30:03
talked about the pictures in the book. I just want to give a shot
30:06
a shout out to the photographer Christopher Lee Helton. He's the gentleman that did
30:10
the pictures on the cover. Really, I mean phenomenal shots. He's just
30:15
looking through him here. Yeah. He took great photos of the band on
30:18
the Invasion tour the for Billy Squire in nineteen eighty four, really Squire yep,
30:25
also dancing under cover. He also took great photos of them playing some
30:29
like softball game or something like that. So I got lucky that I was
30:33
able to get in contact with Christopher and he let me use a lot of
30:36
his classic photos, which a lot of them I never even saw. And
30:38
I remember reading a lot of rat articles back in the day and I never
30:42
saw a lot of those photos before. Yeah, definitely see Waning his doing
30:48
his moves, right. They always tease him with Wanda the dancer was a
30:52
spin around, yeah right right, yeah, yeah. They jan used to
30:56
do a lot of flamboyant stage moves, which is kind of because when I
31:00
interview him, he's very laid back, very friendly, like he's not a
31:03
flamboyant party. He doesn't strike me as that, but I when I asked
31:07
him how he came up with that, and he said that he had a
31:08
background in karate and how some of the moves were karate influenced to karate based
31:14
or something like that. So like a davidly Roth on bass, and Robin
31:18
was super tall man. That dude was like it was he like six foot
31:23
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
31:33
doing a Roth kick here, David Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
31:37
that's called December of eighty five. Yeah, let's talk about all the lyrics
31:41
to Waykele Junior. I always you thought it was Axel Rose. I always
31:44
thought it was Frank Sinatra. I thought I heard that somewhere. Who is
31:48
it about? When I asked Stephen that, he said, it's not about
31:51
anybody in particular. I always thought it was Axel Rose because that came out
31:55
in late eighty eight, and that was when Guns n' Roses just became super
31:59
duperstar. They were all over MTV and everything, so that was what I
32:01
thought it was about. But no, Stephen told me that it is not
32:05
about anybody in particular. So the album, each number seventeen. Interesting to
32:08
read how Robin Crosby started producing and then Steven he gets to live out his
32:14
childhood fantasy by becoming a race car driver. He got into it with Vince
32:17
Neil of Motley Crue, which that made me think about when Vince was on
32:23
a Motley Crue in ninety one, ninety two, whatever it was. When
32:28
he was on MTV, he's talking about, well, they got rid of
32:30
me because they say I was more interested in racing cars. I'll never forget
32:35
that. So it's interesting. So him and Steven were racing cars. And
32:39
then going back to Robin, you noticed some interesting things that were said by
32:43
him during interviews that hinted at his drug problems. Yeah. He going back
32:49
to some of the interviews he did in Circus and things like that he associated
32:54
being on stage with like I forget what amount of either a snorting Cokee Cain
33:00
or doing heroin or something like that. Yeah, I can find now,
33:02
My god, it's kind of like a weird That's not something that you would
33:05
really read. Wasn't that common to read that back in the late eighties and
33:08
a Circus magazine article Let's see that would be let's see is it chapter ten.
33:13
Is that in Yeah, it's either in the Reach for the Sky chapter
33:16
or the oh here we go, Yeah, yeah yeah. Rereading some of
33:20
this is in chapter ten. Rereading some of Crosby's quotes from back in the
33:22
day, he makes reference to drug use more than many might remember, such
33:27
as the time he was quoted as saying, the highlights keep getting higher and
33:30
it's not over yet. Playing Madison Square Garden, the Forum in full stadiums
33:34
in Japan. It's all like Heroin. There's no other high like it.
33:37
This might be a quote I think from Mitch's interview. He says Reach for
33:40
the Sky got bad for me because I got real strung out because we had
33:45
all that time off. Plus there's a lot of animosity, and everybody was
33:47
doing their family thing. We sort of drifted apart, and when we got
33:51
to doing it again, I know a lot of us were really ready to
33:53
get back into it and get away from the domestic bullshit, which I was
33:58
never cut out. Four should have known from the beginning that getting married and
34:01
shit just was not me who already married. He didn't marry Tony Katin,
34:06
though he married Lori Carr, who was the Playboy playmate and they were only
34:09
married for a few years and they wound up getting divorced. So that last
34:14
album that Robbins a part of would be Reached for the Sky Right. Well,
34:20
no, he was on Detonator. He was on Detonator, but his
34:22
role in the band was definitely diminishing because he was at that point. I
34:27
think the band knew he had a bad drug problem, so he tried to
34:30
go into rehab. That album, too, was a bit of a misfire
34:35
because some of the band wanted to be raw, and they wound up hooking
34:38
up with none other than Desmond Child, who I mean, Desmond Child is
34:43
great if you're trying to write a top forty hot rock metal hit at that
34:47
time. I mean, there's no denying the success he had with bon Jovi
34:51
at the time, But if you're trying to get a raw rock sam Desmond
34:57
Child is not the producer you'd want to go with. And they wound up
35:00
going with him, and they wound up with a very poppy, glossy album,
35:04
which in late nineteen ninety that's when Faith No More The Real Thing is
35:07
a big hit. Soundguarden is just kind of starring a little bit. Jane's
35:10
addiction just put a ritual Daleo Habitual and that's also a surprise hit. So
35:16
that was not the time to start putting keep putting up pop metal things.
35:20
That would have been the time to get a little more raw, a little
35:22
bit more direct. You interviewed Desmond, didn't you You asked him about because
35:27
you said to him, it's one of those albums that people don't talk about
35:30
a lot. What did you think of it? Right? Didn't he comment
35:34
on that album himself? I think he was happy with it. Yeah,
35:38
he was. He didn't go too deep into it. He just said that.
35:42
He just admitted that the band was in a bit they were experiencing a
35:45
lot of turmoil about with what was going on with Robin, that Robin wasn't
35:50
as involved as he once was. And I know Robin talks in the book
35:53
that he was in rehab at some point during the making of it and he
35:58
was hurt. That's supposedly not more band members went to visit him. But
36:01
then he talks about at one point some of the members or one or two
36:05
members went with Desmond to meet him and rehab and talk to him. And
36:08
so they did at least go once. According to you, know Robin,
36:14
but yeah, Desmond not only wrote songs, he produced it. Yeah,
36:17
co producer with Arthur Payson. Yes. And then it's interesting John bon Jovi
36:22
backing vocals on heads, I win, Tails, you lose. Michael Shanker
36:28
he's on Shame, Shame, Shame. It says tag on shame shamee.
36:31
I don't know what that means, but I guess he contributes guitar to that
36:35
track. Yeah, Yeah, I love and use a dirty job. I
36:38
love that song. It's a great song. It went gold, the album
36:42
went gold. I was gonna say, I'll be honest, that was the
36:44
first rat album I did not buy. Yeah, well yeah, because everybody
36:46
was kind of steering away when I was. Yeah, at that point,
36:51
I was kind of I started to listen because, like in the late mid
36:53
toly eighties, all I listened to is really heavy metal and also hard rock.
36:58
I was maybe a little bit different than some of the heavy metal fans
37:00
that I went back into the sixties and seventies, and I loved Jimi Hendrix
37:05
and Mauntain and early Alice Cooper and things like that. Robin Trauer, I
37:08
loved the Bridge of Size album. I remember listening to that a lot at
37:10
the time Grand Funk, you know, like those bands, but late in
37:16
the eighties and definitely by nineteen ninety. At that point, I'm listening to
37:19
other styles of music. I still like hard rock and heavy metal, but
37:22
who knows. I mean again, if RATT was maybe a little bit more
37:25
raw and a little bit more like their early albums, maybe I would have
37:30
stuck it out. But yeah, at point I would just so burnt down
37:32
on like what pop metal and hair metal sounded alike. I just didn't want
37:36
to hear any more of it. The book Done Rock Podcasts will be back
37:38
after this. What happens to Rat in the nineties, everything just falls apart,
37:45
but not just for Rat, just for all those bands from that era.
37:46
But if you give a brief summary of what happens with RATT in the
37:50
nineties and into the two thousands, because they did get back together in the
37:53
late nineties, but then that fell apart, and then there's lawsuits, and
37:58
I remember Stephen being replaced new singer. I remember seeing them live and it
38:01
just wasn't the same thing. And then there was one version of Rat with
38:06
Bobby Blatzer, another version of Rat with Steve. I mean let's start with
38:08
I guess the nineties. They break up around what ninety two or three,
38:14
early ninety two. I believe what happened is they they tried to tour and
38:17
support of the album Detonator, and it was horrible. They wound up taking
38:22
out they they had an advance for a big March deal that they took the
38:28
money, and then the app the tour wasn't selling well. They were playing
38:30
like half full arenas and they had they then had to owe the money back
38:35
or something like that, so that was stressful. Then on top of it,
38:38
you have Robin struggling with drug addiction to the point that he wounds up
38:44
leaving the band mid tour. He's replaced by Michael Schanker. Then, for
38:49
some reason, now you think if you have Michael Schanker in the band,
38:52
you would want to feature him throughout the show. But for some weird reason,
38:55
and even Steven and Stephen says, I don't still don't understand why we
39:00
did this. They play half the show with just one guitars, which is
39:04
just Warren. They have a keyboardist playing. Then halfway through the show Michael
39:10
Schanker comes out, So like, why you waste talking about why the keyboardist
39:19
and Rat too, you know that, you know Rats, the main the
39:22
main thing I think of with Rat, beside Stevens vocals is the whole,
39:25
the whole two guitars playing off each other. Shanker had name value too,
39:30
exactly, so I don't know why. Yes, anyway, so from exactly,
39:36
Yeah, they even covered lights Out on that tour. There's a cool
39:40
clip of it on YouTube that you can. I got to check it out.
39:45
But then what happened so so so that that that tour bombs. They
39:49
put out a Greatest Hits album, which is a sin that they put five
39:52
songs off off of the Detonator album on it, which Ratt and Roll Lady
39:57
one to ninety one. Right, Yes, they they only put two songs
40:00
off of Invasion of Your Privacy, which was a big hit, and they
40:04
put so it's two songs off of that, and then five songs off of
40:07
Detonator, which was oh my god. Yeah, I'm looking at the track.
40:09
That was clearly someone at the record label trying to hope that one of
40:13
those songs would catch on or something like that, you know. But yeah,
40:16
they wound up breaking up in early ninety two because everything that's going on
40:21
is a lot of friction and fighting, and then, like you said,
40:23
they try to get They get back together in the late nineties, but without
40:28
Wan and without Robin because Robin is very bad off health wise and he's still
40:32
badly addicted to drugs. The Behind the Music ran around that time. Right
40:37
Behind the Music was an early the early two thousands. That was early two
40:40
thousands, okay, what happened, which was interesting, which they decided they
40:45
were going to do it Behind the Music in the early two thousands, they
40:47
filmed Robin's segment. Then they shelved it for some reason because it went one
40:52
or two years, and during that interim period is when Robin sadly passed away.
40:57
Then they eventually the surviving members then on board, and then they finish
41:00
it off and they were able to use Robin's parts, which which when I
41:06
spoke to Wan, he said, he's very thankful because it's like, you
41:08
know, nice that he wound up being involved to and it's kind of like
41:12
seeing an old friend that he was able to at least share his viewpoints and
41:16
everything. Right now, what's the album? So nineteen ninety nine, they
41:20
have an album that comes out it's often referred to as nineteen ninety nine.
41:23
So this is really just a self titled album. Okay, So who's this
41:28
is? Stephen Warren, Robbie and Steve Yes. Stephen, Bobby Blotzer and
41:35
Warren are the only three RAT members from the classic RAT lineup. And you
41:42
know that album was okay. I mean again, you know at that point,
41:45
I'm not really listening to that style of music that much. The album
41:47
they put out years later with Carlos Cavazo on guitar that I thought was on
41:52
par with Rat in the eighties and it was more of a raw production.
41:58
So, like, I listened to that and I'm thinking thinking, oh,
42:00
now, this is what RAT should have been going for in the late eighties.
42:02
That would have, I think, probably aged better. And also that's
42:07
is that infestation you're talking about? Yeah, that's a good That is a
42:09
really good album exactly is the single yep, really good track? And something
42:15
else. I went back and listened to a lot of the solo material that
42:21
Stephen Piercey did. Steven Piercy did solo band in the nineties. He did
42:24
a industrial type band and then he did a thing called Arcade and Arcade he
42:30
did one or two solo albums they went back and listened to and again it
42:35
was a very dry production, very straight ahead, and they're just no comparison.
42:39
So that, to me is the biggest mistake with Rats. I wish
42:44
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
42:51
much better and it's not dated. And then I think showcases his voice better,
42:57
the guitars, the riffs, everything. Yeah, he had the band's
43:00
fireedome, Crystal Pistol, Arcade, Vicious, Delight, and Vertex White I
43:05
think is the one I'm talking about. Is it okay? Because Vertex I
43:07
thought I see someone Vertex. Maybe it's actually Vertex. I don't know.
43:10
It's like nine inch nails type. That must be the industrial thing. And
43:15
like I said, also, Arcade, I remember came out in the mid
43:17
nineties. I think, okay, So then there's a bunch of lawsuits about
43:21
who owns the rights to the name the name, yeah, and then you
43:23
have a couple of well you know what's funny actually kind of said they were
43:29
Rat was not the only band from that from the Sunset Strip that had two
43:32
different Rats touring at the same time. During that era, I think you
43:36
had two La Guns touring. You had two great Whites toaring. Right now
43:40
you have two great yeah still do yeah? Right and now sadly you well,
43:45
I mean now it happened, we're skipping ahead. But now with Rat
43:49
there's no Rat band touring. It's Stephen solo. And now Bobby Blotzer is
43:54
going to go out. I forget what the name is, but it's something
43:57
Rat. Yeah, Bobby Blotzer's Rat Attack. Okay, there you go.
44:00
Yeah yeah, so all right, yeah, so now we don't really I
44:04
mean, these guys they do not like Bobby, Stephen Lawn and Warren,
44:10
but also Warren doesn't like Steve. I don't know what this. Yeah,
44:15
it's so very hard to get a read on who doesn't get along with who.
44:19
I mean really it comes down to money, because they they have been
44:22
able to get together every so often for tours or albums. I mean again,
44:27
it's the same, similar to the whole Van Hill and David Lee Roth
44:30
and also the same a Hagar thing that it seems like like why can't grown
44:35
men just put aside their differences and act like adults split everything equally, and
44:38
you know we'll take either separate tour buses and stay in separate hotels. Because
44:45
something that Ricky Rackman says in the book, which I totally agree with,
44:49
that stadium tour that happened a couple of years ago with def Leppard, Motley
44:52
Crue, Poison and Joan Jet. I love Joon Jet, but I think
44:57
it or Ricky says it's Rat should have been the BA and Man not Jone
45:00
Jet, that that would have made the most sense, that it would have
45:02
been perfect. Yeah, because because Ratt was more like a glam metal hair
45:07
metal band from that time, and they were just as popular as those bands.
45:12
In fact, I think Ratt holds up better than most most of Motley
45:15
Crue's albums, to be honest with you, I mean Motley Crue is the
45:17
king of pet of albums, padding with filler and stuff. After after Shout
45:22
at the Devil was right hanging. Also Girls Girls Girls, Yeah, and
45:27
until Doctor Field Good is when they kind of got to shit together and put
45:30
together a real consistent album. And also Stephen Pearcy had that type of voice
45:35
where he didn't blow it out so he could still from what I hear and
45:39
see on YouTube. He still sounds great. He's sixty seven now, according
45:44
to Will, sounds good. I mean, you know, not to make
45:46
not to make fun of anybody, but here what Vince Neil sounds like now,
45:50
and then you compare it to Stephen Pearcy, there's really no comparison.
45:52
I mean, I'm also a huge fan of Paul Stanley. But I think
45:55
Paul Stanley's even admitted he had wrote problems and serges and stuff, so his
46:00
vocals towards the end of Kiss weren't as strong as say the seventies or eighties.
46:06
I mean eighties was when Paul Stanley was at his peak. Oh yeah,
46:08
yeah, but even though I was, I mean, Kiss in the
46:12
seventies is really my favorite Kiss. But anyway, even curiously, I think
46:15
sounds good still left. Yeah. I'm really interested though, in hearing what
46:20
this Motley crewmus is going to sound like with John five on guitar. They're
46:23
recording an album. They are really interested in that. The other thing is
46:28
John bon Jovi was another guy whose voice really really went downhill. But he's
46:34
been talking recently about there was an issue, there was something that he had
46:37
to go under the knife for he did he did, which you know,
46:40
I give him credit for going public with that because he doesn't have to go
46:44
public. I mean, but at he answers the question like what the hell
46:46
happened? Right, yeah, because some people have throat problems. I mean,
46:52
I know, like Robert Plant in the early seventies had like a secret
46:54
throat operator procedure after I think the Houses of the Holy tour that people that
47:00
kind of got swept under the rug. And I know there was like people
47:02
on YouTube and on the internet, which they do a comparison, and like
47:07
Robert Plant's voice was never as stellar as it was prior to that. But
47:10
that's just part of the human body, you know, and just the human
47:14
voice is a very fickle thing. You know, everyone's different. So we
47:16
know, though, if rat were to get back together for one last tour,
47:20
they could maybe maybe do small arenas with a solid opening act. Maybe.
47:27
But my question is why weren't they bigger than they felt they should have
47:30
been? Right? I mean in eighty five they reached the peak, but
47:34
like they say, just it, it's just that there were missteps along the
47:38
way or they rushed through albums because they really should have been bigger. Than
47:42
they were. Well, I mean, they were as big as they were,
47:45
you know, I mean, you know, in that eighty forty definitely
47:49
eighty five, they were in the top five metal bands here in the States.
47:52
What's funny is, though, Ratt is one of those bands that they
47:55
never were as big outside of well not they were big in Japan. I
48:00
know, they're probably big, and also Canada because Canada and also the US
48:05
seem to have the same tastes, but they were never as popular in Europe
48:08
and also in England. In fact, they didn't do a proper tour of
48:12
England, I believe, until the end of the Invasion of Your Privacy tour
48:16
cycle. They opened up a string of dates for Ozzy. Okay's funny is
48:22
Ozzy started his Ultimate Sin tour in Europe with Rat opening up. Then he
48:25
comes to America with the band Metallic opening up on the Master of Puppets tour.
48:30
That's totally opposite ends of kind of metal at that point. You know,
48:36
we have the glam metal and then we have the back to basics thrash
48:38
metal right there. I just think, man, they have that Doctor Feel
48:42
Good album in them. If they had really just gotten that focus, maybe
48:46
but hey, you know, like I said, they were huge, man,
48:49
I remember, I just feel like they should. I just I listened
48:52
to the music, and like you say, it just holds up so well,
48:54
and I just feel like, you know, who would have helped them,
48:57
Mike Clink and the late eighties, probably to help him as a producer,
49:00
because he was one of the few producers that was doing hard rock metal
49:05
albums that was not doing the horrible cannon drum sound and like the overprocessed and
49:12
all the You know, when you listened to certain eighties metal and hard rock
49:16
or really pop metal type stuff, it just sounds so dated. That you
49:21
listened to Appetite for Destruction, it does sound a little bit like the eighties,
49:24
but it's more a throwback to the seventies or maybe like the they Well,
49:29
I know because I've interviewed my Clink in the past that Guns N' Roses
49:32
on Appetite for Destruction wanted a Aerosmith sound from the seventies. Yeah, and
49:37
it does have a great sound to it well. But by the way,
49:40
speaking of Aerosmith, where Rat used to get the used to get teased for
49:44
being an Aerosmith ripoff, and then Joe Perry said something really cool to the
49:47
guys, I think backstage after a show. Right, Yeah, there's a
49:52
whole chapter in the book that there were two Bends that early in their career,
49:55
Rat was compared to a lot. It seemed like almost every article and
50:00
circus and Hip Parader they would get a comparison. They were either compared compared
50:04
to seventies era Arrowsmith, or they were compared to as well Motley Crowe.
50:09
But I don't think Rat was anything like Motley Crue personally. They were just
50:14
both popular at the same time, came from the same you know location.
50:20
I guess maybe similar production. But yeah, I think there's I think that
50:24
there's a difference and Arrowsmith and Ratt. I don't think that. I know
50:30
that Rat covered the song Walking the Dog, which are also Arrowsmith covered,
50:35
But besides that, I don't mean, I don't really hear too much like
50:37
Ratt never really got that bluesy. I guess walking and not Walking the Dog,
50:42
I guess way Cole Junior without beginning guitar part was was kind of bluesy,
50:46
but everybody got as bluesy as like Tran kept the rolling or anything like
50:51
that. Right, No, I think they just had a sound all their
50:53
own. It's just that groove. They had a killer groove on those tunes.
50:57
The thing too, which you said about, like you know, how
50:59
come they came get back together? Really it's a shame they can't because since
51:02
they've since maybe the late eighties or early nineties, I would say Rat is
51:07
probably like there's more I think people there's a wide variety of people that want
51:12
to go see Rat now because Rat through Spotify and Stranger Things, right,
51:15
Yeah, and also their music was in Stranger Things and also Cobra Kai had
51:21
Kai Rat songs, so they've reached a whole new audience as well. So
51:24
yeah, it's just a shame that you think that they should have put it
51:28
away, put aside their differences, if they would have done the Stadium tour
51:31
and promoted the box set with the stadium tour, and then this year is
51:37
the forty year anniversary of Out of the Seller, so they should if they
51:42
could have just put aside their differences and just did with this one last tour,
51:45
they probably could have cashed in. Yeah, that box that came out
51:47
when last okay almost exactly one year ago, and that box set, what's
51:53
in that are the rarities are there things that? Yeah, what it is?
51:55
It's every album, It's all there albums on Atlantic. It's from Invasion
52:01
of Your Privacy through Detonator with a single that has a song and nobody rides
52:07
for free. And the only thing though was they really should have put the
52:12
EP in there, but they didn't because the EP at one point was reissued
52:15
through Atlantic. So I don't know if it was like a licensing issue of
52:19
maybe the rights reverted back to Marshall Burrell or what the story is with that.
52:24
But yeah, I mean to me, the EP is Rat's best thing.
52:28
It's kind of a shame that wasn't included. Well, the book is
52:31
out now, right, World Infestation the rat story exactly, doubt now.
52:36
So people can find whoever books are sold? And where could people find you
52:39
online? Greg? All the US say probably the best place to find the
52:43
book is Amazon. It's available as kindle, paperback, hardcover, or if
52:49
you want to hear my Beautiful Long Island Accent, it's also available as an
52:52
audiobook narrated by me. Yes, and by the way, you did send
52:54
a copy to mister Stephen Percy, so you just sent him. Yeah,
53:00
it's true. I did send a copy of the book to Stephen Pearcy.
53:02
I'm curious to see what he thinks of it. Hopefully he enjoys it,
53:05
but I'm sure he will. Yeah, And if people want to check out
53:08
what I'm up to, because I write for a bunch of websites and magazines,
53:12
always doing books. If you want to go to Twitter or X what
53:15
is it is? Twitter? Old? Now? I go with X.
53:19
Okay, I go with X. Actually I actually still go with Twitter,
53:22
but X is easier. Right. Well, anyway, if you go to
53:23
Twitter dot com or x dot com slash Greg Predo writer, that's g r
53:29
G pure Ato writer. I'm always posting my latest articles and interviews. I
53:35
just interviewed Buck Dharma from l Yeah. Yeah, they got a new single
53:39
out and an album coming out. They have a new album coming out and
53:42
the album is very good. What it is is they found a lot of
53:45
songs that were never finished. They were like demoed or leftover songs from the
53:50
late seventies early eighties. They went back and finished them off and it's like
53:53
a long lost voyster cult album from that there. It's actually very strong and
53:58
also very good. It's called Ghosts. Okay, and You've contributed a lot
54:01
of great stuff to the Van Hill and News desk. You just did one
54:05
on David le Ross Skyscraper. Yes, and the guys from the DLR cast
54:10
Darren Peltchwitz and Steve Roth mentioned that they talked about it in their last episode.
54:15
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I do a lot of news articles for
54:20
the Ultimate Guitar site Ultimate Guitar dot com. Yes, yeah, and they're
54:25
kind enough to let me for columns and features. Sometimes do excerpts for my
54:30
books, because I've done post of forty books, if you can believe that.
54:34
Yeah, man, that's all I've and I read your very first one
54:37
exactly, thank you very much, yet called a devil on one shoulder an
54:40
angel on the other of the show story. But yeah, So I was
54:44
able to do a article recently from quotes from one from my book called Tredder's
54:49
and it was it was quotes from Billy Shean talking about how Skyscraper he thinks
54:54
that that was pretty much davidly Roth trying to merge rock with disco or dance
55:00
dance. Yeah. But the thing is, like, and if you give
55:04
d LAR cast to listen to that episode, they brought up a good point.
55:07
I think the only song that you can dance to is stand Up.
55:09
I don't think it was really dance. I think it was more like new
55:13
wave pop, like keyboard pop, kind of which I don't know. I
55:17
mean, you know again, David see you know what it is. If
55:22
it did not follow, if it did not come right after Eat Him and
55:24
Smile, Eat Him and Smile, I think is front to back phenomena that
55:29
that's besides Van Halen. I don't think there's any comparison that that's Daily Roy.
55:32
I mean all the Van Hellen albums or at the top of Mount Everest
55:36
right below it is Eat Him and Smile for me. But the fact that
55:40
he would have just done such an a about face, and if you do
55:45
a song for song comparison to Eat Him and Smile, I just don't think
55:47
it's as strong. It's not as rocking, it's not it's just too dated
55:52
sounding. I mean, I'm sure if you heard some of Edom and Smiles
55:55
probably dated too, but just I don't know. I don't think Going Going
56:01
Crazy has a little bit of synth in there, but yeah, but yeah,
56:05
but I and it also just Eat Him and Smiles sound like you hear
56:07
the band really Gelling and yeah, yeah, davidly Roth, just you know,
56:13
on one side, I want to kiss him on the cheek, the
56:15
other side, I want to wring his neck because I mean, that's the
56:19
episode. Yeah, I mean to leave Van Halen when he left when they
56:24
were going to become the US led Zeppelin, and then he manages to pull
56:31
off the impossible and put together a band that I think was on par or
56:37
at least close to Van Hallen, and then you just I know, it
56:40
just breaks it up. And as we know, like to this day,
56:44
there's a lot of head scratcher things that he'll do, and I don't think
56:46
he likes to do the same thing twice. So Skyscraper, Yeah, And
56:51
the funny thing is like he was always against jump the keyboards with Eddie and
56:54
Gyscrapers, like you know. But then that what I understand is anything heavy.
56:59
What I understand is he goes from Skyscraper and then he tries to go
57:02
back to kind of a more rock eat him but yeah, exactly, And
57:07
that album to this day I've never listened to I'll be really really okay,
57:12
But did you know Bob Ezrin was supposed to produce that at first? Yeah,
57:15
And then Bob Rock found that. But just at that point, you
57:19
know, around that era, I was a huge Steve I fan, and
57:22
I love Steve Vine and Billy Sheen together, So at that point I was
57:25
just over it, and I just couldn't really stomach. Although I mean,
57:29
I I do appreciate Jason Becker and everything Skyscraper, it's like Billy was underutilized,
57:35
like even on Just Like Paradise, and I love Just Like Paradise.
57:37
But I was just listening to it the other day, listen closely, and
57:39
I'm like, there's no way if Billy's playing bass on that he did it
57:43
in his sleep, because you know, I think it's a synth bass.
57:45
It sounds like a synth bassline. It's not doesn't sound like Billy at all.
57:49
What I understand is how come David Lee Roth couldn't have just given Billy
57:52
Sheen like one or two songs, say look, Billy, Billy, do
57:53
whatever you want these two songs like play your ass off, I don't care.
57:57
But all these other songs we're gonna do, you know, the stuff
57:59
that you know, But he didn't. He didn't, so well anyway,
58:04
that's well, that's for another discussion we'll have a whole other Yeah, we
58:07
we could talk van Halen next month, maybe really get into Hey, we
58:10
got the Alex van Halen book. Man, that's the Oh my god,
58:15
I already put in a request to see if Alex van hall is doing interviews
58:19
and support this. But yes, oh my god, I write for absolutely
58:23
man. That would be so great, so cool. The Rat Story,
58:28
World Infestation. The Rat Story is out now, that's the book to get
58:30
and Greg, we'll have you back on soon. I am sure. What
58:35
do you have coming up next? Nineties fans have something looking I have a
58:37
book that I'm working on. I can't give way too much because I don't
58:40
want you know, I just want people to always be on their toes.
58:45
But it is a style of music in the nineties, not grunge, but
58:50
a style of music in the nineties that was very, very popular. You
58:52
know what, I'm just gonna come out. I'm just going to tell you
58:54
what it is. Backstreet Boys, Wow, and that one of the greatest
58:59
rock and roll bands of all time. And then in Sync that's the next
59:05
one, yes, now, But honestly, it is a nineties rock style.
59:08
When's it coming out? Well, I'm still in the stage of doing
59:14
interviews for it. Okay, so I'm still at that stage. Hopefully I'll
59:17
be wrapping it up in the near future, you know, that stage of
59:21
the book process, putting it together and then shopping it around. So hope,
59:25
hopefully twenty twenty five I'm looking forward to. All Right, all right,
59:29
well, keep me posted. We'll have you back on to talk about
59:31
it. Greg, thanks man. Always love having you on. Thank you,
59:35
Eric, I appreciate it. That's it. It's in the books.