RATT Singer Stephen Pearcy -

RATT Singer Stephen Pearcy - "When Robbin (Crosby) Went Down I Changed"

RATT singer Stephen Pearcy spoke with Tom Netherland from Wjbf.com recently about a number of topics including reminiscing about their heyday.

“We did good work,” Pearcy remembers. “But man we toured, did a record, toured, did another record, toured and so on. It was a grind.”

Ratt immediately fell into to the whole sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle. Million-selling albums and sold-out shows came attached to opportunities to live as wild as imaginations can imagine.

“Oh, 200 percent,” Pearcy says. “When we started, it was for a good time and being creative. It used to open doors. It depends on which door you go through – sex, drugs, rock and roll – but we went through them all.”

Ratt paid a tragic price. Though on hiatus, the band yet exists and will tour later this year. Pearcy lives and lives well. But Robbin Crosby, whose slashing guitar lines helped establish Ratt’s sound, died in 2002 at age 41, reportedly of a heroin overdose.

“We lost Robbin to that sort of excess, and that made some of us give up that [stuff],” Pearcy said. “It’s a dangerous occupation.”
Folks from the era are still paying a price for excess. Late last year, Kevin Dubrow, lead singer of 1980s metal band QUIET RIOT, died as a result of a cocaine overdose. Pearcy did not and does not wish to join either Crosby or Dubrow.

“I was functioning … I functioned no matter what, but when Robbin went down I changed,” Pearcy said. “It used to be about [girls], parties and paychecks. Now, it’s about the paycheck.”

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