In a brand new interview with Waste Some Time With Jason Green, legendary guitarist George Lynch (DOKKEN, LYNCH MOB, KXM) confirmed that he received an offer to play with RATT in 2018 following Warren DeMartini‘s most recent departure from the group. “We were talking about it,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “But they wanted a hired-gun guy that was working for a not-great salary. And I’m not that guy. I’ve never been a hired-gun guy. If you want me, I’ll be part of the band and I will write songs and I will be an integral part — one of the big cogs in the wheel — but if you want a hired gun, I’m sure you can get somebody to do that. But that’s not me. And that’s where it fell apart. The guy they got” apparently referring to Jordan Ziff — “is unbelievable. I’ve played gigs with this guy. He’s fucking amazing.”
Lynch went on to say that he thinks he would have made for a respectable replacement for DeMartini, who had a short stint with DOKKEN in the early 1990s when Lynch was out of the band. “It would have worked, I think — outside of personalities and politics of being in that band, ’cause they’re probably worse than DOKKEN [when it comes to internal] issues,” George said. “So that’s something I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed and wanted to get involved in. But if it was a clean situation where it didn’t have a bunch of drama… Musically, I’m very confident I would have been a good fit. [Warren and I] have similar styles, obviously, and kind of come from the same place. I get what he’s doing. We go for kind of the same tone. I think it would have worked in a way. It would have been a little different, but it would have been a decent fit, I think.”
Singer Stephen Pearcy and bassist Juan Croucier are the sole remaining original members in RATT‘s current lineup, which made its live debut in July 2018 in Mulvane, Kansas. Joining them in the band are drummer Pete Holmes (BLACK ‘N BLUE, RATT’S JUAN CROUCIER) and guitarists Jordan Ziff (Marty Friedman) and Frankie Lindia (David Lee Roth).
RATT — featuring Pearcy, Croucier and DeMartini — played a number of shows in 2017 after reforming a year earlier in the midst of a highly publicized legal battle with drummer Bobby Blotzer over the rights to the RATT name. They were joined at the gigs by guitarist Carlos Cavazo, who played on 2010’s “Infestation” album, and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso, who previously played with Y&T, WHITE LION and MEGADETH, among others.
