Guitarist Erik Ferentinos, who has played with RATT singer Stephen Pearcy for nearly two decades, says that RATT fans shouldn’t expect much activity from the band in 2021. “I think [Stephen] may be pausing the RATT thing this coming year and he’s gonna go solo,” Erik said during an appearance on “The Classic Metal Show” (hear audio below). “And I don’t know — maybe we’ll see a reunion with the real dudes, which is what I think they should do,” he added, apparently referring to a potential reunion of all the surviving members of RATT‘s classic lineup. “They’re not getting any younger.”
According to Ferentinos, Pearcy will “go back out and play solo shows in 2021” whether the coronavirus crisis has subsided or not.
“We’re more accustomed to doing smaller [shows] anyway, and that’s pretty much all we’re gonna hope to get involved with,” he explained. “Potentially maybe some drive-in stuff in the spring… But we wanna play, and people wanna see shows. We’ll take whatever we can get, as far as getting out there. I’m just happy that [Stephen] is willing to go out at his age — he’s in his 60s and he’s not scared to go out there and play. He’s chomping at the bit to get out, and I like that. So we’re definitely planning on doing shows. We’re gonna do a record.”
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 guitarist Jordan Ziff (RAZER).
RATT hasn’t released any new music since 2010’s “Infestation” album.
In a recent interview with the “Appetite For Distortion” podcast, Pearcy said that he was putting RATT “on the backburner” and focusing on his solo career.
“I’ve been working on my sixth solo record for the last year and a half, ready to go, ready to go and record it,” the 64-year-old singer said. “And I’m also releasing a legacy record of songs from my career, 1977 till 2021. So I’ve got a lot on the plate.”
According to Pearcy, his decision to focus on a new solo album was born out of necessity, not preference.
“I’m always prepared to do RATT music, but if my partner is not into it, then I just switch tracks and move forward. Anything I write for myself, or just write — period — is thought of as RATT music, and I pretty much bring it [to RATT first]. If I know it’s really RATT sound and has that schematic, then I’ll bring it to… The only partner here left is Juan, and if there’s no interest in recording from the guy, then I just move forward and record it for me.”
Stephen went to say that the solo song “All That I Want”, which he released in April, was originally meant to be a RATT track. “It didn’t happen [with RATT] — we didn’t get in the studio before we went on the road last summer; that’s how old that song is, but it’s new — it’s still a new song,” he told “Appetite For Distortion”. “I just recorded it solo and put it out, so people have something to listen to until I get the solo record finished. But it’s written — ready to go.
“Anything I write, people expect it to be RATT, and why am I not writing RATT music,” he continued. “It’s, like, well, I do — all the time.
“At the end of the day, for me, it’s all good, no matter where the songs go. But I pretty much offer ’em to my band RATT first, obviously, and if it doesn’t go down, then, sure, I’ll keep ’em for me.”
Pearcy also lamented the fact that so many of his peers have no penchant for putting out new music because they believe that most fans of classic rock bands don’t always like to listen to fresh material.
“Some of your own bandmembers don’t wanna work these days,” Stephen said. “They don’t think they have to write new music. You could live off your, per se, legacy, and you can play your songs — classic rock, which it is now. And believe me, it’s a very good thing, what we’ve accomplished.
“A lot of my peers from the ’80s, they don’t think they need to do records; they don’t think records are important,” he added. “I can honestly say my bass player, Juan, doesn’t think it’s important. But to me, music is always important… My bass player is not breaking down any walls trying to get music out with me for RATT. And I can say it, because I’m the one that’s having to end up doing a solo record, and the songs sound like RATT, because I know people wanna hear new music, and I happen to be the singer guy. But you literally can just be a jukebox — just going through the motions.”
Pearcy‘s fifth solo LP, “View To A Thrill”, came out in November 2018 via Frontiers Music Srl. The follow-up to 2017’s “Smash” was produced by Matt Thorne and Pearcy and was mixed and mastered by Thorne and Ferentinos.
RATT — featuring Pearcy, Croucier and guitarist Warren 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 ex-QUIET RIOT guitarist Carlos Cavazo, who played on “Infestation”, and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso, who previously played with Y&T, WHITE LION and MEGADETH, among others.
