Ratt founder and frontman Stephen Pearcy recently joined Tommy Londonand Tor of The Mighty VH podcast for a Van Halen-focused conversation.
When asked if Van Halen changed the direction of the whole Sunset Strip rock scene once the David Lee Roth-fronted outfit broke through, Pearcy said (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net), “Yeah. They changed the whole face of rock. Seriously. I mean, what an impact, this guitar guy and this entertainment and the most solid rhythm section from two guys, and then brother Michael [Anthony], his voice. I mean, holy s–t. You see them at the Whisky A Go Go and hear that, it’s, like, ‘F–k, you don’t need a PA, Michael.’ … And then every John, Pete and Harry started to tap, tap, tap, tap, tap [on the guitar]. I mean, come on — [Eddie] changed the face of guitars… It was insane. You’re just looking at it, going, ‘How in the f–k is this guy doing that?’ I wasn’t into that technical shit… [guitarist at the time] Robbin [Crosby], was into that s–t. I wasn’t. I was direct drive, and then started playing guitar less and less, and becoming a ‘singer singer’, once Robbin pulled in — the Jake E.[Lee] period.”
Pearcy also talked about Roth‘s impact as a frontman and lead vocalist, saying: “Well, when you find out years and years later Jim ‘Dandy’ [Mangrum, lead singer for the 1970s rock group Black Oa Arkansas] had a lot to do with it, [Roth‘s] image and his stuff. But us singer guys, I totally went, ‘I have to be the lead singer in my [pre-Ratt] band Mickey Ratt.’ And that was around when Jake E.[Lee] was in the band. But he had his own cool thing too.
What Dave did for everybody, all the lead singers on the Strip, or most of them, especially if you had blonde hair or something, trying to emulate Dave— I mean, he had the image, he had the rap, he had the voice — and a lot of us out there that were seeing this were going, ‘Holy s–t,’ to all of it,” Pearcy added. “You had to just up your game. They set the bar for what was to happen in the ’80s.”
As the founder, lead singer, and songwriter of the metal rock band Ratt, Pearcy led his creation to mega multi-platinum success year after year from 1984 to 1991. Ratt climbed up the charts with Out Of The Cellar, which generated Top 10 singles followed by sold-out tours throughout the world. Throughout Ratt‘s nearly four decades of success with Pearcy at its helm, they released eight albums and played thousands of shows worldwide all the while selling over 20 million records.
Pearcy has released five solo albums so far: Social Intercourse(2002),Fueler (2004),Under My Skin (2008),Smash (2017) and View To A Thrill (2018).