STEPHEN PEARCY Says RATT Is Not Afraid To Make New Music

The newly reunited RATT, featuring three members of the band's classic lineup — singer Stephen Pearcy, bassist Juan Croucier and guitarist Warren DeMartini — will embark on a more proper tour next year after spending most of 2017 making select festival appearances and playing one-off shows. Pearcy, Croucier and DeMartini played their first official show as the reunited RATT on February 11 at Treasure Island in Welch, Minnesota. They were joined on stage by former QUIET RIOT guitarist Carlos Cavazo, who played on RATT's last studio album, 2010's "Infestation", and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso, who previously played with Y&T, WHITE LION and MEGADETH, among others. Speaking to "The Signals Of Intuition" radio show, Pearcy said about RATT's touring plans (hear audio below): "Next year is what we're really looking at. Right now it's the festival and getting reacquainted, getting the final legal stuff done, and then go out there and prepare everybody for, hopefully, getting [the new RATT] record done, new music." Pearcy added that making a new RATT record is a priority, despite a widespread industry belief that fans are not interested in hearing new music from veteran rock artists. "There's some rock bands afraid to put out new music, thinking [people] wanna hear the classics," Pearcy said. "Well, of course, but you can show 'em you've got a left nut too. It's, like, 'What, you don't make records anymore?' 'Man, I don't need to.' It's, like, 'Yeah, you do.' [Laughs]" The singer said that he can't relate to other long-running bands who choose to perform nothing but the same fifteen classic songs without ever releasing any new product for fans to enjoy. "That's the worst thing you can do," he said. "I just like writing, playing. I mean, jeez, it's no big deal." A completely different version of RATT — led by drummer Bobby Blotzer and featuring a revolving door of members — has been hitting stages across the country since the fall of 2015. Last November, a California judge ruled against Blotzer with respect to whether Croucier had committed trademark infringement by using the RATT name and logo to advertise his band RATT'S JUAN CROUCIER back in the fall 2015. The judge furthermore decided that the corporation WBS, Inc. — of which Blotzer and DeMartini were thought to be the sole shareholders — did not have ownership interest in the RATT marks and that the name and brand was still owned by the members who were part of the original RATT partnership agreement. In addition to claiming to have expelled Blotzer from the partnership following the latest court ruling, DeMartini, Croucier and Pearcy said that Blotzer could now only refer to himself as a "former member of RATT," as per the partnership agreement.

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