Ratt Singer Says Something Else Killed Hair Metal Besides Grunge

Grunge typically will get the credit score/blame for the downfall of hair steel and, whereas that is largely true, it wasn’t the one contributing issue, no less than not in keeping with Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy.

Speaking with Goldmine journal about Ratt’s upcoming restricted version The Atlantic Years field set, Pearcy was requested if grunge was what led to Ratt’s dissolution in 1992, two years after releasing their fifth album Detonator.

Ratt band teamed up with producer/co-writer Desmond Child on Detonator, shifting in an much more industrial course, this time fairly clearly so. Record labels had been intent on absolutely cashing in on the hair steel bonanza, spurring quite a lot of subpar imitation acts, which Pearcy feels had a unfavourable influence on the scene total.

“A lot of people think grunge had a huge impact on us, but at that point, it really had nothing to do with what happened to Ratt. I mean… we can claim partial ownership for the music that came out of the early ’80s, but by the time the decade ended, and Detonator came out, the scene was totally flooded with cookie-cutter bands,” the singer says.

“That was as big of an issue as anything,” he contends, “It got to the point where people were like, ‘You have to dress this way, move this way, sing this way,’ and all this fucking shit.”

He continues, “The whole world was filled with mini-Motleys and mini-Ratts, and it just got to be too much. And so, things went from being amazing to being the absolute worst very quickly. When everyone is making the same music, using the same producers, and the same video directors, you’re going to have a problem.”

So, I do not blame it on grunge as a lot as I blame it on all that was happening in that period,” Pearcy concludes.

It’s a fair assessment — too much of one thing can dilute a scene, especially after roughly a decade in the limelight.

READ MORE: How Grunge Killed Hair Metal

When asked if he has any particular regrets from the band’s five-album run on Atlantic Records, the singer says he has “a couple of,” “however they’re inside and extra in relations to the internal workings of the band.”

Even though Ratt’s classic lineup has not regrouped, Pearcy notes that he’s fortunate to still be around to talk about it and to have achieved the level of success he did back in the day. The box set is a testament to that era and the singer notes, “Even if we won’t all get in a room to play music collectively, no less than we’re in a position to accomplish this.”

Ratt’s The Atlantic Years box set is out now. Get more details here.