‘Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock’ – A Memoir By Stephen Pearcy with Sam Benjamin – Book Review

I’m a huge Ratt fan as the first series the site ever did was a Ratt one where we reviewed every Ratt album in their discography (and my collection). A big part of that is because I like Stephen Pearcy. So when I was in Los Angeles and saw a book by Stephen Pearcy called ‘Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock’, I had to grab it. Now, Stephen didn’t write it by himself, he had the help of Sam Benjamin. But the two together crafted a book that was an easy, entertaining read and I like easy. And you will notice down below, the copy I picked up had been signed by Stephen back in 2018 which I didn’t notice until I got back home. Pretty cool!!

The story opens with birth of his daughter and him going to rehab, then quickly jumps back to his childhood. He was a typical kid, parents divorced when he was young so he didn’t now his Dad very well and raised by a single mom. He had to move from L.A. to San Diego when he was young and didn’t fit in with the scene. He found some hippie type friends and got in to drugs and drinking at a young age. He was hit by a car and both legs broken and was in rehab in the hospital for months on end and took a long time to recover.

When he finally discovered music, that became his motivation, his drive, his obsession. He knew he was going to make it and did everything in his power to make it happen. He met David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen early on when that band was getting ready to break and there are some fun stories with that. And with a book called Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll, you get all of that and then some. Most of the book is about his sex addiction and his drug addiction and after awhile that does get old because how many times can you talk about getting trim and not just sound like it is on repeat. He gets a lot and constantly. Stephen is a giant man-child who can’t commit to anything or anyone except the addictions, but his drive to be a rock star was insane.

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Mickey Ratt (feat. Stephen Pearcy) – ‘Ratt Era: The Best of’ (2020) – Album Review

In a time where the Ratt gang is battling on who owns what, who is suing who, it is no wonder Stephen Pearcy took it upon himself to re-record a bunch of Ratt classic songs. Why it is called Mickey Ratt is beyond me because most of these songs do not come from the Mickey Ratt era…some of them do though. Plus, he couldn’t call it straight up Ratt with all the lawsuits now could he.

The LP version is what I have which was released back in 2020. My copy has the pretty cool Pink LP and the album has 16 re-recorded Ratt songs with a little help from some of his friends including George Lynch and Tracii Guns. The cover is bad, the picture on the back is bad and the sound of the record is…well…not that bad. The early Ratt / Mickey Ratt songs sounded rough, raw and almost garage style, so these were recorded with that old sound and songs that dated back to the Mickey Ratt time frame, but recorded by Ratt sound like the old Mickey Ratt sound and not the polished production Ratt albums had. And I kind of dig that.

George Lynch plas on about 5 songs including the opener “Round And Round”. The song sounds good enough, but I hate to say this, George is no Warren DeMartini so I don’t like the guitar sound on the re-recording much at all. Sorry George, I’ve never really been a fan although you are superbly talented!! And the overall recording is no where near as good as the original…the same goes with most of these.

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February 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

We had another good month here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music and the collection keeps growing, both the vinyl and the CD collection as well as now even the cassette collection. I found some more stuff to add to the ever growing Kiss collection, the Needtobreathe collection, the Matt Nathanson collection and even the Ratt and Whitesnake collections.

First thing that came in was something that was bought months ago, but the vinyl had been delayed. It finally arrived and it is the new Matt Nathanson album ‘Boston Accent’ which now completes my vinyl collection for Matt…well until he releases something else of course…

Then I bought a bunch of things this month from the internet including some new releases as well as filling out my The Poodles collection, Eclipse, Wig Wam and H.E.A.T. The Wig Wam can be counted as new too along with The Winery Dogs…

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Ratt – ‘Collage’ – Album Review

After the disappointing sales of their album ‘Detonator’, Ratt seemed to be falling apart.  Robbin Crosby would leave the band due to his substance abuse problem and the dominos would fall from there.  The band went on “hiatus” in 1992 and it felt like the band was done.  Well, the weren’t just year.

In 1997, reunion talks began with the five original members.  However, Robbin Crosby developed HIV due to his substance abuse problem and was in no shape to carry-on.  Juan Croucier would soon afterwards decide he didn’t want to re-join the band.  So that left Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer and they decided to continue as Ratt and the set out to go on tour.  Before they did that, the decision was made to release a compilation album of B-sides, alternate recordings and even re-work some old Mickey Ratt tunes.

I wasn’t planning on reviewing any compilation albums in my Ratt Review Series, but this one was different as it wasn’t a greatest hits collection.  Being that most of the songs haven’t been on any Ratt album, I decided it was worth getting a review of it’s own.  I will warn you, this is a collection of songs that is strictly for Ratt fans.

RATT-Collage-CD-1997-DeRock-Records-10-Tracks-EXCELLENT-_1

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