How Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy + Bobby Blotzer Reunited After Legal Battles

If Ratt are ever going to make a new album, it has to feature all of the surviving members of the classic lineup. Now, they’re one step closer as singer Stephen Pearcy and drummer Bobby Blotzer have reunited after a number of legal battles over the rights to the band name.

The two performed together last Friday (April 2) during Pearcy’s livestream show from the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles in an apparent end to ongoing issues in court concerning which members could perform under the Ratt name. Blotzer, who had been touring with his own version of Ratt separate from the one headed by Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Juan Croucier, had his trademark infringement appeal denied in a court ruling in 2018.

Since then, he has remained on the outs and guitarist DeMartini later vacated the group that same year.

Regarding the reunion, Pearcy told the “Hook Rocks!” podcast (transcription via Blabbermouth), “I just put it out there, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ We dabble in conversation. And all of us [from the classic Ratt lineup] still have business together. It doesn’t matter — it’ll go on forever, just because the band did what it did. There’s always business to do. Like, there’s another best-of [collection] coming out, and everybody has to be… we’re part of it. And if there’s new music on the release, we’re gonna do that.”

There was little fuss made over the two getting back together to perform as Pearcy continued, “So I just asked him, and he said, ‘Sure.’ And then we talked about a bunch of things. Me and him are just like brothers — fighting brothers. We love to hate each other. But why not? So he said, ‘Yeah.’ And that’s how it came about.”

The singer again touched on the idea of new Ratt music, sticking to his guns when asserting that it would have to involve the classic lineup. He said “anything is possible with us” and noted, “we’re not the most dysfunctional band in the world.”

“I hope it happens,” he continued. “I put the feelers out. That’s all I can do. Or release stuff that we have [that] nobody’s heard. And that’s about it. But I will not do another record [without the classic lineup]. It doesn’t make sense. Infestation [the band’s 2010 album] was great, but it didn’t have Juan. If we were gonna do it again, which we’ve had offers to do records, I’d say no — unless it’s the original guys, I won’t do it.'”

Pearcy, who will turn 65 in July, has released several solo records, the most recent being 2018’s View To a Thrill, and acknowledged that whenever he writes music for his solo efforts, his intention is to first present the ideas as potential Ratt songs.

“The last song I wrote and put out there, that was written for Ratt. But I sat on it for a year and I finally said, ‘I’m gonna put it on my solo record.’ And that’s it,” he explained.

As for his forthcoming solo album, Pearcy detailed, “A lot of the songs going on the sixth solo record, which I’m gonna go in the studio to start doing, so I can release it this year, [it was] considered for Ratt first. And that’s just the way it is. So until we write and do a record, Hell will freeze over. We’ll see… All you can do is say, ‘Hey, it could be cool. It would be great if we can pull it all together.’ And just think positive. And if it doesn’t [happen], It’s all right. I’m proud of our legacy. It’s no big deal.”

Before traction was lost on a new record, Pearcy, in late 2019, said he had 15 songs demoed to be used for the next Ratt record. In October of 2020, the band entered the studio with Jordan Ziff on guitar and Pete Holmes on drums, but nothing has been released from these sessions.