Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy Reveals How He Helped Pioneer the ’80s Glam Look
Rock memoirs are a great source of salacious details about the history of a band or artist, and that's certainly true in the case of Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy's new autobiography. As its title suggests, his recently released 'Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock' digs into the excesses of the '80s when Ratt were at their peak, and offers some insights into how he helped bring a little glam into the hard rock universe.
"The whole scene in '82, early '83 was black leather, heavy metal, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest," Pearcy tells Rock Book Show. "And we just noticed that there was like a lot of guys in the audience. And we were like, 'This is cool, but you know, we like girls. Let's try to figure something out here.' I knew some girls who worked at these uppity stores in LA, and they'd let me rummage through their really expensive, expensive clothes and take them out of there, and I'd dress us all up in them. We got out of that heavy metal look."
Pearcy continues, "I loved Adam and the Ants and Duran Duran, and their look, and noticed there was a lot of chicks. And I go, 'Okay, let's kinda combine all this.' And then to look at us and then hear our music was this weird thing for people."
Though Pearcy went on to a huge run of success with Ratt, he was set for another career until fate intervened. "I wanted to be one of the youngest race car guys out of the '70s," he reveals. "I was fortunate to work for a team that took me in as a pit guy. I was ready to go, and then all of a sudden my mom gets married and moves to San Diego . . . and I get in this wreck . . . and it changed everything."