Stephen Pearcy on Warren DeMartini’s Ratt Departure: ‘He Didn’t Want to Go Out There’
After months of speculation, Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy has explained that longtime guitarist Warren DeMartini is out of the group simply because "he didn't want to go out there."
"What happened was, some people wanted to work -- not even work, some people don’t want to go out and have fun -- and some people do," Pearcy explained during a live interview on Eddie Trunk's SiriusXM radio show. "Warren just didn’t want to go out there, and when you have a corporation or a company, that company doesn’t need to cease if the majority wants to go forward."
After three of the four surviving classic-era members (Pearcy, DeMartini and bassist Juan Croucier, who remains alongside Pearcy in the group's current lineup) spent nearly two years wresting control over the group's name from the fourth (drummer Bobby Blotzer, who was briefly touring with his own version of the band), the trio reunited for a handful of reunion shows in 2017.
However, according to Pearcy, he and Croucier later realized they still weren't on the same page as DeMartini. "We thought things were going copacetic, but later found out there were other things going on with this guy," he said. Longtime guitarist Carlos Cavazo and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso have also left the group for undisclosed reasons.
They've been replaced by lead guitarist Jordan Ziff, guitarist Chris Sanders and drummer Pete Holmes. The 2018 Ratt lineup made their live debut over the weekend with a set list that drew heavily from their first two mid-'80s albums.
"We wanted to clean house and that’s it, go out and enjoy ourselves for once, you know? Enough drama, we’ve been through enough. I know it’s crazy, but I’m just moving forward, Juan and myself, and trying to keep some legacy involved," Pearcy concluded. "Let’s get past this BS. We want to record some new songs, we want to tour the world, we want to be able to do things we haven’t been able to do in about a year and a half."
DeMartini has not offered any comments or explanation regarding his departure from Ratt.