Illinois Entertainer May 2017 | Page 34

By Kelley Simms

BACK FOR MORE , AGAIN

RATT was around all the great music that was going around at the time . I didn ’ t enjoy the winters though . Mosh : You replaced Jake E . Lee in 1982 , and he actually recommended you . You were 18 years old and attending college at the time . What was that wild ride like ? Warren DiMartini : It was unbelievable , it was like a roller coaster . I was enrolled in college down in San Diego . Jake E Lee had picked my band to open a couple of shows for RATT . So when he moved on , I think opening those shows is what got me the gig in RATT . It was a very quick decision to give it a try so it was very exciting to say the least .
pened . If you got to a point where a place like the Troubadour or the Whiskey was booking a band , if you canceled that , that would really be a blow to the band . The thing was to move up ( to L . A .), learn the whole set and perform at a well-known club the following Friday . It was quite a new thing for me being just a couple of months out of high school .
Mosh : So you only had about four or five days to learn the material ? Warren DiMartini : That ’ s right . At night I would work on the songs with Jake and during the day we rehearsed down in Culver City . It was a wild ride .
re you ready to Ratt ’ N ’ Roll again ?

AThe recent court battles between former drummer Bobby Blotzer and the rest of the members over the use of the RATT band namehas finally been determined . The winners singer Stephen Pearcy , guitarist Warren DiMartini and bassist Juan Croucier , who are now joined by guitarist Carlos Cavazo — who ’ s been with the band in one form or another since 2008 — and new drummer Jimmy DeGrasso , will be hitting the road on the Back For More Tour ( coming to Concord Music Hall on June 2 ). The band recently announced that
it ’ s also writing material with the current lineup for a new record to be released sometime in 2018 .
Chicago-born DiMartini grew up in River Forest and moved to San Diego in 1974 when he was almost 12 years old . Although he ’ s lived on the West Coast for most of his life , he still considers Chicago home .
Mosh : What do you remember most about living here ? Warren DiMartini : The summers . Back then it was hordes of kids just riding bikes around the neighborhood . That , and great music . The whole British Invasion started peaking when I was about six or seven . I
Mosh : The world was mostly first introduced to RATT in 1984 , with the “ Round and Round ” video that was on heavy rotation on MTV at the time . What do you remember most about comedian Milton Berle , or were those scenes shot separately ? Warren DiMartini : It was all shot separately , but we all got to meet him and it was very memorable . He was very funny . It was someone I never expected to meet . It was the first time we ever made a video so it was a total brand new experience . It was just a completely learn-as-you-go experience .
Mosh : Do you remember your first gig with RATT and where it was ? Warren DiMartini : My first gig was at the Troubadour and that was part of the rush of moving to L . A . and making that decision . I got a call on a Sunday because on the following Friday there was a show booked at the Troubadour . This was before the whole pay-to-play thing hap-
Mosh : Your Back For More Tour officially begins next week . Are you excited to get back on the road ? Warren DiMartini : We ’ re very excited to be back on the road again . This run coming up will be the third show we ’ ve done since we ’ ve re-formed . The last two shows were just amazing to be together again and playing these songs again live . So we ’ re really looking forward to it .
Mosh : Were those warmup shows in L . A ., ( which led to pictures surfacing on Blabbermouth ) inevitably moving toward this reunion that ’ s happening now ? Warren DiMartini : Yeah it was . We were basically in kind of a holding pattern waiting for the court to decide the name rights . So for that show we didn ’ t know who had the right to use the name so we just went on as the Very Special Guests . That was really fun to do because they managed to keep it a secret right up until we walked on .
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34 illinoisentertainer . com may 2017