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Mosh: Since you mentioned the recent legalities, I’ ll spare asking you the details as you’ re probably sick of talking about it. Are you just focused on moving forward and making a killer RATT album? Warren DiMartini: That’ s the basic plan. Once the judgement was made, we decided to do it. It was kind of late in the season – that was in November – to book a tour. Usually those kind of plans get started the summer before you do it. At the same time, we were working on material for a new record, hopefully to come out in 2018.
Mosh: Carlos Cavazo has been in the band in one form or another since 2008. Obviously you have a good relationship with him. What’ s it like sharing guitar duties with him? Warren DiMartini: It’ s great. We’ re sort of cut from a similar cloth; we grew up listening to the same stuff and the same bands. We share leads. I didn’ t know him real well in the’ 80s, but we’ ve crossed paths a few times. I always remembered he was cool, so when we were looking for a guitarist, he was an obvious choice for me.
Mosh: Michael Schenker filled in briefly with RATT in 1991, what was it like playing along side him? Warren DiMartini: It was surreal. In high school I was listening to bands like Scorpions, UFO, Van Halen, Ozzy, and I never ever expected to ever meet any of those guys. So to have Michael Schenker fill in for a tour was beyond any reasonable expectation.
Mosh: Infestation was a killer comeback in 2010, but what’ s your opinion of the laterera RATT albums such as the self-titled and Collage? Although there was some good stuff on both, to me they lacked that familiar classic RATT sound. Do you agree? Warren DiMartini: I agree. But I have to add that the good stuff on Collage is up there with my favorite work that we’ ve done.“ Steel River” I think turned out great and I still like listening to it. Other stuff on the record didn’ t hit as high. It was a project where we took songs where we had written but hadn’ t recorded yet or had demoed them and never finished. It was off the beaten path for us, we basically produced it ourselves. When I listen to it I hear the potential of where it could have gone.
Mosh: It goes without saying that many people miss Robbin, as I’ m sure you do too. What do you remember most about him? Warren DiMartini: I knew Robbin the longest. We went to the same junior high and high school. Not at the same time, we were four years apart. We were never in the same school together but we went through the same channel so to speak. He was always in popular bands in the town where we lived so I was always going to any concert I could where they were playing. He definitely set the bar high and always knew what he wanted to do and always knew where he was going. We had a lot of great memories hanging out and I miss him
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38 illinoisentertainer. com may 2017