The excerpt below was taken from full in bloom’s Inside the Album: Warrant – Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich interview with producer / engineer Beau Hill.
PREVIEW CLIP: The full-length Warrant Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking interview will be published on Wednesday, June 3, 2020.
Make sure to listen to PART Iof our interview with Beau, where he talks in-depth about RATT’s 1984 debut album, Out of the Cellar, and PART II, which covers the band’s sophomore album, Invasion of Your Privacy.
SUBJECT:
Beau talks about working with RATT guitarist Warren DeMartini.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW EXCERPT VIA APPLE PODCASTS OR THE YOUTUBE CLIP / SOUNDCLOUD WIDGET BELOW.
EXCERPT DESCRIPTION:
Beau talks about how famed producer / engineer Keith Olsen helped launch his career. The interview segment was conducted prior to Keith’s death.
Make sure to listen to PART Iof our interview with Beau, where he talks in-depth about RATT’s 1984 debut album, Out of the Cellar, and PART II, which covers the band’s sophomore album, Invasion of Your Privacy.
Make sure to listen to PART Iof our interview with Beau, where he talks in-depth about RATT’s 1984 debut album, Out of the Cellar, and PART II, which covers the band’s sophomore album, Invasion of Your Privacy.
The segment has also been transcribed below.
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Beau Hill: I can tell you one other little anecdote of Invasion of Your Privacy (laughs) and this is actually quite funny. Warren (DeMartini) was really unhappy that we played Cellar (Out of the Cellar) on one rig. He was just very incensed by that. So, while they were on tour for Cellar, Warren and his roadie would go into music stores all across the nation and they would audition Marshall rigs. So, Warren started purchasing and they’d ship them back and put it in the warehouse….from the whole tour. When everything was said and done, he had like 25 heads and 20 or 25 4X4 cabinets in the warehouse because he was, ‘by God, we made the money….we’ve done what we had to do….I sacrificed what I needed to sacrifice….and by God, I’m going to get the sound that I want to get.’ I went, ‘ok, great.’ (laughs) So, when we went to set up to do Invasion, Warren said, ‘I want two whole days of studio time, just me, myself and my roadie….so that I can get my sound.’ Remember, we now had 25 heads and 25 or 30 different cabinets. His idea was, come hell or high water, he was going to check every head with every cabinet and come up with this impossibly monstrous and unique sound. So I said, ‘ok, you’re a multi-platinum recording artist, if you want to waste two days of time, ok, let’s do it.’ I have a picture of this somewhere, it was really spectacular. So, we were recording his guitar parts at Rumbo (Recorders) and there was one iso-room that was pretty big. I told the roadie, ‘ok, set it up’…so he set it up four piled on high or three piled on high, I guess and five or six across, Marshall cabinets. And, over in the corner, he had these 25 heads or however many it was….all piled up on top of each other and everything was wired. I said, ‘ok, Warren great, go for it and let me know what you decided for your rig.’ He goes in and closes the door, he’s in the room with the amps right now….turns everything on 10….goes in there and starts wailing away.
(laughs)
Beau: He’s playing and playing and playing and then he stops and you can hear the (sound of a cable being unplugged)….you know, they’re changing jacks, and his roadie is in there with him….and he plays and plays and plays and plays. I’m in the control room, I’m like two glass protection areas away from him and I can’t even hear myself think anymore, it’s so loud. He comes in, after I’d say about 20 or 30 minutes of this….he walks in and says something to the effect of, ‘well, I can’t really tell.’
(laughs)
Beau: Of course he was totally deaf at that point. What we wound up doing was….I got his roadie to take the rig that we used on Cellar and I just said, ‘stick it in the mix’…in the pile of amps. So, he gave me the look and I said, ‘this has just got to be between us, replace one of his heads with the old one and do this again.’ So, he went out and bought 25 amps and we wound up using the first amp, which he hated.
(laughs)
Beau: Now, all of a sudden, he liked it. So, we used that for him on Invasion and I don’t know think to this day he knows we did a switcheroo on him. But you know, sometimes it’s, especially with those guys, I just kind of had to let them think that whatever it was, it was their idea. I was like, ‘yeah, that’s great, ok.’
full in bloom: Right. (laughs)
Beau: It was a little psychology 101 sometimes with those guys.
full in bloom: A role of a producer, right?
Beau: (laughs) Yeah, herding the cats. You have to know how to do that.
Beau talks about working with RATT guitar duo Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby on the band’s classic 1984 debut album, Out of the Cellar. Watch the clips below.
You can listen to the entire Out of the Cellar podcast at this location.
Beau Hill: Juan (Croucier) is a very good bass player and he was also a very good singer. So, Juan and I did 90% of the background vocals, just the two of us. And on some the lower stuff like “Lay It Down,” Robbin (Crosby) sang a little bit on that one. Primarily it was Juan and I, and I did all the vocal arrangements, so I had everything charted out. And I’d give it to Juan, you know, in my Sanskrit notation. I’d say, ‘ok, let’s do this part this way.’ We always sang everything in unison, so that the combo of our two voices made this other third person. I don’t know if that makes any sense. So if there was like a three-part harmony, Juan and I together would sing the low part, then together sing the middle part, then together sing the high part. So it didn’t sound like Juan and it didn’t sound like me…it sounded like Fred. (laughs)
full in bloom: So that’s your background vocals on that album as well, huh?…or on all the RATT?
Beau Hill: Yep.
full in bloom: Bass. Would you record Juan direct or would you mic him up? What was your go-to?
Beau Hill: Both. We would do a DI and we would mic his amp. I think he was playing the standard kind, back in those days, the Ampeg SVT, I think. I could be mistaken with that but that’s what I’m drawn to right now.
Beau talks about working with former RATT drummer Bobby Blotzer.
The excerpt has been transcribed below or you can listen to it via the embedded YouTube clip above.
The entire Out of the Cellar podcast can be heard at this location, or directly on YouTube.
full in bloom: How was Bobby (Blotzer) in the studio? I’m sure he was well prepared but how was he to work with?
Beau Hill: Very difficult, very difficult. Out of everybody, he was always the hardest to please. Something was not right with just about everything. He was my least favorite guy to spend any time with. At least in my estimation, he was generally…I don’t know how I can put this….generally just disagreeable (laughs), let me put it that way.
full in bloom: Bobby didn’t write at all, did he?
Beau Hill: There again was another very sensitive point. When the guys in the band – that wrote the material that were hits – started getting these fat publishing checks that Bobby wasn’t getting, that really created some problems. We tried to, if not directly, indirectly give Bobby a couple of half credits, or something like that, on the record just to keep peace in the family.
full in bloom: But he didn’t necessarily write anything? Even coming up with drum ideas?
Beau Hill: We differentiated, you know, he’s being paid as the drummer and the drummer is supposed to come up with drum ideas, and that’s not writing. We distinguished writing as melody and lyrics. So, we didn’t give Warren (DeMartini) a writing credit for coming up with a solo. If he came up with a verse and a chorus idea…here’s the chords blah, blah, blah, blah….yeah, then he got in on the writing. And of course at the end of the record when it came time for everybody to determine and put on paper who did what to who and who wrote what and blah, blah, blah, blah, I mean, those were always incredibly tense discussions. They were like, ‘aw man, he didn’t say that’…’aw, yeah he did.’ It got like eighth graders at recess. Once these guys started figuring out how much money potentially was at play, everybody would lobby like crazy for their position. Nobody was going to give up without a fight and so it was a fight, every time.
full in bloom: At least they were conscious of it. A lot of guys I’ve interviewed, they weren’t even thinking about it. I kind of felt bad for Bobby later, even though he took RATT out on his own, I kind of understood because the guy didn’t get any of that money. He doesn’t have any (publishing) that keeps coming in.
Beau Hill: Well, he has his RATT royalties.
full in bloom: Of course, but the publishing, in the later years, is what keeps paying the bills, right?
Beau Hill: It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
In 2015, Bobby Blotzer announced that he had taken control
of the RATT brand and would take his band, featuring no other
original members, on tour in 2016 using the RATT name. He
was later sued by RATT guitarist Warren DeMartini, who
claimed that Blotzer was falsely advertising his “tribute band”
as the real thing.
Original RATT members Stephen Pearcy, Juan Croucier and
DeMartini eventually expelled Blotzer from their partnership,
denying him any interest in the RATT name and allowing him
to only refer to himself as a ‘former member of Ratt.’
The Complete full in bloom ‘Out of the Cellar’ Podcast
The full in bloom interview with RATT producer Beau Hill is now available. LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW VIA EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP ABOVE, ON YOUTUBE, OR VIA THE SOUNDCLOUD WIDGET BELOW.
Check back for more video / transcribed excerpts from this interview.
An excerpt taken from the beginning of our interview has been transcribed below. You can listen to the entire interview via the embedded YouTube clip above or at this location.
full in bloom: What’s new and what’s on the horizon?
Beau Hill: Well, basically all I do these days is mix. Bands from around the world send me files, bands that I’ve never met or heard from. I guess they go by reputation and then they find my website, and then they email me. We figure out how to do business together. They send me the files, I go to work and I send them back.
full in bloom: Is there anything you mixed recently that you took a liking to?
Beau: Absolutely. I did one Kix record, Midnite Dynamite.
full in bloom: I loved that record.
Beau: Thank you. So, they were doing the thirty year anniversary of Blow My Fuse and Blow My Fuse was supposed to be my record. But, again, there was another little falling about money with myself and the leader of the band, at the time, he’s no longer with them. Anyway, somebody else did the record and when it came up to do the reissue, which they just did, they said, ‘hey, let’s see if Beau wants to do the remix on it.” So, I did…the whole album. Really, really super happy with it. Number one, it was so fun for me to work with those guys again, and it came out great. That’s the most recent thing of merit. People send me files from everywhere, Australia, Moscow (laughs), it’s so crazy. I think they are primarily small projects, self-funded. I still like doing it and I guess I’ll keep doing it until I get bored or I don’t like doing it anymore, and then I just won’t. It’s still my passion; I love doing it.
full in bloom: What are you mixing with, console or are you on the computer?
Beau: I’m Pro Tools complete, that’s it. I kept a few of the real vintage pieces of outboard gear. Without getting to wonky about it, like some Pultecs and some Avalons, things like that, that I still use every day.
full in bloom: What do you mostly use the Avalons for?
Beau: I use the Avalons for the final chain on the 2-Buss, right before the final mix. It warms it up a little bit, and then there’s a compressor that I use on the 2-Buss. It’s very sensitive, I guess. I can compress like less that a half a dB and it warms it up. It doesn’t make it pump. which is what I really like about it.
full in bloom: What was your introduction to RATT?
Beau: I was living in New York in a rat-infested hovel (laughs). I had just come back from L.A. doing some work with Sandy Stewart, and I met Doug Morris on that particular day, the president of Atlantic Records. He and I hit it off really well. So, I was home in New York. Then about three weeks after I got back, the phone rang and it was Doug’s secretary. She said, “can you speak to Doug for a moment’ and I said, ‘absolutely.’ ‘Hi Doug, how are you,’ and he said, ‘listen, will you go to L.A. with me and I want you to look at this band. I think you’d be a great producer and if you’ll produce them, I am going to sign them.’ I was just like dumbfounded at that point. I went, ‘yes sir, absolutely, I’m there.’ We got on the plane, and funnily enough, I thought Doug was going to put me in coach and he would fly first class. But he bought us two coach tickets. So, he sat in coach with me the whole time, which I thought was pretty fun. We went to see them at the Beverly Theater. I said, ‘absolutely, I would love the opportunity.’
full in bloom: What was your first impression?
Beau: I liked them. My main first impression was, there were two thousand kids in that theater that were absolutely losing their mind. That was about all the reinforcement that I needed. There’s definitely a market for this – these kids are definitely responding to this band – so, I jumped at the chance.
full in bloom: Did you get the EP first?
Beau: I don’t remember how that all came about. Obviously, I got the EP at some point, because I think we took two songs off of the EP and redid them. I don’t remember the exact sequence of events, but we started that record very quickly. We went into pre-production rehearsal first, because I think….they hadn’t been signed yet, so that took however long, a couple of weeks. My remembrance is that it happened pretty quickly.
full in bloom: I thought it was just one song on the EP, “Back for More.” Did you guys recut “You Think You’re Tough?”
Beau: No.
full in bloom: What was the other song that was from the EP?
Beau: I honestly don’t remember.
Tom Allom
full in bloom: Tom Allom (Judas Priest) was originally slated to produce that record?
Beau: That’s who the band wanted. The band did not want me to produce the record at all. Who was I? (Laughs) I was nobody.
full in bloom: I’m assuming he was busy or did he turn down the record?
Beau: No, Doug made it a contingency of him signing the band, that they had to use me. It was, ‘this guy is doing your record or you’re not getting signed to Atlantic.’ That was pretty much the way it went down.
full in bloom: Wow. So, what was it that made them think you were a good fit for RATT?
Beau: The only person that thought I was a good fit for RATT was Doug Morris and RATT’s manager Marshall Berle, who was Milton Berle’s nephew. The rest of the band were very displeased with the position they were put in, because, you know, they didn’t know me from a knothole. You know, they wanted bragging rights, I guess, of being able to get somebody that was a known quantity like a Tom Allom to do the record, rather than telling people ‘we got this loser from New York that’s friends with the record company’ (Laughs) ‘and then forcing us to use him.’ But that’s the truth, they really did. So, the band really had no choice. It was Beau’s record or you’re not on Atlantic. (Laughs)
full in bloom: What are those initial sessions like, kind of standoffish a bit?
Beau: Yeah, it was quite challenging. (Laughs)
We’ve only just scratched the surface, there is a lot more interview left. You can listen to the entire interview via the embedded YouTube clip above, directly on YouTube at this location, or via the Soundcloud widget below.
This excerpt was taken from a full in bloom interview with Warrant producer Beau Hill.
The excerpt below was taken from full in bloom’s Inside the Album: Warrant – Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich interview with producer / engineer Beau Hill.
This excerpt was taken from the 
