THE FULL IN BLOOM FLASHBACK
The story of RATT’s “Round and Round,” according to Warren DeMartini, Robbin Crosby, Stephen Pearcy, and Beau Hill.
LISTEN TO THE STORY VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP BELOW. You can also access the video directly on our YouTube channel @ this location.
“Backstage Blast “, RATT circa 1983, a 19-year-old Warren DeMartini had recently moved to L.A., joined RATT and never looked back. One of the first shows (in this photo) was at the Troubadour, a local hard rock club in West Hollywood, CA.
Photo courtesy TFE 2022. OfficialStephenPearcy.com
This is a full in bloom interview with Megadeth/Kings of Thrash guitarist Jeff Young.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP BELOW. You can access the video directly on YouTube.
DESCRIPTION:
Jeff talks about arriving in Los Angeles in 1984, going to THE GUITAR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (GIT) – Musicians Institute, Randy Rhoads, auditioning for Ratt & Alcatrazz, Stephen Pearcy, Graham Bonnet, and Yngwie Malmsteen.
Stephen Pearcy:
A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Monsters on the Mountain last night. YOU KICKED ASS!
Photos: MissTruthAdare, Joe Schaeffer
Guitar World: Warren DeMartini, Steve Stevens, Lita Ford and an all-star panel share their guitar highlights of the ‘80s. You can check out the entire all-star panel @ this location.
An excerpt from the feature has been provided below.
‘
Scott Ian (ANTHRAX)
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: Mr. Crowley, Randy Rhoads. His 1-2-3 punch of chops, technique and melody make this solo the one that not only stands out above all his other work, but above everyone else’s in the Eighties. And it’s fun to “air guitar” to!
BEST RIFF: AC/DC’s Back in Black came out in 1980 and set the tone for the rest of the decade.
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: Blizzard of Ozz by Ozzy. Randy tops Eddie [Van Halen’s] Women and Children First by a nose hair – and only because he was the new kid and it was all very exciting to hear someone come along A.E. – after Ed – and give us all ear boners.
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: The Floyd Rose! Eddie, Randy, Alex, Kirk, Dave, Steve, Joe, Neil, Kerry, Jeff, Vernon, me! etc., etc. They’re all first-name basis guitar players who used Floyd’s – and this is only the tip of the iceberg.
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: Randy Rhoads
GREATEST SHREDDER: Steve Vai
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: Ty Tabor of King’s X. Ty’s playing on their two Eighties albums is wholly original. His tone is incredible, his feel, his sense of melody. He’s a monster. You need to listen to King’s X.
BEST MOVIE: Raging Bull
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: My Walkman Sport
Adam Jones (TOOL)
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train (Randy Rhoads)
BEST RIFF: Ratt’s Lay It Down – drop D!
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: David Bowie’s Scary Monsters
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: ADA MP-1 preamp with a Roland AX-7 Keytar
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: Eddie Van Halen
GREATEST SHREDDER: Yngwie Malmsteen
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: [Gang of Four’s] Andy Gill. [He had a] huge influence on me. His style was so passionate and raw, very unique at the time. When I mention him, most people say, “Who?”
BEST MOVIE: Blade Runner
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: Any member of Kajagoogoo
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: Sony Walkman
John 5 (ROB ZOMBIE)
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: Beat It. It really is just pure perfection.
BEST RIFF: Lay It Down by Ratt
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: Rising Force by Yngwie Malmsteen
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: My Boss Heavy Metal pedal.
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: Steve Vai
GREATEST SHREDDER: Paul Gilbert came on the scene with Racer X and changed my life forever.
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: Vinnie Moore
BEST MOVIE: Crossroads with Ralph Macchio and Steve Vai – one of the best!
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: My good friend Nikki Sixx had the coolest haircut in the Eighties.
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: My record collection. Without it, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
Lita Ford
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: The Ripper by Lita Ford
BEST RIFF: Close My Eyes Forever by Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: Lita by Lita Ford
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: B.C. Rich guitars
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: Eddie Van Halen
GREATEST SHREDDER: Eddie Van Halen
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: Lita Ford – because she is/was a badass “female” guitarist. Not many people could handle that.
BEST MOVIE: Arthur
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: Nikki Sixx
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: A guitar!
Warren DeMartini (RATT)
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: (Jake E. Lee) Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne
BEST RIFF: Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N’ Roses
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: Blizzard of Ozz by Ozzy Osbourne
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: MXR Flanger
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: Stevie Ray Vaughan
GREATEST SHREDDER: Yngwie Malmsteen
BEST MOVIE: The Blues Brothers
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: Tommy Lee
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: Vitamin B12
Mark Tremonti (CREED)
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: Jeff Beck’s People Get Ready, a great example of the pure emotion that one of the best players that ever lived is capable of laying down.
BEST RIFF: Lay It Down by Ratt. It is just that classic Eighties metal-era iconic riff that everybody’s learned over the years.
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Texas Flood
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: The ADA MP-1, a rack-mounted guitar processor. I never got the MP1, but I did have the MP2.
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: Eddie Van Halen, hands down.
GREATEST SHREDDER: Eddie Van Halen. He’s the godfather of shred guitar and put that style of playing on the map.
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: Neal Schon.
BEST MOVIE: Crossroads was one of the reasons I wanted to start playing guitar. The “cutting heads” scene is one of the most iconic guitar movie scenes of all time.
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: Dee Snider
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: The Rockman Sustainor rack that Tom Scholz created.
Marty Friedman (MEGADETH)
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: Wuthering Heights by Pat Benatar (Neil Giraldo)
BEST RIFF: Here It Comes by Ezo
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: Crimes of Passion by Pat Benatar. Every solo is totally different, and every song has lots of unique and very effective guitar work.
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: Quadraverb
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: It would be impossible to choose one, probably thanks to the high standard set by EVH.
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: Steve Lukather. People know how great he is, but many are not aware that his massive body of musical work is so overwhelmingly expansive and diverse that there are literally no rivals as far as I know.
BEST MOVIE: The Last American Virgin
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: The bass player on the first Cinderella album cover.
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: Hair
Joel Stroetzel (KILLSWITCH ENGAGE)
GREATEST GUITAR SOLO: Into the Fire by Dokken (George Lynch)
BEST RIFF: Opening riff to Lay It Down by Ratt
ULTIMATE GUITAR ALBUM: Rising Force by Yngwie Malmsteen
PIECE OF GEAR THAT SCREAMS ’80s: Original Eighties hot pink Ibanez JEM
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: Eddie Van Halen
SHREDDER: Paul Gilbert
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: Adrian Vandenburg. Killer vibrato [and] awesome-sounding hands.
BEST MOVIE: Purple Rain
GREATEST HAIRSTYLE: Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls
ULTIMATE EIGHTIES ACCESSORY: Walkman cassette player!
You can check out the entire all-star panel @ this location.
Guitar World: Are you working on new music or planning to tour?
Warren DeMartini:
“Yes. I’m working on music all the time, but it’s hard to pin down when that’ll be ready. I have a lot of material, and it’s going to be completed when it’s completed. And at some point, if I live long enough, it’s probably going to be a solo effort, but I’m in no rush to put it out.
“As for touring, I love it. I’ve done that on and off for 35 years, so I don’t mind not being part of that world right now. I’ve been doing Kings of Chaos with Gilby Clarke, Matt Sorum, Kenny Aronoff and James Lorenzo. We do gigs once in a while, and there’s always three singers.
“The last gig we did featured Dee Snider, Ann Wilson and Billy Gibbons. That was a lot of fun. I do get out and play live, but no actual tours recently. It’s so hard these days with everything going on – there’s Covid and all. I think it’s better to wait for things to calm down out there.”
You can read Guitar World’s entire interview with Warren DeMartini @ this location.
Guitar World: Warren DeMartini on the ‘80s: “Everybody wanted to play like Eddie, and every band wanted to hit it big like Van Halen.” You can read the entire interview @ this location.
INTERVIEW EXCERPT:
When you joined Ratt, did you and Robbin Crosby hit it off right away?
Warren DeMartini:
“Oh yeah. I was friends with Robbin before he knew any of those guys. He and I went to the same junior high school – not at the same time, but we lived in the same area. I was interested in the guitar, and he was already in a band that played all the time. So when I first got into the guitar, he was out of high school and living the life. His band played covers, but they did some originals, too.
Lead guitarists usually get more of the attention from the press. Do you think Robbin ever minded the spotlight falling more on you?
“If he did, he didn’t mention it. I mean, he never said anything like that. And you know, I didn’t think about that sort of thing. I was just very focused on making my own contribution to the band and doing the best I could with the time I had.”
People often cite your vibrato. How did you start to develop your technique?
“From Jake E. Lee. I went over to his house, and it was the first time I saw somebody really play that way up close. I was pretty mystified about how to use vibrato, and Jake told me that I had to start slow and then go wide. After that, you don’t have to think about it anymore. That was one of the few times I got advice from somebody and was able to put it to good use.”
You mentioned Eddie Van Halen as being the top guy for guitarists when you were coming up. How much impact did he have on your playing?
“Oh, a lot, sure. There was his sound, but there was also his whole style. He had a shuffle that nobody else had. I was crazy about that shuffle in I’m the One. I think Eddie got some of that from listening to Eric Clapton, although he played much slower. There was the same kind of snappiness, though.
“Kind of a funny story about Eddie: Robbin knew him a bit, and I think he also knew some people on Van Halen’s crew, so we got passes to the band’s show in San Diego during the Women and Children First tour. I drove us there, and we got to the arena before the opening act went on. A crew guy that Robbin knew showed us Ed’s rig, and we talked for a bit.
“A while later, halfway through Van Halen’s set, I realized I left my jacket on the stage where we were talking, right behind the PA speakers on Ed’s side. My keys were in the jacket, and losing them wasn’t an option. My pass got me backstage again, so I climbed the stairs to the stage level and saw my jacket 20 feet away.
Nobody was looking, so I went for it – halfway to my jacket, I paused and took in the view from Ed’s world. The band was surrounded by the sold-out arena. Then Ed started moving to his left, and for a few moments his spotlight hit the two of us. Right when the monitor guy noticed me, I took a few more steps, grabbed my jacket and booked.”
You can read the entire interview @ this location.
full in bloom: In a recent interview with the newly relaunched Metal Edge, Creed/Alter Bridge Guitarist Mark Tremonti talked about some of the music from the ’80s that influenced him, like Tesla, Metallica, Ratt, Ozzy, and more. Watch the highlight video below or you can read the entire interview @ this location.
Jake was awesome. His style is so recognizable – you hear it and you hear Jake E. Lee, you hear his personality. He’s got a big personality in his playing, and it’s all over The Ultimate Sin. I think I read somewhere that Ozzy didn’t really like that album too much. But I love it.”
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW EXCERPT VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP OR SOUNDCLOUD WIDGET BELOW.
You can also listen to this excerpt via Apple Podcasts.
Make sure to listen to PART I of 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.
Beau talks about how much each member of the band was worth when they went in to record their second album, Invasion of Your Privacy, & how misunderstandings compromised their relationship at times.
Beau Hill Interview Excerpt via YouTube:
Beau Hill Interview Excerpt via Soundcloud:
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW EXCERPT VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP OR SOUNDCLOUD WIDGET BELOW.
You can also listen to this excerpt via Apple Podcasts.
Make sure to listen to PART I of 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.
Beau talks about working with RATT guitarist Warren DeMartini.
Beau Hill Interview Excerpt via YouTube:
Beau Hill Interview Excerpt via Soundcloud:
RATT Out of the Cellar producer Beau Hill – Interview excerpt
This excerpt was taken from the Out of the Cellar full in bloom interview with RATT producer / engineer Beau Hill. Also, make sure to listen to our Invasion of Your Privacy interview @ this location.
You can listen to the interview excerpt via the embedded YouTube clip above or Soundcloud widget below.
EXCERPT DESCRIPTION:
Beau talks about RATT guitarist Warren DeMartini’s quest to find the perfect amp for Invasion of Your Privacy.
You can listen to the entire Out of the Cellar podcast at this location.
Listen to more excerpts from this interview
The segment has also been transcribed below.
_______________________________________________
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.
Stephen E Pearcy: “Was an option for the RATT “Reach For The Sky” cover art work. I still have a bunch of these. Prob one of these will make Tour tees ??☠️”
Out of the Cellar producer Beau Hill talks about recording RATT guitarists Robbin Crosby and Warren DeMartini.
The 3 excerpts below were taken from the full in bloom interview with RATT producer / engineer Beau Hill.
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.
Listen to more excerpts from this interview
(1 of 3) Mixing Warren DeMartini & Robbin Crosby:
(2 of 3) Recording Warren DeMartini & Robbin Crosby
(3 of 3) Warren DeMartini’s Quest to Find the Ultimate Marshall Amp:
The excerpt below was taken from the full in bloom interview with RATT producer / engineer Beau Hill.
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.’
RATT
Out of the Cellar (1984)
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.
Search for RATT items and RATT-related items on FIBITS
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.
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.
Hire Beau Hill to mix your album @ BeauHillProductions.com.
Jackson & Charvel @ NAMM 2018, Room 304
Jake E. Lee (Ozzy Osbourne, Badlands) and Warren DeMartini (RATT) will be stopping by the Jackson/Charvel booth at NAMM 2018 today (1/26) at 4PM. Artists are scheduled for signing sessions throughout the weekend, including Andreas Kisser (Sepultura), Angel Vivaldi and David Ellefson (Megadeth).
Lee’s new band, Red Dragon Cartel, have been in the studio working on a forthcoming album, expected sometime in 2018.
RT @FU_Tone: https://t.co/qWl2sj6UKt Cat #WarrenDeMartini Of #RATT and #JakeELee at @CharvelGuitars @NAMMShow ! Note: The Photo I took behind WD. #namm #NAMM2018 #guitar #legend #guitarporn #charvel #layitdown #waycooljr #barkatthemoon #ozzy pic.twitter.com/hFMD2lSL6m
— ★Michelle Anne★ (@KiddMe5) January 30, 2018
Over on the Charvel® Guitars stand at the NAMM Show Jake E. Lee and Warren DeMartini were doing … #muziparts pic.twitter.com/70cwgvoXs8
— Muzi Parts (@MuziParts) January 27, 2018
https://t.co/34FeWpV7Jk Cat #WarrenDeMartini of #RATT Knows #Tone! #guitar #legend #charvel #guitargear #futone #bigblock #theoriginal pic.twitter.com/buSCa6uEXI
— FU-Tone.com (@FU_Tone) October 10, 2017
Jake E Lee and Warren DeMartini models from @CharvelGuitars #SamAsh #NAMM #NAMMShow #NAMM2017 pic.twitter.com/QgyEthFeyj
— Sam Ash Music (@samashmusic) January 30, 2017