First off, what are you up to now – Ratt and Contraband tours, etc?
I’m basically retired – we’re talking about a reunion next year – Steven, Warren and myself. But for now I’m golfing, riding my bike and taking care of my pets! I’m always looking for something to do.
It’s different now. I’m in bed early and up early. Now I’m waking up when I used to go to bed!
I still like to rock, too. But I had a lot of medical stuff going on – a spinal fusion, hip replacement…I used to be very athletic – raced dirt bikes and snow and water skied. And drummed – there’s a lot of movement in drumming. But the surgeon told me that it was all cumulative trauma – it just wore on my body and I just need to deal with the outcomes now as I do what I do!
I know you got started off in Dokken – what made you decide to go your own way after that?
I toured with Vic Vergeat – a Swiss guitarist – in ’82. I got a call then from Juan Croucier – who was later Ratt’s bassist – saying they needed a drummer. It was with a band called Romeo – we were doing power pop – like the Romantics meet the Police. I got the gig and got an instant salary. The next day we were on Lufthansa Airlines to Germany!
We toured with Nazareth in the UK and they went back to America. The Civic Arena was one of those venues. I was on stage at 21 in front of my family and had no fear!
The band broke up after the tour. I had a child and was looking for a gig. The band Bruiser was looking for a drummer – their drummer Vinny Appice went on to Black Sabbath. I wanted that gig. But a girl I knew had a boyfriend whose buddy was in a band in San Diego. They needed a drummer too. He said he saw me on a video when I was on tour. He asked if that was me and I said “Yeah!” He said “Right on!” and asked if I wanted to play drums for his band – called Ratt. It used to be Mickey Ratt and they had changed the name.
I saw them play at the Whiskey but I still wanted the Bruisers gig. I waited for a month though and they never called so I took the Ratt offer. I brought an expertise to the band – I knew the music business and had touring experience. I was in the grown-up land of the business. The rest is history.
Who were your mentors/icons you looked up to as a drummer/musician?
We all do yeah! I was a kid of the 60s and 70s – I was a classic rock guy. The Beatles were my number one band – I also loved Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, the Stones, Emerson Lake & Palmer… When I was in Dokken we tried to write radio friendly songs – we were commercial rock. The progressive bands hated that but best of luck to them getting on the radio!
Metallica opened up for us in Oakland. They were on their way then. When I saw them I just thought “Are you deliberately trying to not have a career?” They had long songs with a lot of stops and starts – that was not the road map for radio and record deals. But they went on to be historic.
Any good experiences/memories of your times in Pittsburgh scene?
Great question! In ’81 – the Vic Vergeat tour with Nazareth – we played the Civic Arena. I remember the long walk from our dressing room to the stage! and I looked and saw this big boxing ring! I looked up and saw George Foreman sparring with his teeth guard in. He looked at me, took out the teeth guard and asked if that was our stage – I told him it was when we played on it! He said he had a fight the next day and I told him to kick ass out there!
We came back and played at the Stanley Theater with Night Ranger and headlined a tour again and played the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh with Bon Jovi opening for us. By 1985 we had eight semis and 75 guys working for us.
As a Pittsburgh guy – what about the city influenced you?
My dad worked for the Pirates – I remember my brother playing catch with Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. I was young but I knew how big those guys were. My uncle worked for the Steelers too. They instilled that love of the Pittsburgh sports teams – the Steelers and Pirates. No one could touch those 70’s Steelers teams. Fucking go Steelers and Pirates!
But as an influence musically, not much by city standards. I grew up in Turtle Creek. I got a guitar when I was 13 and was jamming with my buddy who played drums. We decided to switch and I instantly got it! It didn’t come to me – it was in me! I told him he could have my guitar if he wanted to give me his drums and he did. I was in my room for hours playing drums to every record I had and learned to embellish to what I liked to do. I played to Johnny Winter and Bowie and some country records my mom had.
Within six months I joined my first band. My stepdad came to my door and said a guy was at the door. By then we were living in a townhome in California – we moved there when I was 12. I asked why he wanted to talk to me and my stepdad said it was something about a gig. I ran downstairs lightening fast then collected myself. The guy told me he lived in the neighborhood and heard my drumming and thought I was really good. He said they needed a drummer for a gig that night. He took me and my drums to the bar and we played country music.
It was great. A woman kept on dancing in front of my drum set – and when the band took a break I asked if I could keep playing, and they said sure, do a drum solo or something! So I did and the woman was dancing all sexy in front of me. Then the husband starting yelling “Get that guy off the fucking drums! I’m going to kick his ass!” and started chasing me around the pool table with a pool stick. I looked around and asked if anyone was going to help me. Eventually it calmed down. I learned that I loved performing. It’s exciting to bring that energy to someplace by playing. The only downside was that I couldn’t bang that guy’s wife!
A lot of perseverance in your story – navigating the lawsuit around using the name, coping with Robbin Crosby’s passing, physical stuff, the general grind of the road. It’s not all glamour is it? Think that’s a big misperception by fans?
It’s shocking how we could party for 11 months straight like we did. I don’t know how we did it. The adrenaline was out of control – we were all we had. We didn’t look back – we were never worried how little sleep we got. We got two to three hour catnaps between interviews and appearances. I just thought to myself ‘This is my life?”
By ’84 we were zooming up the charts – we always had the weekly Billboard Magazine. We were stoked when we were in the top 200. Then we got to 120. Then things picked up hard core. The album peaked at seven and Round & Round peaked at 11. We were fighting Madonna, Springsteen, Michael Jackson and Prince. We were like “What the fuck!” It almost didn’t compute.
In my mind I was like “That’s right – that’s your fucking band, dude!” We just continued on with five to six platinum and gold records from there.
The music industry has changed dramatically since you started – what excites and worries you about it?
It’s over. Forget it. The record companies were dumb and didn’t see stuff like file sharing coming -anyone could get songs for free. If you’re in the top 10 now you’ve sold 50,000 records -back then it was 12 million. I hate to have to say it but back then it all worked hand-in-hand. The record companies and the bands and the radio industry all worked together to help the bands get big. The income was from merchandise and the gate.
Now, it’s all tribute bands – there’s nothing original to attract fans. It’s depressing. On the other side of it though – we’re making more money now from our catalog then we did before. We’re always told we have no filler songs – out catalog is deep. I’m thankful it’s still working!