Video: Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy Sings Super-Sucky Sunday In Sao Paulo
There’s good Ratt money and music to be made, but singer Stephen Pearcy doesn’t seem too concerned. At least that’s what it looks like to any witness to his, um, indifferent performance at this weekend’s Monsters Of Rock event in Brazil (below). Now of course, fans forgive our elder singers for their iffy fitness, diminishing drive, and beat-to-shit vocal cords, but what Percy gave fans in Sao Paulo is something worse. He was 100% horrible.
Yet that is not newsworthy. But the thing is that Pearcy’s 60-minute impression of a frog’s drunken uncle has implications for the band’s health: Now is crunchtime for aging Ratt. They finally lured back their other ace songwriter, bassist Juan Croucier. And for the follow-up to awesome but underselling Infestation, they nailed down a fancy modern rock mega-producer. These two moves mean smaller splits and bigger bills, i.e. Ratt is displaying commitment to a greater potential for success. It’s a gamble, and their odds are gravy.
Butttt then there’s Pearcy. In his awesome memoir, he wrote that for the Infestation cycle he was addicted to heroin. (Is that still a thing?) And in the three years since Infestation, he’s released a solo album and toured it. (Is that a worthy fall-back?) And what about Pearcy’s own intro to their closing song, “Round And Round,” in which he asks for a warm welcome upon their return to Sao Paolo next year, but only if they “make it that far.” (Might Pearcy not “make it that far” cuz I will strangle him?)
The rest of the band can rip — in Sao Paolo, they got hot after about 15 minutes (below) — but the magic would multiply if Pearcy would smarten up and complete the team effort. And if nothing else, shouldn’t Ratt honor the cosmos that spared its members a fiery death in a plane emergency in August? It’d be easy — just be awesome at Ratting, be cool to each other, and stay sober enough to respect fans.
