World Infestation: The Ratt Story

by Greg Prato

During the mid ‘80s, Ratt was one of the biggest hard rock/heavy metal bands in the United States. Turn on MTV, and it was seemingly only a matter of time until a Ratt video was aired. Visit your local newsstand, and you were sure to detect a Ratt band member on the cover of one of the leading rock mags. Take a gander at the album charts, and one of their platinum (or platinum plus) LP’s would have been easy to spot.And let’s not forget that from 1985 and throughout the remainder of the decade, they were a featured attraction on mammoth festivals, and also, rocked arenas on bills that featured Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick, Poison, Warrant, or Queensrÿche…with Ratt headlining over those bands.But, seemingly just as rapid as their rise to the top was the abrupt halt to their career in 1991 – with the onset of grunge and alt-rock replacing the party hearty metal stylings of the previous decade, in addition to internal strife within the band behind the scenes.World The Ratt Story recounts the L.A. band’s entire tale – from their beginnings as a band slugging it out on the Sunset Strip alongside such stiff competition as Mötley Crüe and Metallica, to scoring hit singles (“Round and Round,” “Lay It Down,” “You’re in Love”) and albums (Out of the Cellar, Invasion of Your Privacy, Dancing Undercover), creating their own unique look and sound (dubbed “fashion rock”), dealing with adversity, and how their music has reached a new audience in recent years.Comprised of quotes from interviews past and present (as well one of the last-ever interviews conducted with Ratt’s later guitarist, Robbin Crosby), World The Ratt Story will certainly take you round and round…and then lay it down.

Genres: Music

247 pages, Hardcover

Published February 2, 2024

About the author

Greg Prato is a Long Island, New York-based journalist, whose writing has appeared in such renowned publications as Rolling Stone. He is the author of several popular books, 'A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon,' 'Touched by Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story,' 'Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, 'No Schlock . . . Just Rock!,' 'The Eric Carr Story,' 'MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video,' 'Sack Exchange: The Definitive Oral History of the 1980s New York Jets,' 'Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets,' 'Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders, 1972-1984,' and 'The Faith No More & Mr. Bungle Companion.'

Reviews

[Brian]

I enjoyed this book. I knew some of the stuff in here but I liked many of the interviews that went further into what was happening at the time.

[Fred Klein]

I'm also willing to learn more about Ratt, one of the top hard rock groups in the mid-1980s. No, I'm not kidding. They were incredibly popular, and I'll put their first album up against the debut of any other group.

This book will be enjoyable for any Ratt fan. It's less about sex than lead singer Stephen Pearcy's book, but it touches on that a bit.

My biggest complaint about this book is the author's over-use of elllipses, as if putting "..." in a sentence will increase the drama somehow. It gets annoying.

Anyway ... great group ... fun book ... now do you see ... my point?

[Jensen]

good but not great

Ok read but I wish it was written more from a fans perspective. You could tell the author didn’t really love Ratt and you wonder why he wrote a book about them.