Magazine article - Burrn!!! 1986
RC.Net note: Please note that this has been translated from Japanese, and some of the english may be a tad compromised.
by Atsuki Fukatami / BURRN!!! Pix: Koh Hasebe / BURRN!!! MUSIC LIFE
An interview by an international phone call is easy but only if the person is at home and is staying close to the phone.
This time, the record company set up the interview and even though the band has been busy doing rehearsals, they were told he was at home and believed it would be so easy but the reality is that it isn’t that easy.
This scheduled time, the person who answered the phone was Robbin’s brother.
Robbin left the rehearsal and said he will be at a party and has been out since then, so our search for Robbin has started.
The translator, Mr.Yonemochi, the director of Warner Brothers records and the publishing office; after more than 30 international phone calls, I was wondering “He is not this irresponsible”,” He must have forgotten the interview.”
After one week, finally we were able get in contact with Robbin.
According to Robbin, when he found out he would not be able to do the interview as scheduled, he tried to contact us, but he had lost his phone index that had our contact #, so he too was worried about it.
Finally we were able to do this latest interview but it was right before he was about to enter the recording studio. If it was two days late, we would have never made it and he would never been on the cover of this latest magazine….
Interviewer(I): How is the rehearsal going?
Robbin(R): We’ve been having meetings about the sound and it has been pretty good so far.
I: Have you done most of the songs?
R: Yea. Mostly.
I: How many songs?
R: So far we’ve done rehearsals for six songs. We’ll be adding some more.
I: How many songs will be on the record? Ten songs?
R: Maybe nine or ten songs I think.
I: Then you guys have to write four more songs and do more rehearsals.
R: Right, and two of them are about to finish writing so we just need two more besides those.
I: Who is writing the songs? Stephen and you?
R: Not all true. Stephen doesn’t write songs much and I wrote about two songs….
I: All your fans are waiting for your new record. Could you tell us what it will be like?
What’s the difference from “Invasion of your privacy”?
R: There are many things to tell. Basically these are all new songs on the record.
The last record had a couple of older songs but this time it is so fresh.
I: So this time, there are no old songs and they are all new?
R: Yea, there were some ideas I had for a long time, but I’ve never played them to my band members before so they have never heard them and they’re real new songs.
I: What about you’re playing? Is it also different from the last record “Invasion….”?
R: The biggest difference is that I didn’t try to make up these solos. Everything went so naturally.
I: So you didn’t think too much.
R: I wanted to do it that way.
I: This record, did the record company tell you guys what to do with this and that?
R: No, that will never happen to Ratt!
I: So Beau Hill will be producing this time again, right?
R: That’s right.
I: So everything has been going so well this time.
R: YEA! Now I can’t wait to do the recording!
I: That sounds great!
R: Yea! It’s great!
I: How about musical instruments, have you bought anything new lately?
R: Not really but I am thinking of buying one. It’s a 1958 Gibson Flying V. I haven’t checked how much it is.
I: 1958? So it’s a vintage guitar.
R: Yea! Vintage Gibson. The condition and sound are good. But like I said, I don’t know yet .I think I will buy it.
I: But the recording, you are using the White Firebird (It has been seen in ‘live’ photos. It has the Chinese letters.) aren’t you?
R: No, I usually use a Stratocaster.
I: For the basic tracks, you mean?
R: Yea.
I: Stratocaster… with the normal single coil pickups?
R: That’s right. I haven’t changed the pickups yet….
I: By the way, right now we are doing this interview with you and you are in your new house you just moved into. How do you feel becoming an owner of a house?
R: Yea, Finally! But I haven’t bought furniture yet. It feels like camping, only I got the better roof.
I: Where is it located?
R: Laurel Canyon. West L.A.
I: It’s in the valley?
R: No, closer to West Hollywood.
I: But also closer to the mountain?
R: Yea but it is more close to the town. Only five minutes to Sunset Blvd.
I: How big is your house?
R: Well… it is quite small…
I: How many rooms?
R: Three bedrooms. It’s not that big. I would say it’s a small house.
I: You have a garden, don’t you?
R: Yes. I have a small pool and it’s a cool house. Come visit me!
I: Sure! Is the pool located in the back yard?
R: That’s right.
I: How did you find the house?
R: I checked about sixty different houses and I found this one.
I: Sixty houses!?
R: Yea, I have checked so many houses.
I: Does anyone live near by?
R: mmm.. I am not sure. I think Stephen lives about fifteen minutes from here. Warren too.
I: So now you have to buy your furniture.
R: Before loading furniture, The house needs some repairs and fixing.
I: How do you want to do it?
R: I want to paint the whole house and put new carpet. I need to organize it.
I: When was this house built?
R: 1960. So I want to make it more comfortable.
I: Who are you going to live with, your brother? (He works at a movie production company in Hollywood?)
R: I will live by myself.
I: Really?! When I called you last time, your brother answered the phone.
R: Is that right? He comes to visit sometimes but he doesn’t live here.
I: How do you like living now compared to when you used to live in hotels?
R: Great! Before when I was in L.A., I used to stay at hotels. So after the tour, I got depressed.
I: What was it like?
R: For example, at the end of the year, I came back to L.A. from off the Tour, then went to the UK, then came back to the hotel, then to Japan, and again back to the hotel. I didn’t like leaving my stuff at the hotel.
I: So you had all your stuff in your bags when Touring around?
R: Yea, I couldn’t wait to move in here!
I: So far what do you have in your house? Like amplifiers? Guitars?
R: I’ve got five guitars, a TV and a bed. That’s all.
I: That’s all??
R: That’s all.
I: Do you cook by yourself?
R: Yea! I have been trying by myself.
I: Let’s change the subject. You just finished the tour, How was it?
“The breaks between the tours were too long and I got depressed.”
R: Are you asking about the Japanese tour or the whole tour?
I: About the World tour, “Invasion Tour”
R: It was a bit long. Before we headed to the UK, we took a long break after the U.S. tour.
It was like torturing me. When I was taking the break, I was at home and I was relaxed and regained my energy. It was like, “OK, let’s go now!”. Then we went to the UK for one month, came back to the U.S., and again we had a break of six weeks before the Japanese tour. We were moving around and I was so depressed.
I: How long was the break before you went to the UK?
R: Five to six weeks. It would’ve been better if we went to the UK right after the U.S. tour and then to Japan. It could have been much better than always waiting.
I: Was all this ‘cause of the tour booking agency?
R: Yes. Only the Japanese tour was scheduled by our meeting.
I: Well, the Japanese tour was very successful!
R: Oh yea, it was great!
I: Everything was great.
R: All the members of Ratt were happy about it.
I: As you’ll were getting close to the end of the Japanese tour, all the members of the band caught a cold. How do you guys feel now?
R: Yea, the last stop was the ‘City of Sendai’, it was so cold.
I: Which show did you like the most from there?
Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin, (in Tokyo, a capacity of about 3000 seats)?
R: That would be a tough question I enjoyed shows in Tokyo and there weren’t any bad shows. I enjoyed it wherever I went but yea,Tokyo was the best.
Sendai and Fukuoka. I was so excited and wild.
I: U.S., UK, Japan? Where did you have the most people attend the shows?
R: Japan was terrible. Because of the small places and a lot of people were packed in (Laugh).
I: How was the United states?
R: Meadowlands (?) Arena. 20,000 people.
I: How about L.A. Forum?
R: L.A. Forum was 15,000 people. Also It was a festival in Oakland. ”The day on the Green”, Monsters of Rock in the UK, we played for 60,000 people.
I personally think we played perfectly in Oakland.
When we played at Castle Donnington,
there were 60,000 people just standing on the ground. On the other hand, Oakland was a stadium full of people surrounding us.
I: Any interesting story from the tour? What was the highlight of the tour?
R: L.A. Forum was the highlight of the tour. Great show. Also NY and Oakland.
I: And what was the worst ?
R: We moved from Miami to Puerto Rico by airplane. Our Tour bus went from Miami to Dallas. That was where we were supposed to get on the tour bus again but someone broke in our tour bus and stole our personal belongings.
I: Is that a true story?
R: Yea, that was the worst thing.
I: That is really bad.
R: My brief case was stolen. Money, books, My address book. All my personal belongings.
I: Has anything been returned?
R: Nothing.
I: Did you also break a bone in one of your legs on the tour?
R: That was terrible too… I had to get on stage during three weeks of that time, every night was terrible.
I: Have you learned anything from your experience on the tours?
R: I went out every night drinking, hanging out with women, playing. The first tour, I was so excited and I didn’t know what was going on.
I: Every night after night?
R: Yea, even the last tour, the beginning of the tour I was doing the same thing then I realized; “That’s no good!”, and I got myself back to reality.
I: So you are taking care of yourself.
R: Yea, I am trying.
I: It must be hard sometimes…
R: Very hard.
“On ‘Invasion’, there were many songs that sounded similar to each other.”
I: Are you looking for someone to take care of you? Any plans?
R: No. I understand that someone can take care of cooking and stuff but no one can really take care of other people.
I: What do you think of Warren and Cathy (Kathy?)?
R: Even Warren is not a person who spends time having a beautiful life but he wouldn’t drink or play with women.
I: Do you still drink a lot?
R: During the tour, but not much. I didn’t drink that much in Japan and I didn’t go out. In the U.S., I was drinking a lot as the tour was coming to an end. I drink Beer at home but on the tour, I drink Vodka.
I: By the way, did you go to Tommy Lee’s wedding?
R: Yea I did. It was beautiful.
I: Where was it?
R: It was in Santa Barbara
I: Is that where he lives?
R: No. It was one hour from there and beautiful by the ocean so they decided to have the wedding there.
I: Did any musician friends go to the wedding?
R: Of course. The members of Motley, Jack, Brad and Jeff from Night Ranger were there too.
I: How many people were there?
R: There were about 500.
I: 500! No kidding! Besides Musician friends, who were there?
R: Friends, people from the church…
I: After attending your friend’s wedding, does it make you feel like getting married?
R: Even you would think about it for minutes but I didn’t. Getting married, having children, having a family. But it isn’t that cool at all.
I: Have you ever wanted to get married?
R: I have a girlfriend but never think of getting married.
I: So you are not thinking of getting married soon.
R: For now, no. I don’t know in the future. I am not thinking about it...
I: What’s your hobby now?
R: My house. I want to fix my house and live here. That is my hobby.
I: Cars?
R: 59’Cadillac, 65’Mustang, and a Isuzu Trooper….. Do you know about it?
I: No, I don’t.
R. It’s a jeep. 4WD. This is my car to drive around. I have to tune up the Mustang. The Cadillac is too big. I bought the mustang a year and a half ago. Then I bought this house. It’s on the hill so it is too hard for the mustang to go up and down 2-3 times a day.
I: By the way, your birthday is coming up. What is your plan?
R: I don’t know….. My girlfriend has been asking me what I want to do but we are recording now. Maybe after the recording, we’ll take a trip somewhere.
I: Where will you go?
R: Maybe we’ll go to Mexico for 2-3 days.
I: Last year, your birthday was during the tour…..
R: Yea, it was at the California Irvine Meadows Amphitheater. During the show, all the lights went out. It was terrible and I will never forget that.
I: So this year you are recording. Where are you recording at? The Village (The village recorder)?
R: That’s right.
I: The whole album? Also mixing too?
R: Yes it will be.
I: So it’s like when you guys recorded “Out of the Cellar”(Actually the Mix was done at Atlantic studio in NY)?
R: Yea, we don’t have to move around or go to NY.
I: How long will it take to finish the recording?
R: 6-8 weeks
I: Do you have a time limit to complete the recording?
R: No we don’t.
I: This year, Ratt came to Japan and many people started paying attention to ‘Robbin ’Crosby. Last year, it was Warren that many women were watching. This year was like “Robbin ”Ratt is Crosby and people were looking up to you. How do you feel?
R: I am not sure how people look up to me….
I: Everybody is wondering who wrote these songs, who is organizing the band?
R: I am glad to know but why? I want to ask them questions. I really don’t understand why.
I: It started when all these women started to watch Warren. Then people were paying attention to the band this year. You must had more interviews this year than the last year.
R: That’s true.
I: You deserve that. You are the main character of the band.
R: Is that true? If so I am really happy about that.
I: When will the next tour begin?
R: We don’t know until we finish the recording… maybe September or November…
I: Have you decided the album title yet?
R: We have some ideas but haven’t decided yet and can’t say now.
I: You guys came out with the 1st album “Out of the Cellar”, then the 2nd album was “Invasion of Your Privacy”, what’s next?
R: We had this idea but found out there was a movie with the same title (it could be “Fine Mess”..) so we didn’t use it. I had to find something else.
I: Will you have a self titled track on the album?
R: No. It will be the title of the album and then the song titles are all different.
I: The songs you will be recording, could you give us any titles?
R: “Drive me Crazy”
I: What type of song?
R: It’s a fast rock ’n’ roll. Also “”avenue7th , Funky and dance Rock. It’s like Aerosmith’s ‘Walk this way’. Also there is a rock ’n’ roll song called “One Good Lover” and so many more.
I: Will it be different from the last album?
R: Yea, with more variety. We might do a slow song too. Each song has a different feeling. The entire ”Invasion …” album had the same feeling.
“Tommy Lee’s wedding was fantastic but I…..”
I: Any plans of using a keyboard?
R: We are using a Synth Guitar but not a keyboard.
I: Does warren play that?
R: I used it last year.
I: Which songs will you be using it ?
R: “Closer to my Heart” and 1-2 more songs. But we never use that on the hard sounding part. Only backing tracks.
I: OK, good luck with the recording and hope you make a great album!
R: Thank you!
From our latest information that we have, while we are printing in early July, the band is about to enter the recording studio. We will probably be able to hear "the variations" as Robbin told us by the late fall. Ratt may take a huge step forward, stay as they are or step backward....
In all the band's history, this will be one of the most important milestones they are about to reach.
Go Ratt! Don't look back Robbin! Well, did I sound weird? ▪▪
Very Special Thanx to: TAK “OVER WORK’” YONEMOCHI