Metal Sludge — Thanks to our long time friends over at Metal Edge and their newly launched website and related brand, there looks to be more coverage of all things that rock!

We’ll be sure to keep you informed when Metal Edge shares something that our Metal Sludge faithful will surely find worth a read.

With that said, we’ll keep this short, and share a few excerpts from a brand new interview with Ratt founder, chief song-writer and lead vocalist Stephen Pearcy.

In this piece, Metal Edge talks to Pearcy about some of his ‘Infamous Firsts’.

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Stephen Pearcy – ‘Infamous Firsts’ by Richard Bienstock

First Concert

My first concert was Three Dog Night at the [L.A.] Forum. Go figure. I had a date, and I got dropped off by my mom. I must’ve been like 13 or 14 or something. Really young. The concert was interesting because I didn’t know anything of it. I was just going on this little date thing. I don’t think I knew anything about getting laid, I just wanted to take this girl to a show or something. [laughs]

First Time I Got High

I was pretty young – in grade school. That same Catholic school, St. Gerard’s. It was drinking and pot. Back then, you get turned on to pot and it’s like, “Whoa…” There was no talk of, “This is a gateway drug…” But lo and behold, we were eating acid and everything else after that!

First Shitty Job

When I first moved to L.A. I worked at a head shop in Culver City. I would just help this hippie lady in there, grab papers and things that people wanted. It didn’t last long. Then I got a part-time job at Tower Records in Marina Del Rey, and that didn’t last long either, because me and this dude would just drink and party in there. I told him, “You’re going to be selling my records one day…” And he goes, “Yeah, yeah, right. You’re fired.” And I’m like, “Okay…”

First Time I Met Van Halen

It was at the Whisky. I lived in San Diego, but a friend of mine kept saying, “You gotta see this band – they’re playing Gazzarri’s and they’re amazing.” I kept missing them at Gazzarri’s, but then one time he said, “Okay, now they’re playing the Whisky. You’ve gotta go.” So I figured, “Okay, well, I’ve seen enough of how shows work in San Diego to know that the bands go to the club early and they go in backstage…” So I drove myself up to the Whisky and I just parked around the corner, on Clark St, and waited. And soon enough I fucking saw Dave [Lee Roth] pull up, park and walk up the steps. And I just yelled out, “You wanna smoke a joint?” He said yeah, and I got in. And once I was inside I said, “Later! Where’s Ed?” [laughs]

I’d go up to L.A. and see them all the time after that, and I became good friends with Ed. I’d go to the house where Ed lived with his mom, and he had a little cot and a little workspace with all his guitars. It was fucking amazing. And I’d go back to San Diego and tell people, “There’s this fucking band that’s gonna blow minds!” “Yeah, yeah, sure…” And then a year or whatever later, you know, boom!

Read the full interview at Metal Edge