During a recent conversation with SiriusXM Hair Nation, Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy revealed that he and late member Robbin Crosby were so close to having formed a band, together with Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee, before the two started Motley Crue.
Here’s what Pearcy said:
“I’m doing another book, part two, next year, and that’s actually one of the stories that I kind of held back. There’s a bunch, with Van Halen and guys and stuff. When we met Motley, first we have to start with how we met them. So Robbin and I used to go out all the time into Hollywood, you know, ‘The [Sunset] Strip, yeah. You’ve gotta be seen. You’ve gotta be out there.’ Well, Motley was doing the same thing. Nikki, Tommy, Vince, they’d be doing the same thing.
”You know, tripping down the Strip, going to the Rainbow, going here, getting f*cked up… So anyway, we meet them on the Strip, hanging out. We became friends and we became The Gladiators, which was our street thing there when we went out together. And we each had names, which goes back to [Robbin’s nickname] ”King”. I don’t know if it was Nikki who gave him that nickname or Robbin gave it to himself. So in ’82, we really became close friends.”
He continued:
” I don’t think Nikki was ever really satisfied. Musicians were coming and going in bands, as the whole implosion was getting going, [in] ’81, ’82 in L.A. and that whole Strip thing. He wasn’t happy with his band at that moment. So, yes, it’s a true story. Robbin, Nikki, Tommy and myself, and me on guitar, were rehearsing at [pre-Ratt band] Mickey Ratt’s rehearsal in Culver City there. And I believe we rehearsed for a couple of times.
”I don’t know if we wanted to start a band or if we were just jamming, but something was getting intense in there. And Nikki is, like, ‘Nah. I’m gonna go do my thing.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m here. Me and Robbin are doing our thing.’ And so be it. Yeah, true story. True story. So, if that would have been a band, it would have been a great band, actually. I don’t know what songs we played, but we were very supportive of each other back in the day, in the beginning, yeah. It was great.”