On the January 29 episode of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, RATT’s Stephen Pearcy and Warren DeMartini revealed exciting news about their performance at the 2025 M3 Rock Festival. The festival, taking place from May 2-4 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, will feature the two rock legends headlining the final night of the event on May 4.
Joining them on stage will be a mix of familiar faces: Carlos Cavazo, former guitarist of both RATT and QUIET RIOT, Matt Thorr, the bassist who played with RATT in the early ’80s, and Blas Elias, who previously drummed for SLAUGHTER. Thorr and Elias are also currently part of Pearcy’s solo touring band.
This will be Pearcy and DeMartini’s first joint performance since 2018. Pearcy expressed his excitement, saying: “We’re gonna have Carlos out there, which is cool. And I’m bringing in Matt Thorr on bass, who’s pretty much an original RATT guy from 1981, ’82, when Jake E. [Lee] and Warren pulled in. And then we’re taking Blas Elias on drums from SLAUGHTER and my band. And we’re ready to go.”
DeMartini shared a fond memory from his early days in RATT, recalling: “When I moved up to L.A. to join RATT, I stayed at a house with Jake E. Lee for a few months, and it was like a three-bedroom [house], and Jake had one, and Matt had the other, and this other musician had the third. And I was on the couch. But Matt goes way back with [RATT]. I’m actually kind of looking forward to checking that out again. He was playing bass at the time I joined [RATT].”
On the decision not to perform under the RATT name, Pearcy clarified: “Well, I’ll tell you right straight up — it’s not about RATT. It’s about the legacy of our music. And who better to deliver it, because we don’t have all the proper original elements, which would include [late guitarist] Robbin [Crosby]. So we just decided — no. This is great. This is perfect. I mean, we don’t want to hit a brick wall. We want this nice and smooth. So that’s what we intend to do. It’s not about that — it’s about the legacy of RATT. Period.”
DeMartini opened up about his plans post-M3, hinting that more shows could be in the cards. “Since we announced the M3 show, other stuff has come up. When this [M3 concert] came up, I was treating it as a one-off, but everything has a momentum, or it can have a momentum. And in this case, it just feels better and better.”
As for the possibility of other classic members like Bobby Blotzer and Juan Croucier participating in upcoming performances, Pearcy was clear: “No, no, no. Not on this. No. Like I say, we wanted it to be about the music and Warren and myself delivering it, because it is gonna be a little different. If you were to throw the other guys in the mix, it wouldn’t be exactly what it is now, the opportunity.”
Warren, reflecting on the years since he last performed with Pearcy, shared: “What I always did and what I always do. When I’m not sort of dealing with all the stuff that we deal with in life, I drift back into the studio and either start working on something that I hear in my head or refining something that I have going.”
When asked if he missed being on stage, Warren admitted: “Oh, of course. It’s hard to find words to describe the kind of energy that we have with our audience. It’s just fantastic… I did do some gigs with some friends, like the last one was with Billy Gibbons and Sebastian Bach, and we would all play each other’s songs. It was two or three songs each. And stuff like that kind of kept it burning, but this is the real fire.”
As for the setlist, both Pearcy and DeMartini teased some deep cuts. Warren said: “I think we need to really look at the whole catalog. I mean, we did — what? — six records with Atlantic, and we’ve done three through other labels. There’s probably a lot of deep cuts that would be just totally awesome for this.” Pearcy added: “Oh, yeah. I can think of a few right now — ‘Between The Eyes’, ‘Hard Time’, ‘Eat Me Up Alive’.” Warren continued: “‘Givin’ Yourself Away’ would be cool.” Pearcy agreed: “Oh, that would be cool, actually.”
