Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll

My Life in Rock

By: Stephen Pearcy, Sam Benjamin

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

Stephen Pearcy was a scrawny, horny, thrill-seeking teenager with an electric guitar who had graduated from backyard parties in San Diego to half-empty dives in Los Angeles before he and his band broke through at Whiskey a Go Go. Cranking out metal just as metal got hot, Ratt was the perfect band at the perfect time, and their hit single "Round and Round" became a top-selling anthem. 

The bigger Ratt got, the more excessive Pearcy and his "pussy pirates" became. There was nothing these guys wouldn't snort, drink, bed, or break. And the fans were just as bad, as husbands and mothers offered up nubile wives and daughters as tribute to their rock 'n' roll idols. On a journey that could happen only in America, Pearcy met everyone from Michael Jackson to Drew Barrymore (at age 12, at a New York nightclub, at two a.m.) to Rodney Dangerfield. His infamous partner in crime, Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby, a blond Viking with an unsurpassed appetite for drugs and women, cuts a towering and tragic figure throughout. 

As Ratt scrambled up a wall of fame and wealth, so they experienced the gut-wrenching free fall after too many hours in buses, planes, and limos; too many women; too many drugs; and all the personality clashes and ego trips that marked the beginning of the end.

©2013 Stephen Pearcy (P)2018 Tantor

Stephen Pearcy is one sad mf

You can just tell by the tone of this book this guy is an ahole. So stupid he was complaining that Warren go a lawyer to check out their first contract so they wouldn't get screwed by management? Not a real inspiring story, but worth listening if you want his perspective of the band. The book has no details regarding thw making of their songs or the inspiration behind them fyi.

I enjoy it more when the author narrates.

I would have enjoyed this audiobook more,
if Stephen Pearcy had narrated the book himself.

Great story not so great narration.

Great story but I feel like Wally Cleaver is reading to me a bed time story

80s Rocker

Ratt was my favorite of that genre. Yes there were a lot of great bands( glad you gave props to Black N Blue) Even got to meet Steven n Robin when they rolled thru my home town in 85. My second concert(VH was my first!) I’ve also seen him with a lot of bands besides Ratt! Every guy wanted to be Pearcy (including myself) and every girl wanted to be with him. I say this a a prelude to my thoughts on the book... I WAS ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST FANS.

I found the book interesting enough. Learned some things about Stephan and how his life was as a kid. Kinda felt sorry for ya as a kid. Must have sucked at 15. The stories about some of the legions of rockstars were cool. The tours and the road. Hogs and lows. One thing really stood out though. I get it you had a shit ton of pussy!!! You really overemphasize that in your book. Way overboard. We get it you are a sex addict as well. And you can say “it was the 80s” and it was the drugs or booze. But like most of that era Selfish, megalomaniac, fucking rockstar, God complex and all. You were the party, world in you hands, didn’t even have to ask as it was given to you of mostly free will! You were one of the biggest. I’ll just say that a lot of bands have had the same stories for ages. So for you to over express that is kinda boring! Actually kinda pathetic as I hear no remorse for how you treated people. Even people close to you. That’s just what I see from the reader aspect. I heard you talk about the image of the band, the girls, the clothes, the logo, the direction this that but what I found interesting is you didn’t y’all much about the music. How y’all write a song. How it made you feel about being one of the most popular (I didn’t say the most musically talented) in the world. I heard surface stuff like it was great or time of my life.. Idk I guess all and all we have a perception of what a person such as yourself would be like... I just found the way the story was told made you look....well I guess who you are! I mean that in a non judgmental way... cause who am I but a fan and reader.

wrong narrator for this story

the narrator is a decent one but is definitely not right for this type of story.

Empty

I've been a fan of Ratt for years. I enjoyed hearing about the drive of perseverance it took to make it like they did. And the way all these bands I loved would be hanging out together in LA and how they admired each other.

However, I am disturbed by the way people humiliated themselves. Both women and men in seem to not respect themselves or each other. I was a teenager in the 80's and I know how "powerful" sex could be and how I used it, but also I respected myself enough that I wouldn't screw just anybody anytime.

The drugs. I never got into them, but I remember how my boyfriend's roommate -- really good looking guy that all the chicks at the bar would drool over -- lost all my respect one night when he dropped his packet of coke in the bar and was crawling around on the floor of the bar trying to find it. This wasn't a classy place either -- it was one of those places where I think they washed the floors once a year. It was sad and I just couldn't look at him the same way again.

This book was enjoyable in some ways. In other ways it was empty. I am not sure exactly what it is missing, but it is missing something big that makes it memorable. Maybe like one of the power ballads that now sound so sappy.

Entertaining

Stephen Pearcy doesn't read this -- which I don't actually mind; I mean, not everyone is an actor/great reader, so it's okay to leave it to a professional -- but Stephen Thorne does a good job and he does sound like someone from the same era and region. It works. The story itself is pretty shallow, but hey... that's Ratt and that's the 80s. There are some gross stories (mainly involving Ozzy, of course, but also some stuff about STD's). I was entertained and it was a fun trip back down memory lane.

Great Great!!!

Very surprised as the cover of the book look very generic..... but wow....Cool stories ... great book ... he didn’t hold back anything 👍👍

Great stories, great narration

loved it, highly recommend
great from start to finish, Stephen tells all the stories of Ratt and roll

Wow, Just Wow!

If half of these stories are true then the wind was his friend and just took him over the top and in the gutter.
I expected somewhat of a story of redemption but no, we double down on being a self absorbed prick but hey in the rock and roll world of the early eighties I guess that is what it took because most of those bands did it that way.
I would have liked some more detail in some of the stories and would have liked a more extensive ending but I guess Steve is a prick in all that he does and just ended it.
Sad to say it has caught up to him but hell, what a ride.