Robbin Crosby

[MattleyCrue]

He was pretty damn cool

[Rocker4Real]

...and he got to nail Tawny Kitean.

[War_in_D]

...and he got to nail Tawny Kitean.

...and then he got AIDS

[Bono Nettencourt]

Was he a smuggler?

[demolition23]

Coolest guys in Ratt, Def Leppard and Metallica all died.

[Psychobolia.com]

He was way cool, junior.

[dmbrocker]

Awesome guitarist/backing vocalist who shot himself up with one too many dirty heroin needles and ended up dying because of it. Yet for all his addictions he was still the King of Ratt.

[Zabooka]

...and he got to nail Tawny Kitean.

...and then he got AIDS

"How Robbin Crosby of RATT found out he had AIDS"
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Il7AThH_2FA

Sad hearing how his relationship with the band faded after he got aids.

[jorge]

Someone here was a friend of his and they posted here... it was years ago and it was really detailed. Probably search here theres lots of stuff

[Rocker4Real]

[Sleek]

Not to damn him with faint praise, but he was the nicest guy in Ratt. I always figured part of his problems were from being stuck in a band of assholes.

[Ryan81]

I've been listening to RATT a bit for the last couple of weeks and have half-assed learned a few of their songs as well. It's left me wondering, how good of a guitarist was Robbin? Did he take any of the solos on any of their songs? I know he does the harmony part on Round And Round, but did he have any lone solos? As far as writing went, did he come up with some of the riffs, or did he just play what Warren told him to play? I saw them in '97 when they were just a four piece and Warren was able to fill out the parts very well.

Warren was obviously a goddamn machine as far as his ability/talent. I'm sure Robbin was no slouch either, but nothing like Warren. In your opinion would Robbin be comparable to a Mick Mars or maybe a Traci Guns or a Richie Sambora or a C.C. DeVille (all players who I admire)? Please enlighten me regarding The King's abilities. I know a badass guitar was created for him (Jackson King V).

[MetalSludgeCEO]

A few Robbin memories for me...

1. I was a huge RATT fan, they were epic, esp in the 80's!

2. I knew about his crazy ways, but only second-hand from friends. One of my former roomies, who is still a great friend today was a bit of a party guy, and one night he ended up at Robbin's house up in the Hollywood Hills. He said it was nuts! People everywhere, drugs galore, etc... And at some point, he said Robbin was totally nude, sitting on his couch, with a room (house) full of people - doing (shooting H) drugs. And my buddy said: "Dude, put some pants on", to which Robbin replied: "It's my house... don't like it, leave" or something along those lines. He said he was out of his mind on drugs, this was late 80's or early 90's!

3. I've told this story before... but one day I was driving on Victory Blvd. headed towards NoHo from Van Nuys. I pulled up to the corner of Victory and Coldwater Canyon, there is Burger King on the NE corner, and I was on the opposite side, the SW corner. I was first in line, at a red light and looked to my right, and saw a Homeless guy sitting on the Bus Bench. I then took a double-take, and said: "Holy Sh!t, that's Robbin Crosby!" He did NOT look good, and in truth, as sad as it was, he DID look homeless. This was around the time he was rumored to have been going through some horrible health battles, etc...

The light changed and I drove off, but could not get that image out of my mind, as not long before that, he was Rich, touring Arenas, and living the life. But, he clearly did a bit too much fun stuff, and paid the ultimate price for it. Damn.

I never met Robbin, but have heard from countless people, he was THE nicest guy.

I also read that Poison said Robbin was the coolest guy to them, when Poison were brought on as openers. He treated them great, and is anyone shocked, that we've heard the guy who was a jerk to them, was our good ole' buddy Blotzer.

RIP Robbin 'King' Crosby

$tEvil

[pieceofme]

Not to damn him with faint praise, but he was the nicest guy in Ratt. I always figured part of his problems were from being stuck in a band of assholes.

Warren Justin DeMartini was an arsehole? He seemed more of a recluse than an arsehole.

[Sleek]

Warren was a cocaine recluse. Maybe not an asshole. I will just forever have an image of him laughing while I was being held down and duct taped to a char at the end of a tour, so that *may* color my judgement.

Juan was okay, too. Blotz and Pearcy were the dicks, really.

[ParaDime77]

Hey, the guy was married to Laurie Carr and had a girlfriend at the same time. King doing King thangs.

[Sleek]

Lesser known Ratt fact: Warren also had a nickname, which was TORCH.

Their gear had either King or Torch stenciled on it, and the crew used King and Torch interchangeably with the guy's names.

[pieceofme]

Warren was a cocaine recluse. Maybe not an asshole. I will just forever have an image of him laughing while I was being held down and duct taped to a char at the end of a tour, so that *may* color my judgement.

Juan was okay, too. Blotz and Pearcy were the dicks, really.

Any personal stories that particularly stand out for these two?

[Sleek]

Hm. Not really specific stuff. Both were political and would be pleasant to people's faces in general, so a lot of it was just dicky edicts would come down like: "Starting today, Poison can only use half the lighting rig" or whatever, and you know, you got Pearcy walking around like: "Gee that's tough. Must have been a management call.", but the crew guys would be like: "Yeah, Pearcy made that call."

He seemed really disturbed that Ratt wasn't getting as great a response, so he would also do shit like be out on stage getting the lighting crew to redo Ratt's lights during time where we were supposed to be sound-checking....which just fucking annoyed the lighting crew. It was just SUCH cocaine Karen shit, all to assert some control over the show, when the real problem was just Ratt's base-level boringness and vibe.

As the tour went on and Ratt fell while Poison was blowing up, there were more and more restrictions. We would joke that eventually we would just have one light and one microphone and a 4 foot area of stage we could use.

Shit would come down from Blotz, too, tho my own interactions with him were largely cool (He had me come down to help him set up a recording rig one day, for instance). That is the thing, both dudes would dump on people, then turn on the charm. There were always whispers and rumors with Ratt, backbiting and shit, and they did not really hang or seem to much like each other. Probably one reason why Robbin would always hang out in our dressing rooms and stuff.

[GoodJudge]

Coolest guys in Ratt, Def Leppard and Metallica all died.

I had to do a double take that this wasn't an LAGR post.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Why? He's not wrong.

[Venus Flytrap]

When he was in the hospital wasn't a fan basically the only one visiting him and bringing him stuff? Thought the guy wrote something that was linked here.

[Bono Nettencourt]

That story is out there if you're willing to look for it.

[str]

I've been listening to RATT a bit for the last couple of weeks and have half-assed learned a few of their songs as well. It's left me wondering, how good of a guitarist was Robbin? Did he take any of the solos on any of their songs? I know he does the harmony part on Round And Round, but did he have any lone solos? As far as writing went, did he come up with some of the riffs, or did he just play what Warren told him to play? I saw them in '97 when they were just a four piece and Warren was able to fill out the parts very well.

Warren was obviously a goddamn machine as far as his ability/talent. I'm sure Robbin was no slouch either, but nothing like Warren. In your opinion would Robbin be comparable to a Mick Mars or maybe a Traci Guns or a Richie Sambora or a C.C. DeVille (all players who I admire)? Please enlighten me regarding The King's abilities. I know a badass guitar was created for him (Jackson King V).

On "Invasion" ,
He did a bunch of solos ,
"Closer To My Heart" , "What You Give Is What You Get" ,
"Never Use Love" , though I think it's known that it was the same way Jake E. Lee used to play that one ,
I think I also remember reading that "Give It All" was Robbin,
Pearcy wrote the riff ,
there may have been even more on "Invasion" like the duel part on "You Should Know By Know",
I have live bootlegs, and from that tour, Robbin's featured guitar solo was so good that I thought the bootleg mislabeled it as Robbin instead of Warren but Pearcy would announce the name so it was actually Robbin and I thought on some nights his solo was as good or better than Warren's ,
If you watch the videos "You Think You're Tough", "Wanted Man", and "I Want A Woman", you would see what parts he plays there and he is credited on "Dancing Undercover" as playing lead on "Drive Me Crazy" and "Looking For Love",
A live "Detonator" bootleg had him playing a small lead part on "Hard Time" but I don't know if he plays that part on the record

[ParaDime77]

When he was in the hospital wasn't a fan basically the only one visiting him and bringing him stuff? Thought the guy wrote something that was linked here.

Croucier was the only member associated with the band to keep in contact with Robbin when his health really deteriorated. According to the RATT book l mentioned in the other thread, Juan would find fan comments about Robbin, wishing him well and hoping he would get better. Juan would print out the comments from message forums and fan sites and bring them to Robbin and they would reach out (call or write) the people back thanking them and answering their questions.

[str]

When he was in the hospital wasn't a fan basically the only one visiting him and bringing him stuff? Thought the guy wrote something that was linked here.

Pearcy actually talks about this
in an interview with Neil Zlozower ,
34:30 mark ,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DLB3GxWEj08 ... 91cg%3D%3D

[Ryan81]

Hey, the guy was married to Laurie Carr and had a girlfriend at the same time. King doing King thangs.

Is that the girl on the cover of Slaughter's album? I'd like to stick it to her. ha ha ha ha lol ha ha ha ha oh shit ha ah!

I saw Ratt in '97 at the Ballard Fire Hall (yes, it actually was an old fire station) and after the show Blotzer and Robbie Crane were out talking to fans and the friend I went there with asked them how Robbin was doing and Robbie got kind of a weird look on his face and said something like "oh ya, ya Robbin is doing great!" But you could tell it was a bullshit response. After that I went and pee'd on the floor of the bathroom. I couldn't tell you why though.

[Tommy2Tone84]

Robbin and Juan are my favorite members with Warren is a distant 3rd. SP is Top 2 worst frontman and lead vocalist I’ve ever seen.
I’m glad I got to see the band in the 80s but they were not very good.

As much shit as bands like Poison, Winger, Firehouse, Trixter and Mr Big get on here, they were all better live bands than Ratt in my experience. As much as I hate to admit it, Great White was a better live band than Ratt. I loved a lot of Ratt’s music but they were lame in concert.

If I could trade a Ratt and Dokken concert for Yngwie I would.

[Tommy2Tone84]

Robbin and Juan are my favorite members with Warren is a distant 3rd. SP is Top 2 worst frontman and lead vocalist I’ve ever seen.
I’m glad I got to see the band in the 80s but they were not very good.

As much shit as bands like Poison, Winger, Firehouse, Trixter and Mr Big get on here, they were all better live bands than Ratt in my experience. As much as I hate to admit it, Great White was a better live band than Ratt. I loved a lot of Ratt’s music but they were lame in concert.

If I could trade a Ratt and Dokken concert for any number of others, I would.