Stephen Eric Pearcy (born July 3, 1956) is an American musician who is the founder, singer, songwriter of the
heavy metal band
Ratt
Ratt (stylized as RATT) was an American glam metal band that had significant commercial success in the 1980s, with their albums having been certified as gold, platinum and multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA. ...
. He has also created the bands Firedome, Crystal Pystal,
Arcade,
Vicious Delite, and
Vertex. He has also recorded seven albums as a solo artist.
Career
In his early teens, Pearcy aspired to be a
top fuel race car driver and expressed no desire to pursue a career in music. He started the bands Firedome and Crystal Pystal. Pearcy also wrote music for a band that he named Mickey Ratt (formed in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
in 1977).
In 1981, the band's name was shortened to Ratt, and the original lineup was solidified in 1983. Playing clubs such as
The Troubadour,
The Roxy and
The Whisky, Ratt amassed a large local following. After releasing an eponymous six-song EP in 1983 that sold 200,000 copies, Ratt released its breakthrough album, ''
Out of the Cellar
''Out of the Cellar'' is the debut studio album by the American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Ratt, released in 1984 by Atlantic Records. The album was an immediate success, with wide airplay on radio and heavy rotation on MTV of its singl ...
'', on
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
in 1984. The band opened arena shows and tours for
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For almost 56 years, it consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard (musician), Frank Beard, and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill prior to his death in 2021. ZZ ...
,
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...
and
Billy Squier. "Out of the Cellar" went five times multi-platinum, and the band headed its own arena tours around the world for the next ten years. After releasing four multi-platinum records and three gold albums with Ratt, Pearcy left the band in 1992.

Pearcy and former
Cinderella
"Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...
drummer
Fred Coury formed the band Arcade in 1992. Arcade released a self-titled album in 1993 and another album the following year. In 1996, Pearcy dabbled in an
industrial metal
Industrial metal is the fusion of Heavy metal music, heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating Heavy metal guitar, metal guitar riffs, sampling (music), sampling, synthesizer or music sequencer, sequencer lines, and Distor ...
band called
Vertex (with
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal—alo ...
's
Al Pitrelli and drummer / electronic producer
Hiro Kuretani).
Pearcy reunited with Ratt in 1996, minus Robbin Crosby and Juan Croucier, only to leave the band for a second time in 2000 on the eve of a tour due to differences over the financial allocation amongst band members.
Pearcy rejoined Ratt in 2006
before leaving again on April 24, 2014, explaining he was "officially done with having anything to do with them due to the constant turmoil, unresolved business, personal attacks/threats in the public forum, and most of all, the disrespect to the fans".
On November 29, 2016, Pearcy and other members of Ratt announced the upcoming Back for More Tour.
A new Ratt lineup including Jordan Ziff (lead guitars) and drummer Pete Holmes (from the band Black and Blue) performed a handful of shows in late 2018 and embarked on a world tour starting in May 2019.
In April 2020, Pearcy appeared with Ratt in a television commercial for the insurance company Geico, where new homeowners lament that they "have a Ratt problem."
Pearcy has recorded four solo records under his own indie label Top Fuel Records. The latest, "View to a Thrill", was released on Frontiers Music/Top Fuel Records in November 2018; the music from the album was written by Pearcy and guitarist Erik Ferentinos.
2024, as a guest, Pearcy is singing the song "Shoot Shoot" on the
Michael Schenker album ''My Years with UFO''.
Personal life
Pearcy is married to Kristi Adair. He has a daughter from his first marriage, born 1995.
Health
Pearcy underwent knee replacement surgery in 2019, three months after two Ratt shows that saw him incapacitated to the point where he had difficulty remembering the words to some of the band's songs.
In the
rockumentary "Nothing to Lose: A Stephen Pearcy Rockumentary" (2021), produced and directed by Kristi Adair, Pearcy confirmed that he beat his liver cancer after having had
chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...
and an
ablation
Ablation ( – removal) is the removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosion, erosive processes, or by other means. Examples of ablative materials are described below, including spacecraft material for as ...
procedure that removed his cancer completely. He was subsequently on a maintenance program to make certain that his cancer did not return. As of 2022, four years after having been diagnosed, he was free of cancer.
Stephen Pearcy solo band members
*Stephen Pearcy – lead vocals, guitar, writer
(1980–present)
*Erik Ferentinos – lead guitar, backing vocals, co-writer
(2001–present)
*
Matt Thorr – bass, keyboards, backing vocals
(2005, 2013–present)
*Johnny Monaco – lead guitar, backing vocals
(2022–present)
*
Blas Elias – drums
(2024–present)
Discography
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearcy, Stephen
1959 births
Living people
20th-century American singer-songwriters
21st-century American singer-songwriters
American heavy metal singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
Glam metal musicians
Singers from San Diego
Ratt members
Singer-songwriters from California