The man who replaced Jake E. Lee in Ratt talks Eddie Van Halen, “Round and Round,” Dio, Charvel gear and his legendary vibrato
By Joe Bosso
NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Warren DeMartini made the move from San Diego to Los Angeles in 1982 just as the Sunset Strip glam metal scene was on the cusp of exploding nationwide. For a young hotshot guitarist looking to get noticed, L.A. in the early Eighties was like a mecca. There were clubs teeming with women and A&R scouts. There were parties and strip joints. And there were thousands of other like-minded budding shredders hoping to be the next Eddie Van Halen.
“Back then, Eddie was sort of the apex of a new direction for guitarists of my generation,” DeMartini remembers. “If you were just getting in the game like me, he was the guy to look up to. He made it all seem so exciting. Everybody wanted to play like him, and every band wanted to hit it big like Van Halen.”
While most of his six-string peers hustled for gigs, putting up flyers and advertising their services in local musician’s papers, DeMartini arrived in L.A. with something of an ace up his sleeve: He had already accepted an invitation to join the up-and-coming outfit Ratt, replacing his friend Jake E. Lee, who had signed on with Ozzy Osbourne following Randy Rhoads’ passing. For the next few months, Ratt played every gig that came their way, soon becoming the house band at Gazzari’s, the same club where Van Halen got their start.
“The competition was fierce, but it was also healthy,” DeMartini says. “I thought the whole thing was fun, and I really loved performing. There were a lot of things that could break your competition, but I didn’t let anything get in the way. I kind of kept my head down and worked on music. I just wanted to play guitar as best I could and learn to write songs.”
Ratt (which also included singer Stephen Pearcy, rhythm guitarist Robbin Crosby, bassist Juan Croucier and drummer Bobby Blotzer) made a sizable splash with the release of their self-titled 1983 EP, and a year later they hit triple platinum with Out of the Cellar, which featured the smartalecky pop metal smash “Round and Round” (written by DeMartini, Pearcy and Crosby). Throughout the decade and into early Nineties, DeMartini’s energetic and snaky solos — a deft mix of fluid legato lines, spunky whammy bolts and a sinuous vibrato — highlighted a number of memorable hits that saw the band graduate to arena headliners before a combination of internal squabbles, substance abuse and the rise
