Bang Your Head, Swing Your Hair

I remember the band Mickey Ratt back in high school, in 1970-something. They were the big local band around town. I was at some parties they were at. It’s all kinda hazy for me right now. One time, at an underage club called Stratus — don’t know where it was even at — I saw them on stage. It was different from seeing them play at parties. They kicked major ass.

Time went by. I got into radio around the same time they started to get some airplay, around 1984 or ’85. Their name was then just Ratt, and they had a different line-up. I was at KGB then. DJs would always say, “A little Ratt and roll for ya.”

“Round and Round” was the huge hit single. It went off like a rocket. When I first heard it, I was blown away. Van Halen had saved us from disco, and Ratt was on the scene. I played that on a cassette, from Out of the Cellar. I wore it out, eventually. In the studio, I turned the monitors up as loud as they would go. The opening kicks in, you can’t help but just start swinging your hair and banging your head. It never got old for me.

MTV was getting big, and I was watching it one day. The video for “Round and Round” comes on. It starts with a butler in a rich mansion, I believe, then cuts to this stunning chick, looking right at you. And my jaw dropped. I said “Holy shit…it’s Lisa!” Lisa is a gal I went to college with. I majored in drama. Lisa was in a group at Mesa College back in the late ’70s; a model at the time, with Tina Real Agency. We dated a few times. It was very incestuous in the drama department back then.

Another hottie, San Diegan Tawny Kitaen, was on the cover of Out of the Cellar and in the video “Back for More.” This was before she was in the more popular Whitesnake video sliding all over the Jaguar.

DJ: Rick Lawrence
Station: Rock 105.3
Shift: Saturday, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. and Sunday, 1–8 p.m.