Stephen Pearcy recalls when Ratt’s bassist was Joey Cristofanilli while Juan Croucier was in Dokken

Stephen Pearcy recalls when Ratt’s bassist was Joey Cristofanilli while Juan Croucier was in Dokken

It’s nice to have choices. Back in the early ’80s, bassist Juan Croucier had to eventually choose between two of the biggest hair metal bands of the ’80s — Dokken or Ratt.

The following message was posted in part on the Facebook page from Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy earlier today (with slight edits):

““Backstage Past”, There was a few months early in the beginning of RATT circa 1983 that Juan Croucier wasn’t in Ratt. Enter bassist Joey Christofenilli (pictured on the right), I think Warren brought him in for the few months when Juan couldn’t decide on being in Dokken or Ratt. We had done shows with Juan and the band was kicking ass, but he wasn’t convinced. Dokken had a euro record deal and we were ready to do the EP. I had some Mickey Ratt songs “U Got It”, “Tell The World”, “Sweet Cheater”, “Back For More”, Robbin and I had just finished writing “You Think You’re Tough”. We did a a handful of shows with Joey when Juan left for that brief time back to Dokken. We played those songs with Juan, but when he heard the demos he made his decision to be in RATT. We knew Juan was the guy. We wish Joey well, btw if you look at the credits for “Wanted Man”, the song was written by (Pearcy, Crosby, Cristofanilli). Joey brought parts of that song, then Robbin and I made it RATT. Thank you Joey for stepping in, taking names and helping making us all wanted men. The rest is Ratt history.”

Wikipedia indicates the following about Croucier‘s time in Dokken and Ratt (with slight edits): “Croucier played with Dokken for about four years and toured Germany with the band several times. He was a member of both Ratt and Dokken simultaneously for approximately 18 months before leaving Dokken. He played and sang backup on Dokken‘s Breaking The Chains album, and co-wrote two songs. His replacement, Jeff Pilson, appears in the videos from the album. With Ratt, Croucier wrote many of the band’s biggest hits such as “Lack of Communication” and “You’re In Love”. His backing vocals also became a trademark part of Ratt‘s sound.”

Ratt‘s “You Think You’re Tough” video: