NEWS - THE RATT GANG

A Horrible Car Accident... / The airing date of BTM / Warren is playing with Uli / John Corabi T-shirts! / RATT's home videos will be re-reissued in Japan / The Classic Metal Show / Stephen's pix from March 27, Key\ Club / The re-airing schedule for Stephen's interview

As most of the readers have already acknowledged, on April 10th, Jizzy, Alex Grossi and Scott Griffin were hit from the rear by a drunk driver going appromixately 70MPH, on the way to the hotel near by the venue where Hookers n' Blow was going to play at.
According to Jizzy, Their van crashed into a guardrail and went airborne, then spun upside down and skidded for 40 or 50 feet - the situation was like what police call "rollover". The picture seen below is about band's van.

"I was front passenger, Scott driving, Alex in back with the gear. We were returning to our hotel after eating at the club when all of a sudden Scott yells 'FUCK!' and what feels like a baseball bat slams into my back. The guy had hit us on the right rear and we went crashing into the guardrail bending it into a large U-shape. Then as I said before from there we did some weird ballet thing in the air which was the scariest feeling of all as I had neglected to put my seat belt on. We hit the ground and started sliding and it was like a toboggan ride, all of us with our asses on the roof with sparks flying in all directions.

"We finally skidded to a stop and climbed out one of the broken out windows. I honestly couldn't believe I had escaped unscathed, when you see the van pictures you'll see why. There is this eerie quiet right after an accident, all you hear is the sizzling car sounds and walking on broken glass.

"People approach cautiously, they look at you weird, like you just fell from the sky. Alex had a bad cut on his head and fucked up ribs and went to the hospital immediately. He is OK. Scott went to another hospital with more fucked up ribs and he is OK. Somehow, miraculously with no seat belt on I emerged with bumps and bruises. All of my shit had flown out of the car, gear, wireless mic shit, all scattered around. The cops and firemen all agreed when they first saw our van they assumed the worst.

"A scary fucking moment, had he hit us 6 feet earlier we would have gone off an embankment 30 feet down and I would most likely be dead, gone through the windshield or out a window. I think I'll take today off and count my blessings."

Glad everybody on the van was ok...! I wish the speedy recovery for Alex and Scott, and hope Jizzy also had examines and scans at the hospital then nothing wrong on him. - Nao

The airing date of Vh-1's "Behind the Music - RATT" has been announced as at 9 pm (EDT) on May 11th. RATT's BTM would be featured as one of the highlights for VH-1's hard rock/Heavy metal weeks. No more cry wolf please, ok?

Warren is gonna play with one of his heroes, Uli John Roth in May (24th, 26th and 27th) at Ralph Freud Playhouse, Los Angeles, CA. The date Warren is gonna show up has not been announced, however, you can buy the tickets at Ticketmaster.com.
Ralph Freud Playhouse: MacGowan Hall, UCLA Campus Los Angeles, CA 90024 / phone: (213) 480-3232
For the details of the show(s), please check also: Official Uli John Roth Website (News page)

From John-Corabi.net (the News Letter dated Apr. 12, 2006):
www.john-corabi.net and John himself would like to thank all of you that have purchased the new JC Logo and "Dixie" shirts! The response has been HUGE!!!! The shirts are flying out of here! If you haven't gotten yours yet, then hurry before they are all gone.
John is now back in L.A. for a short while, then off to Australia with ESP. John also submitted three handwritten lyric pages to Crüefest this year, the lyrics will be up for auction along with other great items from each of the members of the Crüe.

2 home videos RATT have released will be compiled into 1 DVD and re-issued, in Japan. I'm afraid that the DVD will be in the format of the region 2** though, if you have a *cough* special *cough* DVD player, let's get RATT's first official DVD!
(I'm sorry, I don't accept consignment purchase / export request. - N)

RATT - the Video Collection [Warner Music Japan - Catalog No.: WPBR-90568 / ASIN: B000FDF3ZO]

.:. Links .:.

HMV Japan (English page) / HMV Japan Help (Click "Overseas Customers" on the list)
CD Japan

** the region 2 is for Japan, Europe, Mid-East, South Africa and Egypt
** the DVD format for the U.S. is the region 1.
** the format for Europe is the region 2 either, however, the color code for Japanese DVD and the one for Europe are different... So, even if the region code were the same, the DVD players distributed in Europe don't play Japanese DVDs (Japan: color code NTSC / Europe: color code PAL)

"2 shows coming up, 5-13 in Redding and 6-17 in Michigan...with yours truly singing. Sorry disgruntled RATT fans, better luck next year!"

"my 'status' in RATT hasn't really changed. It hasn't changed since I first started hearing about the supposed 'reunion' four years ago. Every year around the time of the NAMM show (hahaha

- N) it starts, big plans, big money. I don't want it to happen for selfish reasons, but at the same time if it happens, I wouldn't be shocked either. I did tell everyone my status in RATT, it is unchanged.
The Metal Sludge story in February was a smear job delivered to the website by a cheeseball who doesn't like me and wants me out. A so-called 'journalist' who in reality is one of those spys that hangs out on your bus, drinks your beer and when the bus leaves town tattles to the Internet about how you cheated on your girlfriend or how you vomitted all over yourself. For someone who works at Bravewords he's not really that brave."

On April 1st, TheClassicMetalShow.com did the interviews on the phone with Stephen, and with Jizzy (separately, of course!

. You can hear those interviews at the "interviews" section of TheClassicMetalShow.com. (The Real Player should be installed to your computer to hear them.)

Ms. Denise Ames from The Rustam Report has again kindly provided TheRattGang.com the 2 pictures of Stephen those were taken at the Key Club in last March! Click on the thumbnails to view them in full size. Thank you so much, Ms. Ames!

The Rustam Report will be re-airing their interview with Stephen. The on-air schedule is as follows:

(** The Rustam Report is a local weekly half-hour series focusing on the latest in entertainment and local news in and around Los Angeles)

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