Bobby Blotzer
Encyclopedia
Robert John Blotzer, better known as Bobby Blotzer and nicknamed "Blotz" (born on October 22, 1958 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

), is a drummer most famous for playing drums for glam metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...

 band Ratt
Ratt
Ratt is an American heavy metal band that had significant commercial success in the 1980s. The band is best known for songs such as "Round and Round," "Wanted Man," "Lay It Down," "You're in Love", "Slip of the Lip", "Back For More", "Dance", "Body Talk", "I Want a Woman", and "Way Cool Jr." Ratt...

. He attended Torrance High School
Torrance High School
Torrance High School is a high school located in Torrance, California. Founded in 1917, it is one of the oldest high schools in continuous use in California and is the oldest of the four high schools in the Torrance Unified School District. Four of its buildings are listed on the U.S...

 in Torrance California along with his Ratt bandmate Juan Croucier
Juan Croucier
Juan Croucier is a Cuban-American heavy metal musician.-Career:Croucier attended Torrance High School in Torrance, California. Formerly a bassist for well known metal bands Dokken and Ratt during the 1980s, Croucier was also very briefly in Quiet Riot...

.

Ratt

Blotzer began his career as Ratt's drummer in 1982 after he was recruited by Ratt vocalist Stephen Pearcy
Stephen Pearcy
Stephen Erica Pearcy is the lead singer of the 80's metal band Ratt. He has also been in the bands Arcade, Vicious Delite, Vertex, Nitronic, and Band From Hell...

. Blotzer helped Ratt achieve multi-platinum success by selling five consecutive platinum albums during the 1980s. Ratt is most famous for their classic glam metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...

 album Out of the Cellar
Out of the Cellar
Out of the Cellar is the breakthrough album by heavy metal band Ratt, released in 1984. It is currently certified 3x platinum by the RIAA. Produced by Beau Hill, the album features their best-known hit, "Round and Round", and other hits such as "Wanted Man", "Lack of Communication" and a...

and song "Round and Round
Round and Round (Ratt song)
"Round and Round" is a song by American glam metal band Ratt which proved to be the biggest hit of their career, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. It appears as the third track of their album Out of the Cellar...

". At the beginning of the 1990s Ratt's popularity waned, mainly because grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...

 bands such as Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

 and Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...

 exploded into the mainstream, and pop metal bands were no longer in vogue. Ratt called it quits in 1992, and Blotzer started a more normal life outside the public eye. Five years later Ratt reformed and toured once again. In 2000 Stephen Pearcy apparently quit the group, and shortly thereafter Bobby had exhibited an extreme dislike for Pearcy, who had sued the band for continuing under the "Ratt" name and claimed the band ruined their worldwide deal with Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

. Blotzer heavily denied the claims and said they were a bunch of "pathologic lies", adding that Pearcy was a "sick person". Blotzer and Ratt guitarist Warren DeMartini
Warren DeMartini
Warren Justin DeMartini , nicknamed Torch, is the lead guitarist for Ratt, a popular American band during the mid-to-late 1980s Los Angeles glam metal scene.-Early life:...

 subsequently won the court case to use the "Ratt" name. In 2002 former Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby
Robbin Crosby
Robbin Crosby was an American guitarist who was a member of glam metal band Ratt, earning several platinum albums in the U.S. in the mid-to-late 1980s. Crosby was HIV positive, but died from a heroin overdose in 2002....

 lost his battle with AID's, which marked one of the most painful parts of Blotzer's life. Blotzer posted a message to his late bandmate affectionately referred to as "The King" by fans on the group's official web site and called Crosby "one of the most kind hearted, the most compassionate, intelligent, talented" people he had ever known. In 2007 Stephen Pearcy reunited with the group, thus putting an end to the tensions between the two. In 2009 Metal Sludge reported that he was arrested and booked on charges of domestic violence. In 2010 Blotzer released an auto-biographical book called Tales of A Ratt - Things You Shouldn't Know.

Side projects

He has played with several side projects over the years, such as Twenty 4 Seven, Phucket, FireFoxx, Airborne, Angel City Outlaws, Contraband
Contraband (band)
Contraband was a short-lived supergroup/side project that included members of several famous rock bands from the 1980s, such as The Michael Schenker Group, Ratt, Vixen, Shark Island and L.A. Guns....

, and has also played as a touring drummer for Montrose
Montrose (band)
Montrose was a California-based hard rock band. The band originally featured Ronnie Montrose on guitar and future solo artist and former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar...

. He also played for Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

/Swiss musician Vic Vergat. In 2008, Blotzer, Jani Lane (Warrant), Keri Kelli (Alice Cooper), and Robbie Crane (Ratt) released Saints of the Underground
Saints of the Underground
Saints of The Underground is a hard rock project that was formed in 2006 by Ratt drummer Bobby Blotzer and Alice Cooper guitarist Keri Kelli who recruited ex-Warrant singer Jani Lane and Ratt bassist Robbie Crane...

's debut album, Love The Sin, Hate The Sinner.

Hobbies

Playing golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 is Blotzer's most well known hobby among Ratt fans. His other hobbies include skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

, pool
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...

, and darts.

External links

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