World Infestation

The Ratt Story

By: Greg Prato

Narrated by: Greg Prato

During the mid ‘80s, Ratt was one of the biggest hard rock/heavy metal bands in the United States. Turn on MTV, and it was seemingly only a matter of time until a Ratt video was aired. Visit your local newsstand, and you were sure to detect a Ratt band member on the cover of one of the leading rock mags. Take a gander at the album charts, and one of their platinum (or platinum plus) LP’s would have been easy to spot. And let’s not forget that from 1985 and throughout the remainder of the decade, they were a featured attraction on mammoth festivals, and also, rocked arenas on bills that featured Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick, Poison, Warrant, or Queensrÿche…with Ratt headlining over those bands. But, seemingly just as rapid as their rise to the top was the abrupt halt to their career in 1991 – with the onset of grunge and alt-rock replacing the party hearty metal stylings of the previous decade, in addition to internal strife within the band behind the scenes.

'World Infestation: The Ratt Story' recounts the L.A. band’s entire tale – from their beginnings as a band slugging it out on the Sunset Strip alongside such stiff competition as Mötley Crüe and Metallica, to scoring hit singles (“Round and Round,” “Lay It Down,” “You’re in Love”) and albums ('Out of the Cellar,' 'Invasion of Your Privacy,' 'Dancing Undercover'), creating their own unique look and sound (dubbed “fashion rock”), dealing with adversity, and how their music has reached a new audience in recent years. Comprised of quotes from interviews past and present (as well one of the last-ever interviews conducted with Ratt’s late guitarist, Robbin Crosby), 'World Infestation: The Ratt Story' will certainly take you round and round…and then lay it down.

©2024 Greg Prato Writer, Corp. (P)2024 Greg Prato Writer, Corp.

Terrible listen

Love, listening to the story and the history of the band and band members. Could not stand the way the audiobook was read. Just the way he pronounces Van Halen will tell you everything you need to know.

The definitive history of Ratt

Two of the original five members of Ratt have penned autobiographies, and shared their perspectives on the history of the band that gave us great tunes such as "Round and Round," "Lay It Down," and "Way Cool Jr." However, author Greg Prato breaks down the hard rock band's definitive history in "World Infestation." From San Diego to Los Angeles, this glam metal band was on fire in the 1980s, turning out hit records and rocking their thriving fanbase in concert.

Ratt succeeded in turning heads with the music video for "Round and Round," which featured a cross dressing Milton Berle and was heavily played on MTV. The band was managed by Marshall Berle, Milton's nephew. Prato details the band's early days as Mickey Ratt, and later adopting the famed Ratt logo. The author utilizes past and recent interviews to show how the band's viewpoints have changed over the years.

Prato chronicles the band's profitable years releasing hit albums and touring, but also addresses their struggles. In the early 1990's, Grunge music was taking over the scene, putting Ratt on hiatus. Drugs claimed guitar Robin Crosby in 2002, after testing positive for HIV. Ratt united, but a major split left fans with two Ratt bands, and then came the lawsuits.

I enjoyed Prato's assessment of the band's many accomplishments. He also does a fantastic job of defining the band's legacy, showing the influence and impact Ratt has had on musicians. I also appreciate the author's research and sharing the many Ratt stories. This was a very welcomed trip down memory lane. "What goes around, comes around!"

No big surprises

Repeated and jumped around a little. Robin Crosby’s death wasn’t really discussed as well as the role it played in dividing and band already crumbling. No backgrounds on members really. Didn’t feel this was a very informative read.

The Ratt did not take the cheese

I agree with many of the other reviewers that if you followed Ratt over the years, you probably know most of the story. I kind of fell off the train in the early 90s due to personal reasons and moving around a bit, so this book fills in some holes of those 90s years and beyond. It would be a stretch to say that there’s any meat or details here. The author just hits the high points of Rattistory.

Things that I found distracting were the overuse of the words like “circa” and parts of the audio recording dip in volume where edits may have been made in post-production.

The book does not really tell a story instead it is book a long series of quotes from previous interviews and other articles with little analysis.

Straight forward. No nonsense storytelling.

There wasn't anything "new", but it was pretty much what I expected, but entertaining, just the same. I may have given 5 stars, but too much "What did Don Jamieson have to say?" for me. If he wasn't friends with Trunk, nobody would know him. Anyway, I enjoyed listening to the book.

my review is for two types of fans.

if you're a casual fan of the band band you will enjoy this book and learn quite a bit but if you're a huge fan of the band you were already known pretty much everything in this book and you won't be learning anything new. so casual fan great book average fan nothing new to learn here. but it's definitely worth checking out.

The worst narrator/reader of all time

I liked and craved the information, but the performance was God awful. Listen for one minute and you hear that the narrator is a novice reader. Or maybe it was just bad AI.