EXHIBIT A GALLERY

Interview with Drummer Rat Skates from Overkill

Full Name: Rat Skates

Exhibit A: You are considered by modern media as one of the pioneering musicians of the early 1980’s thrash metal movement. How does that make you feel?

Rat Skates: It makes me feel incredibly blessed and old, haha.  The main word would be blessed; it’s not something in any lifetime that anyone could possibly plan out. It was about having the right attitude, at the right time and magic that happened, because of that. It’s a very cool feeling to know that we didn’t know what we were doing at the time and we didn’t even know how it would end up, but we knew it was fun and we HAD to do It and that’s why we did it.

Exhibit A: You were the drummer in the band Overkill. How was that like?

I guess like being a mother…I was growing something (my band, along with the other pioneering bands like Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, etc.) that had Its own legs and ran farther and faster than any of us expected.  It was really exciting and fun. Fortunately I could see when the window was closing and when to leave as well…

Exhibit A: What brought you guys to form Overkill?

A very small group of us…Lars, Kerry, Gary, etc, were so obsessed with the new wave of british heavy metal bands that had emerged, and we were all part of the tape trading underground. These bands like Maiden, Accept, Saxon, Tank, Motorhead, Angelwitch took It up another level, but as all American kids do, we wanted to take It to an even higher level…which we did. Faster, heavier, more obnoxious. Metal affected us so deeply and we were so addicted to It…that we had to shove It down the throats of anyone we could. Metal absolutely controlled our lives; and our bands were our contributions to the movement. Headbanging Is an “Ism’ that we’ll die with…happily. … Read more

Interview with Riki Rachtman Host of Headbanger’s Ball,Owner of the Cathouse Nightclub and Skateboarder

Full Name: Riki Rachtman

Exhibit A: You’re a pretty big  name in the Heavy Metal. Why do you feel that is?

Riki Rachtman: Well, I started a club in 1986, that was the biggest nightclub in the world. Every band played there, from Guns N’ Roses, Megadeth, Motorhead, Alice in Chains Pearl Jam, Alice Cooper, the list goes on.  The club got me a bit of notary, which led to me me hosting MTV’s “Headbanger’s. Ball”.

Exhibit A: How was a regular night at the Cathouse Nightclub?

Riki Rachtman: There was nothing regular about a night at the Cathouse. It seems like a cliche to say but sex, debauchery, every decadent vice. When you hear about the wild times the old rock scene was made of The Cathouse was all X100 It was just the best. The biggest rock bands just ended up hanging out there and there were no cameras allowed in the club. We never publicized what went down inside, so patrons felt safe to do what ever they wanted. Since all the rock stars hung out there, all the girls would hangout there too. We never had to go around saying “we have the sexiest girls at our club”, I was always very much against that whole cheesy cliche, but we had the sexiest girls and anybody that was there knows it. We still sell Cathouse shirts worldwide.

Exhibit A: Who were some of the usuals?

Riki Rachtman: Guns N’ Roses, James Hetfield from Metallica was there all the time, Danzig, Suicidal Tendencies, Faster Pussycat.. everybody. Every band went there and pretty much every band played there. We had our share of celebrity clientele as well.  I remember seeing Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer hanging out in the DJ booth, a couple weeks Christina Applegate worked in the coat check, while she was still on on Married with Children. I don’t recall  famous people ever getting bugged at the Cathouse. Truth be told  they were treated much different than the unemployed musician scraping enough money for a beer or the secretary living a life of rock chick for one night. If you take a look at any of the books by Slash or Nikki Sixx, they all mention the Cathouse.

… Read more