by Ratt
~ Western theatrics, ahead of their time ~
It’s not their most famous tune, but it was the initial kick in the teeth from their major label debut and it set the stage for what you would expect from Ratt for the next decade. What was cool though, was the idea of the hard rock cowboy and gunfighter themes that fit the music so well. Usually, as soon as the cowboy hat came out, so did the country music.
Ratt were the first of the 80s hard rock bands to reclaim the cowboy hat. Brett Michaels donned one regularly, once the “Cat Dragged In”-era makeup came off. And lets just all agree to pretend the “Ronnie Lee Keel” era never existed. Bon Jovi is more famous for the cowboy hat with “Wanted Dead or Alive” – and to be fair, it was a bigger chart hit. But within the hard rock community, folks know that Ratt beat him to the punch by at least 2 years and did it with a song that holds down it’s hard rock roots a little better.