MTV's - Riki Rachtman Decadence at the Cathouse
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- čas přidán 13. 09. 2024
- We met up with former MTV VJ for Headbangers Ball Riki Rachtman who gave us the REAL DIRT on his scene in Hollywood during those glorious 80s. Riki describes how he started his famous club "The Cathouse", his friendships with some of the most notorious rock stars like Axl Rose and Tamie Downe. He also offers his opinion on grunge vs metal. Super fun interview. We had a great time hanging with Riki. Some fascinating stuff here. Next week we give you Tony Harnell from TNT. Remember to subscribe and stay tuned only on 80s MRB!
This guy and his show were such a massive part of my adolescent years. I remember seeing Pantera on the Ball and thinking I had found the greatest TV show in the history of tv. Thank you Rikki!
hell ya, 46 year old hear chiming in LOL! At one point it was the highlight of my weekends "hey man, lets get some 40's and weed and watch HBB!" good times I tell ya
*Riki
Hecwas just the Hoster?????MTV brings it out
Remember when Chris Cornell said Riki looks like Eddie Munster?🤣🤣
How about on Headbanger's Ball when Steve Stevens gave Riki a guitar as a gift and told him if he learned to play it he wouldn't have to look like a poser anymore. I thought Riki ruined the show. He was annoying as hell.
yup!
He is and was a huge dork with bad taste and an even worse memory. Headbanger's ball was a midnight show on MTV and at first it was not bad... the first night "ricky" was on my buddy threw a bottle of beer at the tv and broke it.
Those were awesome times! Headbanger’s Ball was the best. I still listen to a lot of 80’s metal. The groups were so diverse. I could see Slayer fans hating hair metal. But I loved it all. Sex, drugs, rock n’ roll 🤟🤟
I loved Headbanger’s Ball. We had a VHS tape when I was stationed overseas one year in the Marine Corps. We watched the same Headbanger’s Ball repeatedly for a full year at least once a week.
What do remember of that episode?
@@td8778 I remember some Cinderella, Faster Pussycat, Dokken, Krokus, and Helix. But what I really remember is just having that tape as a common bond between many of us that linked us to home.
Thank you for your service brother🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
@@kevinvannorman5997 You are welcome. But I mostly just listened to music, shot a bunch of guns, lifted weights, ran, picked up trash, and drank some beer!! 😂
@@burkejones8277 I only did one six month deployment to Okinawa, but they said you either find God, become a gym rat, or turn into a drunk. I tried the latter two. KinVille is a hell of a place.
There's a meme in Spanish for the MTV's birthday that says: "Happy 40th Birthday. Thank you for 20 years of music"
Went to the Cathouse once and Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode was hanging at the bar by himself. True story!
Good times, The Ball always made me feel like I was a part of something great--even when I wasn't in my real life. The music was always my anchor. 🤘Riki
I can't get enough of this channel. The hair metal bands were the sound track of my youth during the eighties. Friday nights after school I would be cruising around the small town where I grew up. While searching for the next party; bands like GnR, Honeymoon Suite, Skid Row, Night Ranger, Faster Pussycat, the list goes on and on, were in constant rotation in my car's cassette player. Yes, cassette player. I remember thinking that I could not wait to graduate and get the heck out. Now pushing fifty, I wish I could go back.
Night Ranger? Ok. Cool. Go to it😊
Never missed Headbangers and still love the music all these years later!
Papa jon says, yes you can get fired from your own company even when it is your name
He had shareholders and a board that could fire him.
He's absolutely right. Those three guys from Seattle didn't kill the scene. It killed itself
Yeah I'm sure radio suddenly moving on had nothing to do with it.
It was a generational shift. Younger kids who spend more money on music, concerts and merch were looking for their own thing, and the business end pivoted - as it always does. I'm sure singer-songwriters of the '70s bitched just as much when Motley, Ratt, and Quiet Riot rose to the top of the charts.
@@whamsie4022 Oh yeah stopped on a dime, turned on a pivot, and they, the ones producing the music, asked what else was on. I basically blame the cure nine inch nails and the violent femmes. Also maybe tears for fears.
@@whamsie4022 I'm pretty sure it's getting ready to pivot again the thing is there's a couple of different notches on the turn. Thank God for the am revolution. FM's going to go, um, somewhere else before this is over. Hint, I hope you like stations like wxpn in philadelphia. I like their highs in the 70s program but other than that not very much.
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Always waited every Saturday night for headbangers ball. Voice of music for our time. Thanks Ricky. You were the voice and showed the passion for the music of our time. Just wanted to give you a shout out and a thank you for keeping this music alive.
A big part of what killed that metal scene was just about every band started doing ballads for movies. It was overkill and dumb. MTV, movie production companies, and the bands saturated the market with dumb.
Ya, heard couple bands claim executives demanded at least one "Every rose has it's thorn/ Sweet Child O'mine" be on their next album.
@@thismothafuckasaid7304 yep! You are correct. I didn’t mention labels, but they were a big part of it too.
I miss those days. I wish I would have been around that scene at that time. I was just a little too young.
I have hours and hours of vhs recordings of headbangers ball.
EPIC video. So damn good. He is an exceptional speaker! We need Riki back! We need HBB back!!!
Rob zombie painted the backdrop on the ball
Ya, I am a bit shocked Riki didn't mention anything about this or White Zombie's success on The Ball.
The 80s were a cultural phenomenon. As a musician, the amount of great music and players was astounding to listen to. The metal and thrash scene was the best. Growing up in the bay area was the shit. You had to been there and lived it to know it......🤘
Riki has a great rock n roll voice. He is an American Flat Track host now and doing great
He's also doing his own tour of telling stories about his life. Very cool.
Accidentally found this. I lived 1/2 a block from Cathouse on Highland in W Hwd (there were other places, too) I lived there! Remember Axl using a cane. Bands who were in town (Flesh for Lulu, etc)
This was my life. Great seeing this. 1986 rocked for clubs like Cathouse (& there was a band named Cathouse, too.) I wonder what happened to them? Good times.
Always watched The Headbanger's Ball at midnight if I didnt go out or at least for a few minutes before I left. Greatest show on earth!
thanks for this really enjoyed it !!
Rik's too hard on himself in regards to headbangers ball ..I thought he was pretty good. Great interview. subscribed!👍
The Dali Lama of hard rock. Good to see Riki again.
1) Riki's right, nobody watches a band in a club and says "man, you could just feel something building...everyone knew they were about to..." NO. Nobody really knows what's about to blow up, ever. You can hope, and try to guess, but I've seen too many bands that were fantastic, and packed people in, that went nowhere. For a million different reasons. It's too easy to say it in some documentary 35 years later.
2) Yeah, you did play Nelson on the Ball. And I'm pretty sure you hated it as much as we did;)
LSD: Life Sex & Death was such band. i was PRIVILEGED saw em 3x once at SCREAM former Cathouse spot. One BRILLIANT album later band is.... gone. 2 or 3 shows good quality are on youtube. Amazing hard rock songs..
beautiful ballads and with a WTF frontman STANLEY who SMELLED like he LOOKED.. but once he started to sing snd dance his rancid stench didn't matter! lol why this band isn't spoken of more is beyond me! some documentary should be made... anything!
Life Sex and Death *the band.. You have to sometimes add "the band" part because they're so obscure on CZcams searches.
...you're welcome.
🤘🖖
I was a Poison and Warrant fan, but when Nelson came out.....that was crossing the line. At least Poison and Warrant paid their dues and worked their way through Sunset Strip scene and earned a following. Nelson was manufactured and completely BULLSHIT. Nelson was like a parody of the Strip. fuck those guys
Headbangers ball wasn't any good before Riki. Without him involved we would have forgotten about it long ago and laughed if someone brought it up. Absolutely the coolest show MTV ever had.
They did play Nelson on Headbangers Ball during the first hour.
I remember.
I used to watch it religiously.
He's speaking truth about grunge killing the 80's metal scene...It killed it's self...Well said Rikki..
The "power ballad" killed hair metal.One band got a hit and the rest had to follow.
@@supergrogg VERY true
Hold my pantera, fear factory, meshuggah, death, nepalm death, carcass, cannibal corpse
This is the CZcams channel the world needs.
the one thing i remember about ricki is that whatever band he was interviewing he would mirror them. if nirvana came up he’d be wearing grunge clothes. if guns and roses were there he’d be dressing like slash 😂.
He was a joke. We used to get high and laugh at his desperate need to be liked by changing look for wherever he was interviewing.
Great guy and great times we had with Headbangers ball. I love the fact that every genre of rock was included in the show, good but different kind of bands so it was not boring: GNR, Testament, Metal Church, Savatage, Nirvana, STP, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Danzig, LA Guns, Metallica, Faster Pussycats, Ratt, Motley Crue, etc.
Thank you for not censoring people.
*FUCK* censorship. Of any kind.
Damn this brought me right back to my youth. I remember staying up til midnight and recording HB on vhs every week. I'm sure I replayed I Remember You ten thousand times. I haven't seen Riki since those days and damn he really knows his shit. I cracked up when he mentioned Nelson 😄 if you lived through those days, you know EXACTLY what he's talking about. But I'm sure he was forced to play them at least once lol
Riki is the dude! He is nailing it. And still has his looks.
Riki mentions Mordred who just released their first album in over thirty years "The Dark Parade" !! \m/
Great interview, amazing memories being young and watch headbanger´s ball with my friends. BTW what´s the name of the last song?
Somehow as he got older he looks like Steve Carrel with a beard.
The 80's was the BEST!!!
I'm 47 now, and my memory is slipping, but I am pretty sure that Dee Snyder was the host of a show on MTV that led to the creation of Headbangers Ball. Can anyone confirm this without me having to google it? So technically it was his idea or something close to that.
Yes. I think it was called Metal Madness. Dee was the host. Then he wanted more money and MTV wasn't having it.
Dee Snider’s Heavy Metal Mania
Yup...HeavyMetalMania ...only thing I watched on MTV...I was 16yrs. old ...m friends were into rap and breakdancing... Lol
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@@phillipweber6059 WRONG
I remember being like 11 years old and watching Decline 2 . Riki was very influential in the scene, for a non musician non record label guy . I will always admire the LA Glam explosion and one day people like the Rock N Roll HOF will have to give just dues .
Much respect glad I watched this one never knew his story!
Loved the Headbangers Ball!!! Riki was a killer VJ!!!
awesome !!!!!!!!!!
I grew up with Headbanger's Ball, glad to see Riki is still around.
I've had a 30+ year crush on this man! I had a chance to meet him, not at the Cathouse, but a different club that was only open 2 nights a week. He was really sweet apologizing that it was kinda dead. The only bummer about Headbangers Ball was if you were out watching live bands on Saturday, you missed a bunch of the show.
I shouldn't be surprised that some fans and people in the industry still talk shit about the "lighter" bands in the genre to portray themselves as "metal" or badass but Riki made a career on the coat tails of these bands. For him to throw to Nelson under the bus is a douche bag move. Riki, no one spelled your name right because no one cared enough to figure out how to spell it. Keep up the good work MRB.
HERE-HERE!!!! Well said sir!
NELSON were a very musically talented band. What-is-the-question??!!!??
Rachtman always reeked of jealousy and ass-kiss with nearly every interview real rockers!
The only thing remotely metal about Nelson were their long hair.
He isn't throwing Nelson under the bus; he's just pointing out the obvious -- they weren't metal.
Duh.
The Headbanger's Ball a fat sack o' nugs, some friends....sprinkled with a little Ritalin was great Saturday night when I was a kid. I'm really nostalgic about it now, it was the best....
Great interview
I love watching you on , MTV . Metal
I met Rikki after a Saigon Kick show. Dude, Hair metal was dead when grunge started. Else, why did Skid Row only have two albums? They were the highlight of metal of the time. Anyway you just talked about skrewing bimbos at the Sayonara Inn in Amityville, NY. But before that, you were the metal compass for so many of us. Thank you for your years at MTV. BEfore that , all we has was Finger's Metal Shop on 92.3 FM after 11pm. You did us proud.
Stating his buddies GNR "survived" the 90's is a joke. They released two sub-par albums in '91 that maybe had 1 side of solid songs then went away for 20 years.
Right, much like Def Leppard.
great point
You’re trippin they sold HUGE in the 90s then dissolved themselves. You’re a weirdo hater. U actually think the next Guns N’ Roses studio album would not have sold big? You’re insane
@@MyKeeP81 Ha...got me there. U rockin' out to Chinese Democracy right now?
I'm not much of a GNR fan but even I know you couldn't be more wrong. They were huge. Had 6 albums that sold over 100 million copies worldwide. None stop stadium tours. Then when the band broke up not long after Axl was still touring as GNR....doing stadiums. As much as Chinese Democracy sucks it still sold millions. As the original line up they were gone for 20 years...but GNR never went away
Metal bands are filling stadiums and arenas in 23. I bet they never expected such a comeback
Hay man.Mr Rikky Ratchet is my favourite and Vanesa Warwick too but Rikk is best!Such a lovely memory and this Fasster Pussycat/Cathouse interview I and my friends look maybe one million times on VHS TAPE
My two biggest regrets in life are not being born in time to participate in Vietnam and not being born in time to participate in the sunset strip in the 80s.
Weird regrets.
You wanted to serve in Vietnam? That's f'n nuts.
Yeah, why the fuck would you want to go be in that war?
I loved Headbangers Ball.
Headbangers Ball was great until they started playing Pearl Jam.
Really? "Alive" and "Evenflow" were great hard-rock songs that were appropriate for HB. Certainly rocked harder than "Honestly" by Stryper.
@@whamsie4022 Pearl Jam were already on regular MTV during the day all day. There was no reason to play them on HBB. I could say the same thing about Guns n Roses. Why were they on HBB when MTV was playing them all day ?
@@Chaz4543 Mayne because it was a music program???
I agree... and don't forget Dinosaur Jr., Butthole Surfers, Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Creed.... @Whamsie, Stryper is a legitimate Hard Rock/Metal band, therefore ballads are allowed given their body of work...
The fact of the matter is that it wasn't "The Metal Scene". It was a reiteration of Glam Rock with bands exploiting some cliché riffs / licks & tones that early Metal bands introduced. By the time that scene took off, real Metal evolved with Thrash, Death & Speed. Ultimately, when Glam killed itself through the oversaturation provided by the record labels, real metal never died and was still kicking in the underground. Imho, if it weren't for bands like Danzig, Faith No More, Suicidal Tendencies and a few others, I don't think people would've been as open to Nirvana, AIC, etc...
I had a membership to the Cathouse. Held on Tuesdays, met a girl named "Candy" there...
Did you go all the way with Candy?? Just asking for a friend...
Great interview. Totally agree Riki on the end of metal in the early 90’s. Everything has cycles
He dropped more names in 13 minutes than has ever been dropped in 13 minutes.
I loved watching Glenn Danzig make fun of you when you showed up looking like a Pearl Jam fan during a Heavy Metal show interview ...poser.
Holding on to that, are ya?
@@thedude4672 yah shit was funny .
I remebered those days, when saturday at night go to drink to pub and return home quickly to see Haedbamgers Ball 😂😂
The best line: "If something isn't popular doesn't mean its dead"
👏👏👏🤘🤘🤘
But the era of thier prime is dead although band lives
I wonder what happened to the Bruce Dickinson guy who used to crank call his radio show in L A?
Man i used to religiously watch the head bangers ball every Saturday night like clockwork. Them were the days.
Headbangers was definitely a Ball!!!!!
In the 80s people DID listen to music from 30 years ago, as that was the 50s, and GREASE and BACK TO THE FUTURE and a zillion infomercials kept the 50s going a LONG TIME. So yeah, people have always looked back for great songs, it didn't just start.
Can you name one band today that could ingest just a couple days worth, and survive, the daily alcohol/smack and blow concoction that was needed just to get half the bands from the 80s on stage every night. Forget about the after party. lol
A lot of the music from those days will still be around long after the shit of today is long forgotten.
Always thought faster pussycat was so underated.
@@kenbo1512 how they ever got signed is the world’s biggest secret. Horrid isn’t strong enough of a word.
Two great songs, one near the end and the closing song. Who are they.
He's right when he says grunge didn't kill Metal.... it just ran its course like everything... even grunge and everything else! When Nirvana first hit I just looked at them as a new rock band with a great record. Towards the end of the scence the record companies had worked every possible angle of Metal and it was really kind of cheesy with songs such as cherry pie (which even warrant hated). people were just ready for something new. In the end it was a great time like no other that just ran its course. I feel extermely lucky to have been a part of it!
I love this, I wanna see more of Riki
And he’s totally right about the Seattle scene. It didn’t kill a damn thing. Those bands kicked ass.
I actually remember watching the last Adam Curry HBB and him telling us that next week was going to be a new host. I was pissed, but I got warmed up to RIKI pretty fast, especially when THE METAL YEARS came out on VHS and you could get it at Blockbuster. I learnt of so much great music from that show that I doubt I'd know much of if not for that show. I especially loved it when they would do the block of DEATH METAL. And YES they did play Nelson, I remember stopping my VHS so it wouldn't record them again. One tape with them was enough. One of my favorite moments in the show was when I was introduced to KYUSS!!!
Riki is the man
I give Riki a lot of credit. He got blamed for a lot stuff he shouldn't have been blamed for. He's always waved the rock 'n banner, regardless of what was popular at the time.
I still have my Cathouse Membership card. Man thems was the days.
the bathrooms at the Cat House were wild. You can snort or get blown and nobody would even notice.
Right before the show's abrupts cancellation I vividly remember watching the vides for Nine Inch Nails "Closer", Pantera "planet caravan", and Offspring "self esteem"
Just got back from the best cathouse in town
Today you have to be on Nickelodian to be a musician!
Is there any type of footage of the band cathouse that would play there from time to time i hung out with nick the drummer now and then thanxx
Great interview Riki. But this is driving me crazy who is is at playing at the end of the video? That song is killer.
Good memories…
This guy still looks good!
He looks like Billy Mays now.
Doubt that. Billy Mays is a corpse now. Rotting flesh and all.
Was too young to watch the heyday of the Ball, I know this guy mainly for his later work with wrestling (WCW 3 Count and the Spring Break stuff)
I loved Headbangers Ball, Rikki Rackman? Greatest poser of all time
Did Riki have any encounters with Stanley of Life, Sex & Death?
you need the black and white video from a handheld ... to get the full MTV 90s look
Nailed the "grunge killed hair metal". Couldn't agree more. It didn't kill it, it just ran it's coarse. Way to many bands that sounded the same, people wanted something different.
my high school years staying up until 3am with headphones on watching TV to headbangers ball. Mtv screwed it up towards the end playing ballads between slayer and primus.
Riki had the best job in the world
Papa Johns had his name on it.... FIRED!
10:00 what is he talking about? Tina, Janis, The Beatles, The Stones, Rod Stewart and other 1950s/60s acts were still mega-opular in the 80s, though they may not have been current.
... Must have been a lot of fun back then.
Loved The Ball, but Riki has always been into the flavor of the week, but now he's hell bent on what he thinks is "cool" about that scene. Who cares, it was all great. It was a great time.
Are east coast band KIX is still out playing rock.
Wifey and I checked out Geoff Tate for the Thanksgiving Day after show at the Whiskey, and was awesome, but always wanted to hit the Cathouse. Faster Pussycat had me rocking. And L.A. Guns.
There was NO DVR. if u were lucky enough, you might’ve had a vcr, but rare.. SO... we stood up & waited & watched !!....
Kids today who discover "classic" rock bands from the 60's, 70's, 80's & 90's have never known the feeling of anticipation for their favorite band's new release or ever had to wait for their favorite song to come on the radio and record it with a crappy cassette recorder to listen to whenever they pleased. Music had filters back then (DJ's, radio station program directors, record company execs, A&R people, etc.) who only let certain artists to flourish and what we got was what we got. Today, we're awash in music. There are no gatekeepers who decide what the general public hears. That's a good thing and a bad thing. Good for artists, bad for music fans who have to sift through lots and lots of bad music just to find a diamond in the rough. Another sad fact is there won't be any more superstars like Nirvana or Guns-N-Roses any longer. They were mega acts because the record companies made sure they'd capture every last red cent they could before Napster, Bearshare and Limewire put them all out of a job.
The internet killed Rock n Roll bands by making music free .
It makes no sense for a recording company to sign a contract for 4-6 band members . There's simply not enough money to share due to the absence of album sales . The only Rock/metal bands that are still around were already established 20+ years ago and they are aging fast.
This is why music is mainly a pretty faced solo artists these days , whether it's, rap , country or pop.
@@manchesterexplorer8519 If anything, the internet made it easier for bands to promote their own music and connect with fans. Rock and metal is still alive and well, its just not mainstream. Bands don't make money on records anymore, they make it on touring and merch sales. There is still good music out there, you just have to go looking for it.
@@manchesterexplorer8519
I have to disagree. The internet killed a lot of album sales, absolutely. What’s left were those bands that can actually put on a show. A band that can actually transport an audience by their craft, alone. Those are the bands that survive. Also, of course, are the industry darlings, coming and going, then fighting for relevance again with an army of PR. Whatever. If you can play you can stay. Those are the people who deserve our attention and $$$ anyway. Touring IS worth it. Playing IS the biggest part of what musicians do, imho.
@@MrJubal1975 you have to become relevant before people buy tickets to a show. Again producers are not going to gamble and sign a new 5 to 6 man band these days , there's no money in it.