Stephen Eric Pearcy (born July 3, 1956) is an American musician. He is best known as the founder, singer, songwriter and sole remaining original member of the heavy metal band Ratt. He has also created the bands Firedome, Crystal Pystal, Arcade (band), Vicious Delite, and Vertex. He has also recorded seven albums as a solo artist. Career In his early teens, Pearcy aspired to be a top fuel race car driver and expressed no desire to pursue a career in music. He listened to music and occasionally went to concerts in the 1970s; however, he had not so much as played a note in his whole life. One night during the summer of 1970, a hit-and-run driver struck Pearcy while he was riding his bicycle. While he was in the hospital for six months recovering from his accident, someone gave him an acoustic guitar. After fiddling around with the guitar for a short time, Pearcy decided to shift his vocational focus from driving race cars to playing music. He created the bands Firedome and Crystal Pystal. Pearcy also wrote music for a band that he named Mickey Ratt (formed in San Diego in 1977). Pearcy moved his band to Los Angeles in 1980 after seeing a local band, Van Halen, at The Whisky a Go Go. After Pearcy and the band moved to Los Angeles in 1980, the band's name was shortened to Ratt in 1981 and the original lineup was solidified in 1983. Playing clubs like The Troubadour, The Roxy and The Whisky, Ratt amassed a large local following. After releasing an eponymous six-song EP in 1983 that sold 200,000 copies, Ratt released its breakthrough album, Out of the Cellar, on Atlantic Records in 1984. The band opened arena shows and tours for ZZ Top, Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Squier. "Out of the Cellar" went five times multi-platinum, and the band headed its own arena tours around the world for the next ten years. After releasing four multi-platinum records and three gold albums with Ratt, Pearcy left the band in 1992. Pearcy and former Cinderella drummer Fred Coury formed the band Arcade in 1992. Arcade released a self-titled album in 1993 and another album the following year. In 1996, Pearcy dabbled in an industrial metal band called Vertex (with Megadeth's Al Pitrelli and drummer / electronic producer Hiro Kuretani). Pearcy reunited with Ratt in 1996 (minus Robbin Crosby and