“IF YOU WERE JUST GETTING IN THE GAME LIKE ME, EDDIE VAN HALEN WAS THE GUY TO LOOK UP TO. HE MADE IT ALL SEEM SO EXCITING” —WARREN DeMARTINI
NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Warren DeMartini made the move from San Diego to Los Angeles in 1982 just as the Sunset Strip glam metal scene was on the cusp of exploding nationwide. For a young hotshot guitarist looking to get noticed, L.A. in the early Eighties was like a mecca. There were clubs teeming with women and A&R scouts. There were parties and strip joints. And there were thousands of other like-minded budding shredders hoping to be the next Eddie Van Halen.
“Back then, Eddie was sort of the apex of a new direction for guitarists of my generation,” DeMartini remembers. “If you were just getting in the game like me, he was the guy to look up to. He made it all seem so exciting. Everybody wanted to play like him, and every band wanted to hit it big like Van Halen.”
While most of his six-string peers hustled for gigs, putting up flyers and advertising their services in local musician’s papers, DeMartini arrived in L.A. with something of an ace up his sleeve: He had already accepted an invitation to join the up-and-coming outfit Ratt, replacing his friend Jake E. Lee, who had signed on with Ozzy Osbourne following Randy Rhoads’ passing. For the next few months, Ratt played every gig that came their way,
