MTV's - Riki Rachtman Decadence at the Cathouse 

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!

Remember when Chris Cornell said Riki looks like Eddie Munster?🤣🤣

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.

Went to the Cathouse once and Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode was hanging at the bar by himself. True story!

They did play Nelson on Headbangers Ball during the first hour. I remember. I used to watch it religiously.

EPIC video. So damn good. He is an exceptional speaker! We need Riki back! We need HBB back!!!

Papa jon says, yes you can get fired from your own company even when it is your name

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.

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.

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;)

thanks for this really enjoyed it !!

Riki mentions Mordred who just released their first album in over thirty years "The Dark Parade" !! \m/

Riki is the dude! He is nailing it. And still has his looks.

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 .

The 80's was the BEST!!!

This is the RU-vid channel the world needs.

Loved the Headbangers Ball!!! Riki was a killer VJ!!!

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....

I grew up with Headbanger's Ball, glad to see Riki is still around.

I love watching you on , MTV . Metal

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.

Great interview, amazing memories being young and watch headbanger´s ball with my friends. BTW what´s the name of the last song?

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

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.

I had a membership to the Cathouse. Held on Tuesdays, met a girl named "Candy" there...

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.

awesome !!!!!!!!!!

I loved Headbangers Ball.

Man i used to religiously watch the head bangers ball every Saturday night like clockwork. Them were the days.

The best line: "If something isn't popular doesn't mean its dead" 👏👏👏🤘🤘🤘

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.

He dropped more names in 13 minutes than has ever been dropped in 13 minutes.

I remebered those days, when saturday at night go to drink to pub and return home quickly to see Haedbamgers Ball 😂😂

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.

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

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

And he’s totally right about the Seattle scene. It didn’t kill a damn thing. Those bands kicked ass.

Headbangers was definitely a Ball!!!!!

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!

Two great songs, one near the end and the closing song. Who are they.

Riki had the best job in the world

I loved Headbangers Ball, Rikki Rackman? Greatest poser of all time

you need the black and white video from a handheld ... to get the full MTV 90s look

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.

Great interview Riki. But this is driving me crazy who is is at playing at the end of the video? That song is killer.

... Must have been a lot of fun back then.

Radio and MTV killed the sene. They just stopped playing it overnight in late 91 or so. Record labels were still putting new albums by these bands until 93 long after radio and MTV moved on.

wow he is so much different from the guy I remember

First I’ve seen or thought of him since mid 90s

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.

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.

Dude! This tool will literally NEVER go away!!

:) Thanks. Still relevant. Please see your interview with Mark, for my comment to you Riki. x Please return "down under" for my partner. He hasn't stopped talking about your Factory theatre show in Sydney the other day..... my thoughts on what we had; "We can't see what we are in, until we are out of it." me. Yep, you can use it! IF we had of known, we would of held on to the 80's for so many reasons. We didn't know what the heck we looked like? We just did it, there was no analysis! Only decades later, oh was our hair really that high? Did we really love fluro? Oh a band with a Roland, normal. Computer mixing video hits, okay aged and seasoned but fun at 40th Birthday parties with fake jukeboxes.... Great bands; have to change with the times, just ahead of what people have heard, slightly jarring and strange still on the fourth listen, but highly addictive! This is how the greats slide through successfully the decades, cutting edge ripping people's ears off. Metal demands a few listens when it is new, no matter what decade it is from.... Eliza in Sydney, Australia xx

Love seeing Ace with Faster. No pix of LA Guns, bummer. These are great snippets into the past.

Nah, Grudge killed glam rock. Good too. That made alternative music exposed to the masses! Thanks Kurt!

Oh, the old talk about what killed the American glam metal scene. It wasn't Nirvana, for sure. I'd say it wasn't really murder but collective suicide, but if you want to blame a band for that, it was Guns n Roses. Appetite For Destruction just swallowed everything, bones and all. And thank feck for that.

Coming up as a metal kid in the '80s, it was hard to not be annoyed at Rachtman at first because he was the VJ on a supposed metal show, but the guy was clearly a punk and glam devotee. As a result Headbanger's Ball did a ton of bizarre gatekeeping and kept out way too much of the heavier stuff. So it was a very big deal when we finally saw Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse videos on the Ball. Then over time I came to feel bad for Rachtman as he was treated like shit by a lot of bands, particularly Alice In Chains, and it was unfair. I think Rachtman did care about the music and its various subgenres.

I love how he talks like he was a rockstar Wtf Lol...nope...hanger on follower.

Closed Captions spells Ricky Rachtman wrong while he is spelling it. Poor guy.

This guy came off as a producers son who was into metal, I think it's why Dave Mustaine always fucked with him

Occasionally I'll go down the Riki Rachtman rabbithole. That time embodied a spirit that todays music is sorely lacking right now....danger, decadence, sleaze, raunchiness, irreverence, etc. I'm just not seeing it by these pansy pop artists and lame rappers. We're due for another music revolution to shake things up.

this video sponsored by Just For Men

his hair said it all

Riki pings to high heaven, is he Out after all these years?

The original Carson Daly

Faster pussycat,l.a.guns,guns n Roses,Hanoi rocks,smashed gladys ..etc etc, cazzo se ho amato gli anni della mia adolescenza!

the 80's had alot of amazing bands, but when everyone started to sound the same (corp rock) people wanted a change

Metal killed itself period it was soooo popular every slime ball signed every metal band possible flooded the scene Grunge was a flash in the pan only, just a different genre something new it doesn't get credit for killing metal period

30 years later, Beavis and Butthead still ruining Warrant..

God forbid Vegas had ONE club that spun rock and roll music...nah, no one would go to that. I'd rather spend my time at the 20 other clubs in town playing trance music...

The industry dictated what was played on MTV. That's what killed the metal scene. No show, no go.

I thought Riki was good from the very beginning of HBB. He acted a little goofy but was very knowledgeable about the scene and interesting.

It wasn't grunge that killed hair metal anymore then it was the boy bands of the nineties.

Using just for men is so metal

Fuck yes HANOI ROCKS

And yes I so would love to be at the cathouse. Just too young and too broke.

riki the superdouche....

Ever notice how all of these blokes overuse the word “I” ? They all were the geniuses behind this, but Seattle sunk their battleship

I’d like to see footage of Pennywise on Headbangers ball, I think Riki is wrong about this

Put one foot in the gutter one hand on the gold,,,

Ive often wondered how much of the format of Headbangers ball was Rachtman. He always acted like it was his baby. I think at one point it became pure propaganda to promote acts the music business wanted to push. Riki seemed to be the face executives used to promote acts. The ball was pretty far from just showcasing the glam metal that Rachtman had close ties with.

😂 😂WTF he looks like little Eddie Munster now

I wouldn't say rock is dead more like everything is dead yeah I have a bit of a theory about that the first time radio moved on everybody cheered the second time radio moved on the small group that was still listening started saying hey, wait a minute! A lot of them tried to make bands themselves but they didn't understand that new radio doesn't need us like old radio did because it's basically going to be automated and a lot of it's going to be programmed by the AI also 20 years makes a classic BTW so have fun with that in 2040. Not so much happy Rock coming out new anymore either. the big booming voice doing the announcing of the station and frankly a lot of cool station names are going the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird. A good 90% of these DJs sound like they could be anywhere else in the world including working fast food or the night shift on retail and they barely crack the mic anymore even if they're not pre-recorded also don't even get me started about these morning shows bow wow. Also basically from here on out the single artist is king or queen. Last but not least the music industry views the music as a distraction now. PS don't get me started about 98% of the ads. PPS more huge changes are coming I have to do a little more research. It may involve nationally syndicated stations made by multiple radio companies.

I've really enjoyed this channel till you got this clown. Was no one else available for an interview? He knows as much about music as he doesn't about nascar. Zero

He could have done so much more for music but if they didn't already have a certain level of fame he wouldn't even give them a chance or listen to them he's just as bad as the DJ'S and the record executives there were so many great bands that never got the chance to get out of the local club scene I mean twisted sister had to go to Europe to get a deal and they were selling out every club

Hey Riki did you ever consider writing a book

This guy still doesn't know what hes talking about.Anything hair metal from the 80s got eaten up by grunge it didnt matter if you were good GNR was good till use your illusion albums and they died out also.So dont say 80s hair metal wasnt good enough and yes I do remember you conforming to grunge with the plaid shirts and ripped Jean's when head bangers ball went grunge

Come on Riki, I was there, in the offices, there was a concerted effort on behalf of the labels to put a stop to the expense involved in the 80s music scene, Recording glam, guitar metal, metal, whatever was waaaaay to expensive, and they didnt want to pay it anymore. the bands they wanted were simple and easy to record but the main goal was to push a new kind of artist, one that would work for nothing and sign anything. THE RAPPER..... crazxy cheap to record, gullable, pretty much stupid as hell. that was their golden nugget for the future. grunge had NOTHING to do with the end of high production 80s music. it was the goal of the record companies to not only find a less expensive artist pool, but to keep IT ALL. ergo the 360 deal.

GnR was DOA. Rikky do lose my number

👍

Never liked Ricky on the ball. He just glossed over the whole replacing Adam thing.

Sorry, but headbangers ball was better when Adam curry hosted

A lot of that music was cookie cutter and fairly shallow stuff, but at least it was rock, played by people who understood how to read and write music and play instruments.

This is the same guy that told us we got our Poison albums at Wal-Mart when most of the country still didn't have Wal-Mart.

glam rockers were partying grunge bands were working success goes to those who work.

Wasn’t metal! Judas Priest are metal!

Cause this guy was another hairband hipster

Hanoi Rocks fuck yeah

There's a meme in Spanish for the MTV's birthday that says: "Happy 40th Birthday. Thank you for 20 years of music"