RATT singer Stephen Pearcy has set "View To A Thrill" as the tite of his fifth solo album, due later in the year via Frontiers Music Srl. The follow-up to 2017's "Smash" was produced by Matt Thorne and Pearcy and is being mixed and mastered by Thorne and Stephen's longtime guitarist and collaborator, Erik Ferentinos.

Speaking about the songwriting process for his solo material, Pearcy told Music Existence: "RATT's music is its own entity and animal, and it has its own schematics. With my solo stuff, I tend to do whatever I like — an acoustic song, a really heavy song — and go places and talk about things that I want to. It's my freedom of speech. That's one thing I like about it, and I'm always writing, so what else can I do, you know? Just try to get it out and get it heard! I don't care if it sells ten million or nil million; it's just what I do. You do the best that you can."

Pearcy also talked in more detail about the musical inspiration for "Smash", saying: "It's just my guitar player Erik, who I co-wrote most of the stuff with. We'd just come up with songs and take them through a journey. That's pretty much how it happens. I don't think about anything. If it sounds like something that's an influence, and if it's a good one, that's even better! I don't really think about emulating anybody; it's more of an influential thing that just came out. That's a compliment to both of us, how I respect them. And I'm sure they'd say, 'Woah, that sounds pretty good!' But that's about it — the light and the dark of the things, you know?"

Stephen added that he wanted "Smash" to be a "diverse" record. "The subject matter's very different than what was expected, and what would be expected," he explained. "And there's some personal stuff in there — a song I wrote for my daughter, 'Rain'. I'm able to do whatever I want with my solo stuff, so this is what you get."

Back in March, it was reported by the Metal Sludge web site that guitarist Warren DeMartini was fired by Pearcy and bassist Juan Croucier, with undisclosed sources telling the site that "serious issues" existed between the three members of RATT's classic lineup. Fellow RATT guitarist Carlos Cavazo apparently confirmed the report a few days later, telling the site that he couldn't see himself continuing with the band without DeMartini. "I can't picture anyone else being there other than Warren," Cavazo was quoted as saying.

RATT — featuring DeMartini, Pearcy and Croucier — played a number of shows last year after reforming in 2016 in the midst of a highly publiced legal battle with drummer Bobby Blotzer over the rights to the RATT name.