San Diego has been fortunate to have many well-known musical artists live within its borders. While a few have climbed higher in the charts, none has captured the public’s imagination in quite the same way as hard-rocking Ratt. Known for its hits “Round & Round” and “Way Cool, Jr.,” the band’s hard living earned it the distinction of being the only local performers to ever rate their own episode of salacious TV tell-all, “Behind the Music.” Ratt has inspired numerous groups over the years, including local cover band Way Cool, Jr. But until RodenTT, which performs at Dream Street on Friday, Dec. 19, there has never been a band that focused exclusively on Ratt’s music. The idea to form a tribute band came about when guitarist Rick Boyd and drummer Eric Cashion attended a Ratt concert at Coors Amphitheatre in 2007. Boyd’s love of the hair-metal quartet started much earlier, however. “I was 14,” Boyd said. “It was on New Year’s eve 1985 on their ‘Invasion of Your Privacy’ tour with Bon Jovi.” Boyd notes that although San Diego had a wealth of world-class musicians at the time, Ratt stood out. “Ratt was around before the explosion of Hollywood and the glam, hair and MTV,” Boyd said. “They had their own sound. They had their own thing. They were real to the music. And no one else had the same hairstyle as their frontman, Stephen Pearcy,” Boyd said. RodenTT is rounded out by singer Chris Kempka, bassist Tom Lyons and guitarist Doug Petrie. While the band strives to get every detail in the music right, the look is more of an approximation. “I believe that the sound should always come first,” Boyd said. “However, being a tribute band, the overall look is important as that helps people get into the groove.” He points out that Ratt’s appearance differed from album to album. “They had so many different looks, from their early ‘big hair’ to the leather look and now to the jeans jacket look,” he said. “At the moment we are kind of going towards the mid-’80s look they had on their ‘Reach for the Sky’ album.” Boyd said Ratt’s hard-rock lifestyle, which has included drug and alcohol problems as well as well-publicized feuds among band members, has cemented their legendary band status for some. However, he also feels this side of the group sometimes overshadows the music. “For us fans who watched them and read about them, we have a bigger picture to base our judgment on,” he said. “But the younger crowd is looking at this band as the new ‘celebrity rehab/Dr. Phil show.’ And that prevents a lot of people or kids from really opening up to another form of music.” RodenTT is flexible enough to vary the set list depending on the crowd at hand, occasionally trading a hits-oriented set for deeper catalog tunes. “We like to play all of the songs; it is just how much time do we have on stage,” Boyd said. “It all depends on our singer. He puts a lot of effort into sounding like Pearcy on the records. If it is mainly guys, we are not going to play power ballads like ‘Closure to my Heart’ or ‘One Step Away,’” he said. While the band is only playing tunes in concert originally performed by Ratt, anyone showing up early might catch a bit of ’80s New Wave. “We sometimes jam a rocked-out version of ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ from Duran Duran for a sound check,” he said. While many tribute acts take themselves too seriously, for the guys in RodenTT, it’s all about having fun and playing some of their favorite songs. “We all know that we are not Ratt,” Boyd said. “We just like to play their music. Every song we play brings me back to my youth.” Looking back on the local scene he experienced as a teenager, Boyd is reflective. “For the younger crowd, I hope we pique their interest on what the ’80s was about,” he said. “Being in RodenTT brings music back to the day when ‘rock music’ was about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. And for that hour we play, I hope RodenTT brings people back to the time in their lives when the San Diego and Los Angeles scene was full of crazy times.” RodenTT performs on Friday, Dec. 19 at Dream Street, 2228 Bacon St. at 9 p.m. The show is for those 21 and older. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/sdrodentt.