Rock guitarist Robbin Crosby, a founding member of the 1980s heavy-metal "hair" band Ratt, has died after an eight-year battle with AIDS, according to the group's official Web site. He was 42.







Crosby, who went public with his illness in a radio interview last July, saying he had contracted the disease through heroin use, died on Thursday.




The band's Web site ( http://www.therattpack.com) carried a photograph of the guitarist performing in concert beneath the words, "In Memory of Robbin Crosby." The site's "forum" section posted dozens of messages of condolences from grieving fans.




Crosby co-founded Ratt in 1983 with vocalist Stephen Pearcy, and after adding guitarist Warren DeMartini, bassist Juan Croucier and drummer Bobby Blotzer, the Los Angeles-based group became one of the most popular rock acts of the mid-1980s.




The band released its self-titled debut independently in 1983, leading to a major-label recording contract with Atlantic Records, which issued the band's breakthrough LP, "Out of the Cellar," in 1984. The album featured the huge radio and MTV hit "Round and Round," which like many of Ratt's songs was co-written by Crosby.




Three more platinum-selling albums followed, starting with "Invasion of Your Privacy" in 1985, but the band's popularity waned after the 1990 release of "Detonator" as the alternative rock movement took hold, and the band broke up in 1992.




In keeping with the band's raucous, free-wheeling image, Crosby's indulgence in drugs took its toll as the musician's lavish lifestyle dissolved into a maelstrom of addiction.




"Robbin had everything kids dream of growing up," his brother-in-law, Bill Decker, told the San Diego Tribune. "He was married for a while to a Playboy Playmate, he had a Ferrari, a Laurel Canyon house with a pool that overlooked L.A., a personal assistant. ... But then he started getting heavily into drugs, and his marriage started to fall apart. He lost his way."




In July 2001, Crosby disclosed in an interview with the Los Angeles radio station KNAC that he had full-blown AIDS, a disease he said he believed he contracted when he began using heroin in the mid-'80s as a member of Ratt.




"Basically, it's killing me," he said at the time. "I've been in the hospital for eight straight months, and in and out for over seven years."




Ratt reunited without Crosby in 1997 to release another two albums. Last year, Blotzer and DeMartini launched a tour with several new members, and are due to play this summer's Rock Fest tour with other 1980s glam-metal acts.