(d. June 6, 2002)

SAN DIEGO, June 11, 2002 — Robbin Crosby, a guitarist in the heavy-metal rock band Ratt, died on Thursday of complications related to AIDS, his brother-in-law Bill Decker said. He was 42.

“Robbin had everything kids dream of growing up,” Mr. Decker, of La Jolla, Calif., tol d The San Diego Union-Tribune. “But then he started getting heavily into the drugs, and his marriage started to fall apart. He lost his way.”

Mr. Crosby disclosed that he had AIDS in July during an interview with a Los Angeles radio station. It was unclear where he died. Mr. Decker said Mr. Crosby spent time in several rehabilitation homes, including Pathfinders in San Diego.

“The heroin got in the way, and the cocaine, and all the other stuff,” Mr. Decker said. “At some point he just gave up. There wasn’t a will anymore to go on.”

Mr. Crosby said last year that he may have contracted the virus that causes AIDS when he started using heroin as a member of Ratt, which had hits like “Round and Round” and “Lay It Down.”

Warren DeMartini, also a guitarist in Ratt, said that the first time he saw Mr. Crosby he was playing at a party at La Jolla High School. “He had the focus, and he already looked like he’d been doing it for 20 years,” Mr. DeMartini told The Union-Tribune. “Even then he had the idea of going all the way, and he did, beyond probably what he thought was possible.”

Mr. Crosby was born in San Diego. He teamed with Mr. DeMartini and Stephen Pearcy, both fellow San Diego musicians, in Ratt, along with Juan Croucier and Bobby Blotzer. The group’s 1984 debut album, “Out of the Cellar,” reached No. 7 on the national charts. Its first four albums each sold more than a million copies. Ratt disbanded in 1992.

Mr. Crosby is survived by his parents and two sisters.