Ratt Frontman Stephen Pearcy in Hospital for Emergency Surgery

The older an artist gets, the more hazardous to their health rocking out onstage tends to be. Stephen Pearcy, the vocalist for hair metal pioneers Ratt has suffered a hernia and will undergo emergency surgery this week. As a result, the band has canceled its European tour, which included shows at Sweden Rock, Sauna Open Air Festival, U.K. Download, Hellfest, Grasspop and Gods of Metal. The band is hopes to reschedule as many of these shows as possible.

Pearcy's doctors expect the singer to make a full recovery in time for Ratt's upcoming North American tour, which is scheduled to launch July 10 in Nashville. Dates are scheduled through Sept. 4 in El Paso, Texas. Scorpions will share the bill from July 10 until July 23 in San Antonio.

Ratt plan to incorporate five songs from their 2010 album 'Infestation' on the tour. "I see [the audience] singing along with the songs in the concerts," guitarist Carlos Cavazo (ex-Quiet Riot) told Noisecreep. "We wanted to write songs that will stand the test of time like our older material."

Guitarist Warren DeMartini said that the shows the band has played so far have attracted fans ranging from their teens to their 50s. "You got people who started out with us and then you got the kids of the kids who started out with us," he said. "It reminds me of how I fell in love with rock' n' roll. My older brother used to take me to shows."

Check out our ''Creep Show' podcast with DeMartini and Cavazo.