Songfacts®:

• This song was an anthem for Ratt, representing the band at their most debaucherous. By this time, they had emerged from rock and roll squalor on the Sunset Strip and become a major player on the scene, with the hits "Round And Round" and "Wanted Man." "Dangerous But Worth The Risk" was part of their second album, Invasion Of Your Privacy, and although it wasn't released as a single, it became a fan favorite and a reliable live rocker for the group.
• Ratt lead singer Stephen Pearcy wrote the song with their guitarist Warren DeMartini and bass player Juan Croucier. "I wrote the music in Los Angeles after the yearlong Out Of The Cellar tour," DeMartini explained in Ratt's 2007 greatest hits collection. "It was the first time I sat down to write something as a songwriter."
• The dangerous, risky life eventually caught up to Ratt, which fell apart in the '90s after their decade of decadence. Guitarist Robbin Crosby got the worst of it, developing a drug habit that probably led to his HIV diagnosis. He died in 2002 at 42.