1985 Video - Roth explains why he quit Van Halen

[Romeo Delight]

I saw this only recently. I have seen the jist of it paraphrased of course but never seen him say he quit before

[Nickdfresh]

He forgot to mention "TOO MUCH COCAINE!!!!!"

[vaijuju]

the complete video on french TV

[ZahZoo]

I didn't find anything enlightening in this... Dave didn't want the party to end. He was the guy who refuses to go home when everyone else is passed out and had enough. So he says fuck it and finds another party with fresh victims to feed off of.

[cadaverdog]

I didn't find anything enlightening in this... Dave didn't want the party to end. He was the guy who refuses to go home when everyone else is passed out and had enough. So he says fuck it and finds another party with fresh victims to feed off of.

Had to think about it a bit to get it but I got it. I also think Ed might have been pissed off at Dave already for some reason when they had the conversation about the future plans of the band and was just being childish instead of just telling Dave he was pissed off and why he was pissed off. Then again I'll bet Ed's version of the story is quite different. The truth lies somewhere in between.
BTW: Never thought about it but I wonder if the Michael Jackson portion of the Just A Gigolo video was a poke at Ed.

[cadaverdog]

One of the things that endears most of the members here most about DLR is one of the things I like least about him. Diamond Dave isn't a real person. He's a character played by David Lee Roth. When he explained why he didn't want to do stadium shows it showed how serious he takes it when he says he is the party and such.

[Romeo Delight]

[QUOTE=ZahZoo;1919591]I didn't find anything enlightening in this... Dave didn't want the party to end. He was the guy who refuses to go home when everyone else is passed out and had enough. So he says fuck it and finds another party with fresh victims to feed off of.[/QUOT

There is nothing relevatory, but I can't say that I had ever seen for myself Dave really explain in not so many words that he quit and what we can infer from his comments is that his ego and the pending movie really drove that. He really thought his success with music video was but a small step towards becoming a movie mogul/star. The story about the brothers being lazy and such is a convenient truth

[Terry]

I've heard Roth make the exact same comments about why he didn't want to do a stadium tour with Van Halen in 1986 - "you can't hear my jokes in between songs, you can't see my shoes" - in several other interviews during 1985 and 1986. Not uncommon for Roth to use the same 'Rothisms' during certain years in a string of interviews. I tend to agree that a lot of times Roth kinda goes into his 'Diamond Dave' routine during interviews, and you get the sense that you're getting rehearsed lines as much as you're getting anything authentic from the guy. All of which is entertaining, but I've always felt Roth was as much performing when he was being interviewed as he was being authentic.

As to the 1985 Van Halen split, trying to figure out who was more to blame for the split is sort of secondary to the fact that Roth and Eddie were just plain tired of working with each other, and the aggravation finally outweighed whatever sense of accomplishment had kept them together for the previous ten odd years.

The ultimate reason they finally got back together in 2006 was that everyone came to their senses and realized joining up was really the only way forward in terms of maintaining the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed: Roth didn't have any other options BUT to rejoin Van Halen in terms of making the money he has made over the last ten years, and Eddie didn't have any other options in terms of lead singers if he wanted to play to large crowds with a sizeable financial guarantee.

Sometimes one can try to figure out how many different explanations can fit on the head of a pin re: the breakup and reunion, but the reasons are pretty simple when stripped down to the essence of why in both cases.