David Lee Roth Turned Down Spot on Motley Crue’s Stadium Tour

For 'The Stadium Tour,' featuring Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Motley Crue had previously extended an invite to Van Halen icon David Lee Roth to join the run, but the singer declined.

News of Roth's potential inclusion came via Los Angeles Times, who, in a fall preview of all the exciting things happening in music, singled out the pending release of Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx's memoir, The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx. They also made note of next's year's highly-anticipated reunion run and that Roth had been asked to join, but rejected the opportunity and told Sixx, "I don't open for bands that I influenced."

The Los Angeles Times did not clarify when Motley Crue had reached out to Roth and whether that was the original intent before 'The Stadium Tour' had been announced in 2020 or if that ask came later on as the dates were being rescheduled for 2021 and again for 2022 following another pandemic-related postponement. Very little is known about what went on behind the scenes as the tour package was being assembled.

Roth last joined KISS on the road as a special guest in 2020 on their ongoing farewell tour. It's doubtful that will happen again however, as Gene Simmons, who later apologized, hurdled some less than praiseworthy comments in Roth's direction through the press.

“It bears noting that during Dave’s heyday, nobody did what he did. He was the ultimate frontman. Not [Robert] Plant, not Rod Stewart, nobody. He took being a frontman way beyond anything," Simmons told Rolling Stone before he continued, "And then, I don’t know what happened to him … something. And you get modern-day Dave. I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, you know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor."

Roth, in turn, shot back by uploading 18 of the same image of a child raising the middle finger with text on the image that read, "Roth to Simmons," on Instagram.

Simmons then issued an apology and said that he did not mean to hurt Roth's feelings.

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