David Lee Roth appearence at 2021 MTV VMA.

[ZahZoo]

Primary factors keeping Dave from releasing new music... no collaborators willing to put up with him, no contracts to meet obligations, no management driving him towards opportunities, no inspiration or motivation to go drum up the previous three excuses...

Assume Dave doesn't have to work... to maintain his financial life style... so the rest comes down to wanting to work... The results speak for themselves. No victim cards in the deck...

[Terry]

Primary factors keeping Dave from releasing new music... no collaborators willing to put up with him, no contracts to meet obligations, no management driving him towards opportunities, no inspiration or motivation to go drum up the previous three excuses...

Assume Dave doesn't have to work... to maintain his financial life style... so the rest comes down to wanting to work... The results speak for themselves. No victim cards in the deck...

I'd probably have to add that there's no real demand in terms of enough interest...not enough for Dave to be able to monetize it...so why release new music if virtually nobody wants to hear it and there isn't any money to be made?

[Von Halen]

so why release new music if virtually nobody wants to hear it and there isn't any money to be made?

Because he's a rock star, and that's what he's supposed to do?

Myself. I'm sick of the schtick. I'm sick of the persona. I'm sick of the fake Dave in front of the camera. I don't give a fuck about anything to do with Dave anymore, other than music.

I'd love to know the real reason he's not on the Kiss tour anymore.

When virtually everybody ever associated with this guy is held down by NDA's, you know there's always more to the story.

[wolfsbane]

Because he's a rock star, and that's what he's supposed to do?

Myself. I'm sick of the schtick. I'm sick of the persona. I'm sick of the fake Dave in front of the camera. I don't give a fuck about anything to do with Dave anymore, other than music.

I'd love to know the real reason he's not on the Kiss tour anymore.

When virtually everybody ever associated with this guy is held down by NDA's, you know there's always more to the story.

Exactly what I am saying.


I still want that album.

[FORD]

I did not hear anything derogatory in his voice about EVH. Also, he referred to him in the present tense.


Change of subject. Very little new music has come out of this guy. Why can Iron Maiden put out a new album every 2 years, but I am waiting for an album made 11 years ago that is not released? Dave's schtick, for me, is only palatable as PR for his product, which is music. It has been too long since he has made some.

When a couple tracks were leaked out, and then that bizarre animated video had a few more songs (or at least fragments of songs) in it, I kinda thought that meant a release of the album was soon to follow. Not sure why it didn't happen... could be that Dave can't get a record deal, but if that's the case he could always put the thing out digitally. Put up the FLACs for fucks sake (not gonna pay for MP3s)

[Terry]

Because he's a rock star, and that's what he's supposed to do?

Myself. I'm sick of the schtick. I'm sick of the persona. I'm sick of the fake Dave in front of the camera. I don't give a fuck about anything to do with Dave anymore, other than music.

I'd love to know the real reason he's not on the Kiss tour anymore.

When virtually everybody ever associated with this guy is held down by NDA's, you know there's always more to the story.

I agree with everything you're saying. The only stuff Roth has done post-2015 that has held my interest has come in the form of the few newer/more recent solo studio tunes that have been posted on this site.

I'd dig hearing a full-length album of that kind of stuff. I'd be willing to bet a whole lot of us on this site would dig that, too.

Unfortunately, as Ford pointed out, nothing has resulted from those limited, infrequent leaks in terms of a bunch of new tunes I can purchase. I agree with Ford in that I don't understand why Roth isn't offering the stuff up digitally. For $.99 a pop or whatever. He doesn't need a record deal for that.

Who the fuck knows? Myself, I couldn't make it through more than a few minutes of both of his most recent Rogan interviews...his interview personality schtick has become beyond bearable for me, as has his attempts to sing CVH tunes live.

[ZahZoo]

There's plenty of demand for Dave to put out new music and also tour... is it Van Halen level demand without Van Halens involved or Dave demand at his peak solo..? Hell no. None of that shit will ever happen again.

Let's not forget where Dave was at pre-2007... Bluegrass VH and touring small festivals, county fairs and casinos with a talented cover band. Those options are still out there and plenty of promoters would happily add any version of Dave to their billing. All that's needed is a bus and a band...

Dave could release the John 5 material and any other solo efforts he was motivated to share. He could self fund and produce digital content only... or there's a bunch of small independent labels that would happily sign a reasonable distribution deal with an artist with that level of name draw. It won't be any big assed record label deal with a shit load of upfront rich people's money... but product and distribution with reasonable rates for any small business venture.

If Dave sets the bar of producing anything musically at some level equal to what he could get with Van Halen or his peak solo years... then he's done and will never produce a damn thing musically. If he's an artist dedicated to his creative trade... there's plenty of opportunity that only requires him to get off his ass and do something...

[nick500]

There's plenty of demand for Dave to put out new music and also tour... is it Van Halen level demand without Van Halens involved or Dave demand at his peak solo..? Hell no. None of that shit will ever happen again.

Let's not forget where Dave was at pre-2007... Bluegrass VH and touring small festivals, county fairs and casinos with a talented cover band. Those options are still out there and plenty of promoters would happily add any version of Dave to their billing. All that's needed is a bus and a band...

Dave could release the John 5 material and any other solo efforts he was motivated to share. He could self fund and produce digital content only... or there's a bunch of small independent labels that would happily sign a reasonable distribution deal with an artist with that level of name draw. It won't be any big assed record label deal with a shit load of upfront rich people's money... but product and distribution with reasonable rates for any small business venture.

If Dave sets the bar of producing anything musically at some level equal to what he could get with Van Halen or his peak solo years... then he's done and will never produce a damn thing musically. If he's an artist dedicated to his creative trade... there's plenty of opportunity that only requires him to get off his ass and do something...

If I was Dave I would book some time with Ken Tamplin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV5tT5Oz1ns
and get his voice back together, if possible.
If he can get it back together then maybe take a look at doing something musically.
But at this point he has nothing to prove and does not have to put anything out.
It's his life.

The Dave of 2008 and the ADKOT interviews disc seems to be far more normal than the guy of today.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I see an option for Dave to carry on singing, the solution some of us had indicated a few years ago: playing blues music. Acoustic, electric. Blues.
It's obvious his voice sounds shot whenever he tries to reach high (and not necessarily very high) notes, it seems he's still comfortable singing low.
And he can sing the blues. And his lyrics are brilliant.
I would follow him in that alley.

[ZahZoo]

I agree Dave's voice today would be a great fit within Blues and/or Jazz genres of music. Plus his creative tongue-n-cheek lyrical content along with non-traditional melodies would fit nicely.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Good ol' Unc' Dave telling stories in blues, rock tunes. Stuff in the same mood as in "Sensible Shoes", "Mississipi Power", "You got the blues, not me", "Don't piss me off"...
Let's face it, most of the Van Halen classics and his solo albums are out of reach for the state of his vocal cords. And his age doesn't help. That would be way more adequate IMO.

[Terry]

There's plenty of demand for Dave to put out new music and also tour... is it Van Halen level demand without Van Halens involved or Dave demand at his peak solo..? Hell no. None of that shit will ever happen again.

Let's not forget where Dave was at pre-2007... Bluegrass VH and touring small festivals, county fairs and casinos with a talented cover band. Those options are still out there and plenty of promoters would happily add any version of Dave to their billing. All that's needed is a bus and a band...

Dave could release the John 5 material and any other solo efforts he was motivated to share. He could self fund and produce digital content only... or there's a bunch of small independent labels that would happily sign a reasonable distribution deal with an artist with that level of name draw. It won't be any big assed record label deal with a shit load of upfront rich people's money... but product and distribution with reasonable rates for any small business venture.

If Dave sets the bar of producing anything musically at some level equal to what he could get with Van Halen or his peak solo years... then he's done and will never produce a damn thing musically. If he's an artist dedicated to his creative trade... there's plenty of opportunity that only requires him to get off his ass and do something...

I'd agree that these days Dave is back to where he was pre-2007 in terms of his career and drawing power as a live solo act, which as you say would be on the bill at a county fair or rock festival, or topping the marquee at, say, a Hard Rock Casino-type venue in terms of capacity.

And that's not necessarily a bad place to be at these days. He can still work if/when he wants to. I dunno about "plenty" of demand, but I'd imagine there's still enough demand to fill a one to two thousand seat venue on the strength of his name alone as a solo artist at the very least.

I do agree with you and Jerome in that I also would like to hear Dave essay more of his solo material live, and would like to hear whatever unreleased solo stuff he has recorded along the lines of the John 5 track...THAT to me is what remains of interest...NOT seeing/hearing Dave trying to recreate the CVH era in performance, but hearing what Dave has been up to musically in the studio for the last 10 years (and probably even longer).

It just seems that Dave thinks the way to go is by reprising the Classic Van Halen Experience whenever he performs. Honestly, that may well be what Dave thinks audiences WANT from him live, and [Roth] is just giving the audiences what he thinks they want.

[ZahZoo]

I have felt that Dave's choice in material to tour on from 2003 - 2007 was predominately Van Halen material mainly to position himself as the best option to rejoin the Van Halen brothers... plus it's got the most recognizable tunes to draw fans.

Dave has 6 solo albums worth of material to draw from, plus the Bar-B-Q and John 5 material. He could easily fill a 2 hour set with only a handful of Van Halen songs.

He won't be filling stadiums or headlining a major tour on his own... I believe that ship has sailed/sunk. But hey... something for the fans and it gets the old toastmaster general out of the house for a few short stints.

[So this is love]

Dave unplugged with 15 DLR solo songs new and old and 3-4 VH such as ICM and such other acoustics.