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05/22/2002 12:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Frank Meyer
"Coming to our show from someone else's show will be like going from milkshakes to speedballs." -- Diamond David Lee Roth, on his co-headlining tour with Sammy Hagar
When former Van Halen frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, once considered bitter rivals to the very end, announced they were launching a co-headlining tour this summer, fans and critics were left aghast, their jaws planted firmly on the floor in disbelief. How could this be? Had hell frozen over? Sure, a Van Halen reunion with Dave seemed vaguely possible...but an unholy union with Cabo Sammy? It didn't just seem like a long shot--it seemed a cosmic impossibility.
As if this wasn't flabbergasting enough, the dynamic duo--arguably the one of the most unlikely teams in rock history--confirmed they'd be appearing together to announce the tour dates and take questions from the befuddled press. The strangest part of this press conference wasn't so much the surreal sight of these two seemingly opposing forces actually sitting comfortably next to each other--it was how they got along so well and were such a dynamic, hilarious, professional, rock 'n' roll tour de force. They made one helluva team. Yup, summer '02 is shaping up to be a well-needed monster beach party, the likes of which we haven't seen in years.
Now it's after the press conference, and I'm chatting with Dave himself in his hotel room--which is filled with midgets and models, as per my hopes and expectations--about the upcoming "Sam & Dave" tour, as well as his new DVD. See, the Diamond One hasn't exactly been sitting on the sidelines since the ill-fated Van Halen re-reunion of '96: He cranked out one monster album with his DLR Band, then launched a series of tours that found him embracing his roots and playing an all-Halen set, much to the delight of his fans. And over the last year, Dave has been hard at work on what started off as a long-form EPK and has grown into a full-fledged, full-length, over-the-top Diamond Dave movie that combines his Dave TV-era comedy hijinks with his recent obsessions with guns, techno, pirates, and mambo.
"I started off with the idea to make a bio to send to the press," Dave enthuses while sipping on a Heineken and dragging on a cigarette. "Instead of a page that says, 'Dave's been fishing, is planning on going into the studio, and likes Django Reinhardt this year,' let's take the camera to the beach, play some Django, and go after what I'm best at! I'm a song-and-dance man, that's what it says under job description. Video is a more logical choice for me, if I'm gonna pay for it outta pocket. I spent easily $600,000 outta pocket. I spent the mortgage, literally. It grew beyond a simple 'here's a kinda the day in the life,' because my day is full of fantasy and literary references."
David Lee Roth's No Holds BBQ is a feast for the eyes, the ears, and the brain, featuring Dave running around with midgets and supervixens in a variety of environments (from cavernous underground tunnels to underwater chambers to lush tropical forests) set to a variety of musical scores. He's wielding swords, he's armed to the teeth, and he's cavorting with luscious, buxom babes...it's just what you'd expect from him.
Throughout the DVD (to be released via his website, davidleeroth.com, and eventually to retail), Dave and his band run through some choice Van Halen cuts, some classic rock, some techno reinterpretations, and some tasty salsa grooves. "When I do a diverse menu like that and it comes with a film, nobody blinks. We buy something from Fast & Furious and when it swings to Mystikal doing hip-hop to Metallica's latest--and wait a minute, isn't that Morissette?--nobody blinks. It's a soundtrack, OK?" Dave explains. "It just switches channels. Remember how we all laughed in glee when Beavis & Butt-head shut off all the video halfway through, just like we do at home? Well, I still do that. My only standard is as long as we can perform certain kinds of music with credibility--when I sing country-western, there is no credibility at all. When I sing dance floor, there's a lot of credibility, 'cause I grew up in the Studio 54 era.
"I also included an album's worth of new material, new songs on the DVD, too" he continues. "We also have hundreds and hundreds of outtake photos and film and wallpaper, if you want. You get wallpaper with my record! And it's the same price as any other disc. You get about three and a half hours worth of fun for the whole family--depending on your family!"
In fact, it was the DVD that caused Dave to hit the road last summer for a triumphant series of shows in front of arena crowds, including a set at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival. Dave received rave reviews and once again catered to the fans by sticking to his older material, but behind the scenes, the money was being channeled back into the BBQ.
"I saw those gigs as a way of finishing the film project," Dave explains. "I said, 'Hey, we gotta go back to work, this project is too good.' It took us about a year, 'cause I kept running out of money. It's all first-class filming, not basement variety. Everybody I used were people I worked with back in Van Halen. The art director did [the] 'Hot For Teacher' [video], the wardrobe lady did 'California Girls,' and so on. These people have grown up in the industry as well. They're first-class, and it costs like first-class. I had to keep going back out on the road and make the next payment. As it turns out, the response was superb."
So superb, in fact, that Dave was approached by some industry heavyweights to chat with Hagar about the possibility of the two ex-Halen singers touring together; tired of waiting around for a Van Halen reunion, Dave was actually open to the idea. After one meeting, the once-mudslinging frontmen were trading war stories, sipping cocktails, and discovering that they had more in common than they'd realized. "There's very definitely a rivalry here, a healthy competitive value here. We're gonna go right after each other, but like most great rugby teams, it'll be well flooded with beer by midnight! I had a vision of going out on the road this summer. I wanted to do something unpredictable, something that's gonna shake the tree, that will cause you to question. Simple, mute acceptance? Ummmm, maybe at a Dylan concert!"
And as America careens into its first post-9/11 summer, the timing is darn-right perfect for a good old-fashioned, knock-down-drag-out rock party in the streets. And maybe, just maybe, seeing two seemingly opposed rock 'n' roll superpowers combine forces will inspire unity among some other superpowers--hey, if Sam and Dave can make peace, why can't our world leaders? Maybe this is the most positive message we as Americans can send out to the rest of the world in these troubled times. Sound sugar-coated? Well, it is.
"This show is symbolic of a mindset that at least the free world is carrying out, as opposed to just the word 'fun," Dave declares. "[The word] 'fun' to me spanks of a Dr. Pepper ad, and neither of us are Peppers. 'He's a Pepper, you're a Pepper...' We're not Peppers. Let's think of it as exuberantly positive, mind-blowing, brain-roasting, erotic, to the top or drop, summit or plummet, hallelujah, hell-yeah-ism. Fat-free and loaded with sugar!" Tasty.
05/22/2002 12:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Frank Meyer
"Coming to our show from someone else's show will be like going from milkshakes to speedballs." -- Diamond David Lee Roth, on his co-headlining tour with Sammy Hagar
When former Van Halen frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, once considered bitter rivals to the very end, announced they were launching a co-headlining tour this summer, fans and critics were left aghast, their jaws planted firmly on the floor in disbelief. How could this be? Had hell frozen over? Sure, a Van Halen reunion with Dave seemed vaguely possible...but an unholy union with Cabo Sammy? It didn't just seem like a long shot--it seemed a cosmic impossibility.
As if this wasn't flabbergasting enough, the dynamic duo--arguably the one of the most unlikely teams in rock history--confirmed they'd be appearing together to announce the tour dates and take questions from the befuddled press. The strangest part of this press conference wasn't so much the surreal sight of these two seemingly opposing forces actually sitting comfortably next to each other--it was how they got along so well and were such a dynamic, hilarious, professional, rock 'n' roll tour de force. They made one helluva team. Yup, summer '02 is shaping up to be a well-needed monster beach party, the likes of which we haven't seen in years.
Now it's after the press conference, and I'm chatting with Dave himself in his hotel room--which is filled with midgets and models, as per my hopes and expectations--about the upcoming "Sam & Dave" tour, as well as his new DVD. See, the Diamond One hasn't exactly been sitting on the sidelines since the ill-fated Van Halen re-reunion of '96: He cranked out one monster album with his DLR Band, then launched a series of tours that found him embracing his roots and playing an all-Halen set, much to the delight of his fans. And over the last year, Dave has been hard at work on what started off as a long-form EPK and has grown into a full-fledged, full-length, over-the-top Diamond Dave movie that combines his Dave TV-era comedy hijinks with his recent obsessions with guns, techno, pirates, and mambo.
"I started off with the idea to make a bio to send to the press," Dave enthuses while sipping on a Heineken and dragging on a cigarette. "Instead of a page that says, 'Dave's been fishing, is planning on going into the studio, and likes Django Reinhardt this year,' let's take the camera to the beach, play some Django, and go after what I'm best at! I'm a song-and-dance man, that's what it says under job description. Video is a more logical choice for me, if I'm gonna pay for it outta pocket. I spent easily $600,000 outta pocket. I spent the mortgage, literally. It grew beyond a simple 'here's a kinda the day in the life,' because my day is full of fantasy and literary references."
David Lee Roth's No Holds BBQ is a feast for the eyes, the ears, and the brain, featuring Dave running around with midgets and supervixens in a variety of environments (from cavernous underground tunnels to underwater chambers to lush tropical forests) set to a variety of musical scores. He's wielding swords, he's armed to the teeth, and he's cavorting with luscious, buxom babes...it's just what you'd expect from him.
Throughout the DVD (to be released via his website, davidleeroth.com, and eventually to retail), Dave and his band run through some choice Van Halen cuts, some classic rock, some techno reinterpretations, and some tasty salsa grooves. "When I do a diverse menu like that and it comes with a film, nobody blinks. We buy something from Fast & Furious and when it swings to Mystikal doing hip-hop to Metallica's latest--and wait a minute, isn't that Morissette?--nobody blinks. It's a soundtrack, OK?" Dave explains. "It just switches channels. Remember how we all laughed in glee when Beavis & Butt-head shut off all the video halfway through, just like we do at home? Well, I still do that. My only standard is as long as we can perform certain kinds of music with credibility--when I sing country-western, there is no credibility at all. When I sing dance floor, there's a lot of credibility, 'cause I grew up in the Studio 54 era.
"I also included an album's worth of new material, new songs on the DVD, too" he continues. "We also have hundreds and hundreds of outtake photos and film and wallpaper, if you want. You get wallpaper with my record! And it's the same price as any other disc. You get about three and a half hours worth of fun for the whole family--depending on your family!"
In fact, it was the DVD that caused Dave to hit the road last summer for a triumphant series of shows in front of arena crowds, including a set at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival. Dave received rave reviews and once again catered to the fans by sticking to his older material, but behind the scenes, the money was being channeled back into the BBQ.
"I saw those gigs as a way of finishing the film project," Dave explains. "I said, 'Hey, we gotta go back to work, this project is too good.' It took us about a year, 'cause I kept running out of money. It's all first-class filming, not basement variety. Everybody I used were people I worked with back in Van Halen. The art director did [the] 'Hot For Teacher' [video], the wardrobe lady did 'California Girls,' and so on. These people have grown up in the industry as well. They're first-class, and it costs like first-class. I had to keep going back out on the road and make the next payment. As it turns out, the response was superb."
So superb, in fact, that Dave was approached by some industry heavyweights to chat with Hagar about the possibility of the two ex-Halen singers touring together; tired of waiting around for a Van Halen reunion, Dave was actually open to the idea. After one meeting, the once-mudslinging frontmen were trading war stories, sipping cocktails, and discovering that they had more in common than they'd realized. "There's very definitely a rivalry here, a healthy competitive value here. We're gonna go right after each other, but like most great rugby teams, it'll be well flooded with beer by midnight! I had a vision of going out on the road this summer. I wanted to do something unpredictable, something that's gonna shake the tree, that will cause you to question. Simple, mute acceptance? Ummmm, maybe at a Dylan concert!"
And as America careens into its first post-9/11 summer, the timing is darn-right perfect for a good old-fashioned, knock-down-drag-out rock party in the streets. And maybe, just maybe, seeing two seemingly opposed rock 'n' roll superpowers combine forces will inspire unity among some other superpowers--hey, if Sam and Dave can make peace, why can't our world leaders? Maybe this is the most positive message we as Americans can send out to the rest of the world in these troubled times. Sound sugar-coated? Well, it is.
"This show is symbolic of a mindset that at least the free world is carrying out, as opposed to just the word 'fun," Dave declares. "[The word] 'fun' to me spanks of a Dr. Pepper ad, and neither of us are Peppers. 'He's a Pepper, you're a Pepper...' We're not Peppers. Let's think of it as exuberantly positive, mind-blowing, brain-roasting, erotic, to the top or drop, summit or plummet, hallelujah, hell-yeah-ism. Fat-free and loaded with sugar!" Tasty.
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