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(New) David Lee Roth Interview - Classic Rock Magazine- UK
( Interview takes place January 2004 in Los Angeles, California: The Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, just a hop, skip and jump from where Van Halen's story began at legendary Hollywood clubs such as The Whiskey-A-Go-Go...)
-But like all acts, Van Halen were subject to what ' Diamond ' Dave calls "the friction of time". And the ego clashes that underpinned the band's existence eventually led to the group's implosion. After which guitarist Eddie Van Halen, his drumming brother Alex and bassist Michael Anthony soon brought in Sammy Hagar, formerly of Montrose, to succeed Roth. For many, that was a travesty of frontman pizazz, and Hagar's initial attempts to ape Roth failed miserably.
January 2004. It's early evening and your correspondent is in The Mondrian's candle-lit and very chi-chi Sky Bar; at low tables outside, artfully strewn cushions evoke a posh harem. I've just noticed Human Traffic actor John Simm sitting opposite, when I hear a familiar sound. It's David Lee Roth's laugh: an infectious, booming thing that comes up from the belly to celebrate life.
Every head turns as he and his bodyguard breeze in. Though it's hard to determine just how trim or otherwise Roth might be under the denim dungarees he's wearing, he looks fitter and younger than in the recent photos. For starters he's tanned. Beter yet, the lank, Jimmy Saville-like hairdo he recently sported has given way to a much shorter, infinitely more flattering one. " I'll have a jack please, honey," he says to a ravishing waitress who has appeared as if by magic. All omens, it seems, are good.
Roth requested drink arrives, and glasses are clinked in mutual greeting. With preliminaries out of the way, I begin by asking him how his gig at The House Of Blues on New Year's Eve went.
"James,"he says. "I am New Year's Eve. What we sell here is big, fat, Technicolor smiles that go with just about any major holiday and some of the intermittent. People ask: 'Dave, what's the chemistry with the audience? Why so many girls? Well, I'm certainly old enough to think it's because I'm so handsome...but I'm also old enough to know better.
"What it is", he continues, "is this: after two or three of those songs-especially if it's classic Van Halen or 'California Girls'-you feel like squeezin' someone. Probably not me, but definitely somebody. And that's what makes what I do permanent. We will be here ten summers on, because that feeling, that impulse, is forever!"
This is the tone that 'Diamond' Dave Lee Roth begins with, and how our conversation will continue for well over three hours, most of what he says being punctuated by that belly laugh. Frankly, the main is a conversational rocket, 'lift-off' seemingly his constant mind-set. For Roth, you sense, a sentence without a gag, aphorism, or some linguistic fireworks is a sentence.
What about children, though? Wouldn't you like some of your own?
"I don't know that I want a traditional family. My whole family is like this. My uncle David didn't have his sons until he was 56 years old. Uncle Manny was kinda the same. I don't know if it's the classic American dysfuntional family, or what. I've been in love maybe four times. I love romance in classic, cinematic style. I suppose I live in a fantasy world, but at least they know me there."
I'm a bit of a crackpot. Most of what I do is because of girls. If girls didn't exist I wouldn't have this job, I wouldn't even bother with breakfast.
There's also the issue of closure, here. When I was 30 years old I left Van Halen. There's never been closure on that, and that's a huge issue for me. It's not like leaving Warrant [laughs]. To this day, the classic Van Halen band could be a stadium act. And rather like all those folks who spent time at law or med school, it wasn't something we got right away. It had to be whittled away and worked at. It's a perishable skill, for Chrissakes. And I refuse to accept that, because of the whim of one of our four musketeers, we're all gonna tear up the diploma.
We all went to college of musical knowledge together. It's why the pretty girl smiles at me. It's why my voice is in that jukebox somewhere.
For all the tensions in Van Halen, presumably there were times when the excitement of what you were achieving together enabled you to forget your differences?
We were always disagreeing, we were always at each other's throats about what was the appropriate thing to do, but it was the belligerent, confrontational chemistry that created the music you grew up to. When the guys became relaxed and comfortable with Sam Hagar it was lost. But it doesn't need to be lost forever. I actually consider that chemistry a positive force, one that could bode well for the future. We could pick up the gauntlet tomorrow. I'm completely up for that; always have been.
But during the period when Van Halen were at their peak, surely there were times when you at least felt like blood brothers?
Not really. Not much. I lived in my own little world, which was informed by a thousand books and ten-thousand magazines, and the Van Halens occupied another world entirely. To this day I don't think Eddie Van Halen has enjoyed more than ten minutes of his success. He's chased, he's not chasing. He's chased by something. But I never lamented it, because it's precisely that contrast that makes the best art. And when all are comfortable, then you're stuck with songs like 'Why Can't This Be Sam?'.
Don't you mean 'Why Can't This Be Dave?'
No, because Dave would never pose a question like: 'Why Can't This Be Love?'. Dave would assume his love bases were covered.
But didn't '5150' [the first VH record to feature Hagar] out-sell previous Van Halen albums? it was certainly very successful.
I think our sales out-sold Sammy's three to one. We had several twelve-million sellers, and everything else went double- or triple-platinum. None of it was as popular at any given time as Finding Nemo is today. And Jane Fonda's work-out tape outsold everybody-including you, Mr Plant. So what are we digging for here, professor? I think we're digging for content [laughs]. Sam comes from a whole other background, so consequently, both lyrically and musically, it's going to be a whole different tone and tenor. Still, even if the quality isn't there I listen for the ambition. And I think that changed when I left. When I was boss we were adults acting like kids., but when Sam got in the band it became kids trying to act like adults.
Sammy Hagar also seemed to try and co-opt your sense of humour here and there. Which incidentally, didn't work.
It's like writing the book: you have to live it first. And that doesn't mean you have to go to Algiers and become a heroin addict- although there's a book or two in that, too, of course. Sam is ... a singer. I'm David Lee Roth, the singer. As a wrangler of words, sire, you see the vast yawning difference before us. Are you a writter or the writter? I rest my case.
Does it sadden you that what many would cite as the key creative partnership of your career - ie that with Edward Van Halen - is in such a sad state of repair?
The strata that we achieved is to be relished. If you can write one great song that will be remembered, far less 20, that's amazing. It's a pride of mine. I consider it miraculous.
Despite everything-the lawsuits, the insults the two of you have periodically exchanged-you were presumably still worried when Edward had cancer?
Well, do it like a professional sportsperson, for Chrissake. Self-medicate, and I'll see you tomorrow. I frankly don't care about your health or the family or any of it. Play ball. You're lucky enough to be able to bend it like Beckham. Get out there! Get behind the mule and go! Eddie himself did not take those illnesses so seriously. He partied all the way through them. So my sympathies are limited. at best. But beyond that, what better time to make music than at a time of severe strife? Use it!
In 2000 Van Halen's record company reissued the six Van Halen albums you sang on. Conspicuously, there were no bonus tracks or out-takes added. Are there any unreleased tracks in the vaults?
You haven't heard or seen anything but one half of an ill-conveived greatest hits. In the 18 years or so since I left, there should have been box-sets, videos...all kinds of stuff. Just the radio interviews alone are up there with "Absolutely Fabulous"! Believe me there is a tremendous wealth of unreleased Van Halen material. But the Van Halens have lost their way. Eddie is...how should I put this...I think the Van Halens forgot why they originally wanted to do this. At this point, to have that missing stuff released is almost a responsibility. But the fellas got caught up with a couple of managers in the last few years who have other agendas. One of them was attempting to foist Sam [Hagar] upon us. So their agenda is not at all what Van Halen's audience - or myself - has. It all reminds me of that scene at the end of the movie Chicago: one girl turns to the other and says: " So let's continue". The other says: " But I hate you". The first replies: " So what? This is showbiz!"
Mick Jagger and keith Richards don't seem close nowadays but they can still get it together for business. Why can't you and Edward?
There's an emotional rift [he says with absolute candour] that I think is mainly caused by drugs and alchohol. It's been there for many years. Ed's adrift right now. He's not really accomplishing anything. And for one who professes so much love for 'the music'... well, how do you go five years without doing any? So, alright. we've all got 30 great songs stored away in our private attic studio in Malibu. Axl, if we're all gonna change the face of poplular music permanently and forever. But if the public doesn't get to hear it what does it mean? It's sad because, like I said, we hit the strata. Le me illustrate thus: if Beethoven came back tomorrow, it would go something like this..."Ludwig, dude, it's great to see you!" " James! Likewise!" "I hear you've been working in your attic and it's your best symphony ever." "Jim, my best symphony ever would be under-playing it. What I just wrote is mind-roasting." "Gee, Ludwig, that's great. But tell me, do you still play: duh, duh, duh, derrr?" [ Hums opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.] You see?! That's the kind of strata one hopes to attain. And Van Halen did. We created something that people desperately wanted to hear, and still do. In my mind that's something you are duty-bound to answer to. But there's been no closure in Van Halen for years and years. I think it's Ed's struggle with who's the boss. If you want to be leader you have to be accountable and all those other Boy Scout words. I don't think Ed is ready to deal with that. The whole time I was in Van Halen I was the boss. I was domineering and demanding. They hate me for it now!
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
Yes. I know there's a place for me in what is happening right now, but I'm still working out what it is. Okay, if the Van Halens wake up and Eddie Van Winkle sees the daylight and we do a reunion, great. Mission accomplished. If it's not that, Las Vegas has been offering me millions of dollars to reprise 'California Girls' and 'Just a Gigolo' for the stage. I wrote and directed those videos. Those are Burlesque. Those are Vaudeville. I learned it from watching shows back in the 60s, and from going to the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris in the 70s. If not that, then maybe it'll be spoken word. I love radio. The idea of being a DJ, whether playing tunes on the wheels of steel in the midnight hour or free thinking on talk radio, appeals to me. I use all of that as a compelling factor in my life to keep on learning, to continue reading more than I write.
- I'm surprised that Roth has been so candid about wanting to reunite with the Van Halen brothers. And even more surprised that he cites lack of 'closure' regarding Van Halen as a factor in his ongoing bachelorhood. Clearly, Van Halen meant-and means-everything to Roth. Songs such as 'Ain't Talkin' Bout Love' and 'Jump' are what he brought back from Treasure Mountain. Which is why he's fully entitled to air them on his upcoming UK shows.
" I'm at the top of my game." he says. "I don't know I'll ever be better. What I can do on stage now, no amount of production can transcend. And it is these very elements that bands like The Darkness are feeding upon. The fact that I'm still here, 25 summers later, makin seven figures American, is testament to just how much this whole tribal ritual still has value."
- And as my interview with David Lee Roth winds down, it strikes me just how sparky it might be if he and Edward could reconcile their differences, or at least ignore them long enough to make another album. I'm just about to switch my recorder off when my host intervenes, his raised arm signalling the imminent delivery of one last quote.
( IN CLASSIC DAVID LEE ROTH FASHION!!! )
" To keep up with me, " he says, "you must be fast. To sing like me, you must be great. To beat me? You must be kidding!"
-With that, Roth's big, booming laugh explodes yet again, and I begin to wonder what the rest of the evening has in store. Didn't someone around here mention something about a titty bar?
-But like all acts, Van Halen were subject to what ' Diamond ' Dave calls "the friction of time". And the ego clashes that underpinned the band's existence eventually led to the group's implosion. After which guitarist Eddie Van Halen, his drumming brother Alex and bassist Michael Anthony soon brought in Sammy Hagar, formerly of Montrose, to succeed Roth. For many, that was a travesty of frontman pizazz, and Hagar's initial attempts to ape Roth failed miserably.
January 2004. It's early evening and your correspondent is in The Mondrian's candle-lit and very chi-chi Sky Bar; at low tables outside, artfully strewn cushions evoke a posh harem. I've just noticed Human Traffic actor John Simm sitting opposite, when I hear a familiar sound. It's David Lee Roth's laugh: an infectious, booming thing that comes up from the belly to celebrate life.
Every head turns as he and his bodyguard breeze in. Though it's hard to determine just how trim or otherwise Roth might be under the denim dungarees he's wearing, he looks fitter and younger than in the recent photos. For starters he's tanned. Beter yet, the lank, Jimmy Saville-like hairdo he recently sported has given way to a much shorter, infinitely more flattering one. " I'll have a jack please, honey," he says to a ravishing waitress who has appeared as if by magic. All omens, it seems, are good.
Roth requested drink arrives, and glasses are clinked in mutual greeting. With preliminaries out of the way, I begin by asking him how his gig at The House Of Blues on New Year's Eve went.
"James,"he says. "I am New Year's Eve. What we sell here is big, fat, Technicolor smiles that go with just about any major holiday and some of the intermittent. People ask: 'Dave, what's the chemistry with the audience? Why so many girls? Well, I'm certainly old enough to think it's because I'm so handsome...but I'm also old enough to know better.
"What it is", he continues, "is this: after two or three of those songs-especially if it's classic Van Halen or 'California Girls'-you feel like squeezin' someone. Probably not me, but definitely somebody. And that's what makes what I do permanent. We will be here ten summers on, because that feeling, that impulse, is forever!"
This is the tone that 'Diamond' Dave Lee Roth begins with, and how our conversation will continue for well over three hours, most of what he says being punctuated by that belly laugh. Frankly, the main is a conversational rocket, 'lift-off' seemingly his constant mind-set. For Roth, you sense, a sentence without a gag, aphorism, or some linguistic fireworks is a sentence.
What about children, though? Wouldn't you like some of your own?
"I don't know that I want a traditional family. My whole family is like this. My uncle David didn't have his sons until he was 56 years old. Uncle Manny was kinda the same. I don't know if it's the classic American dysfuntional family, or what. I've been in love maybe four times. I love romance in classic, cinematic style. I suppose I live in a fantasy world, but at least they know me there."
I'm a bit of a crackpot. Most of what I do is because of girls. If girls didn't exist I wouldn't have this job, I wouldn't even bother with breakfast.
There's also the issue of closure, here. When I was 30 years old I left Van Halen. There's never been closure on that, and that's a huge issue for me. It's not like leaving Warrant [laughs]. To this day, the classic Van Halen band could be a stadium act. And rather like all those folks who spent time at law or med school, it wasn't something we got right away. It had to be whittled away and worked at. It's a perishable skill, for Chrissakes. And I refuse to accept that, because of the whim of one of our four musketeers, we're all gonna tear up the diploma.
We all went to college of musical knowledge together. It's why the pretty girl smiles at me. It's why my voice is in that jukebox somewhere.
For all the tensions in Van Halen, presumably there were times when the excitement of what you were achieving together enabled you to forget your differences?
We were always disagreeing, we were always at each other's throats about what was the appropriate thing to do, but it was the belligerent, confrontational chemistry that created the music you grew up to. When the guys became relaxed and comfortable with Sam Hagar it was lost. But it doesn't need to be lost forever. I actually consider that chemistry a positive force, one that could bode well for the future. We could pick up the gauntlet tomorrow. I'm completely up for that; always have been.
But during the period when Van Halen were at their peak, surely there were times when you at least felt like blood brothers?
Not really. Not much. I lived in my own little world, which was informed by a thousand books and ten-thousand magazines, and the Van Halens occupied another world entirely. To this day I don't think Eddie Van Halen has enjoyed more than ten minutes of his success. He's chased, he's not chasing. He's chased by something. But I never lamented it, because it's precisely that contrast that makes the best art. And when all are comfortable, then you're stuck with songs like 'Why Can't This Be Sam?'.
Don't you mean 'Why Can't This Be Dave?'
No, because Dave would never pose a question like: 'Why Can't This Be Love?'. Dave would assume his love bases were covered.
But didn't '5150' [the first VH record to feature Hagar] out-sell previous Van Halen albums? it was certainly very successful.
I think our sales out-sold Sammy's three to one. We had several twelve-million sellers, and everything else went double- or triple-platinum. None of it was as popular at any given time as Finding Nemo is today. And Jane Fonda's work-out tape outsold everybody-including you, Mr Plant. So what are we digging for here, professor? I think we're digging for content [laughs]. Sam comes from a whole other background, so consequently, both lyrically and musically, it's going to be a whole different tone and tenor. Still, even if the quality isn't there I listen for the ambition. And I think that changed when I left. When I was boss we were adults acting like kids., but when Sam got in the band it became kids trying to act like adults.
Sammy Hagar also seemed to try and co-opt your sense of humour here and there. Which incidentally, didn't work.
It's like writing the book: you have to live it first. And that doesn't mean you have to go to Algiers and become a heroin addict- although there's a book or two in that, too, of course. Sam is ... a singer. I'm David Lee Roth, the singer. As a wrangler of words, sire, you see the vast yawning difference before us. Are you a writter or the writter? I rest my case.
Does it sadden you that what many would cite as the key creative partnership of your career - ie that with Edward Van Halen - is in such a sad state of repair?
The strata that we achieved is to be relished. If you can write one great song that will be remembered, far less 20, that's amazing. It's a pride of mine. I consider it miraculous.
Despite everything-the lawsuits, the insults the two of you have periodically exchanged-you were presumably still worried when Edward had cancer?
Well, do it like a professional sportsperson, for Chrissake. Self-medicate, and I'll see you tomorrow. I frankly don't care about your health or the family or any of it. Play ball. You're lucky enough to be able to bend it like Beckham. Get out there! Get behind the mule and go! Eddie himself did not take those illnesses so seriously. He partied all the way through them. So my sympathies are limited. at best. But beyond that, what better time to make music than at a time of severe strife? Use it!
In 2000 Van Halen's record company reissued the six Van Halen albums you sang on. Conspicuously, there were no bonus tracks or out-takes added. Are there any unreleased tracks in the vaults?
You haven't heard or seen anything but one half of an ill-conveived greatest hits. In the 18 years or so since I left, there should have been box-sets, videos...all kinds of stuff. Just the radio interviews alone are up there with "Absolutely Fabulous"! Believe me there is a tremendous wealth of unreleased Van Halen material. But the Van Halens have lost their way. Eddie is...how should I put this...I think the Van Halens forgot why they originally wanted to do this. At this point, to have that missing stuff released is almost a responsibility. But the fellas got caught up with a couple of managers in the last few years who have other agendas. One of them was attempting to foist Sam [Hagar] upon us. So their agenda is not at all what Van Halen's audience - or myself - has. It all reminds me of that scene at the end of the movie Chicago: one girl turns to the other and says: " So let's continue". The other says: " But I hate you". The first replies: " So what? This is showbiz!"
Mick Jagger and keith Richards don't seem close nowadays but they can still get it together for business. Why can't you and Edward?
There's an emotional rift [he says with absolute candour] that I think is mainly caused by drugs and alchohol. It's been there for many years. Ed's adrift right now. He's not really accomplishing anything. And for one who professes so much love for 'the music'... well, how do you go five years without doing any? So, alright. we've all got 30 great songs stored away in our private attic studio in Malibu. Axl, if we're all gonna change the face of poplular music permanently and forever. But if the public doesn't get to hear it what does it mean? It's sad because, like I said, we hit the strata. Le me illustrate thus: if Beethoven came back tomorrow, it would go something like this..."Ludwig, dude, it's great to see you!" " James! Likewise!" "I hear you've been working in your attic and it's your best symphony ever." "Jim, my best symphony ever would be under-playing it. What I just wrote is mind-roasting." "Gee, Ludwig, that's great. But tell me, do you still play: duh, duh, duh, derrr?" [ Hums opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.] You see?! That's the kind of strata one hopes to attain. And Van Halen did. We created something that people desperately wanted to hear, and still do. In my mind that's something you are duty-bound to answer to. But there's been no closure in Van Halen for years and years. I think it's Ed's struggle with who's the boss. If you want to be leader you have to be accountable and all those other Boy Scout words. I don't think Ed is ready to deal with that. The whole time I was in Van Halen I was the boss. I was domineering and demanding. They hate me for it now!
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
Yes. I know there's a place for me in what is happening right now, but I'm still working out what it is. Okay, if the Van Halens wake up and Eddie Van Winkle sees the daylight and we do a reunion, great. Mission accomplished. If it's not that, Las Vegas has been offering me millions of dollars to reprise 'California Girls' and 'Just a Gigolo' for the stage. I wrote and directed those videos. Those are Burlesque. Those are Vaudeville. I learned it from watching shows back in the 60s, and from going to the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris in the 70s. If not that, then maybe it'll be spoken word. I love radio. The idea of being a DJ, whether playing tunes on the wheels of steel in the midnight hour or free thinking on talk radio, appeals to me. I use all of that as a compelling factor in my life to keep on learning, to continue reading more than I write.
- I'm surprised that Roth has been so candid about wanting to reunite with the Van Halen brothers. And even more surprised that he cites lack of 'closure' regarding Van Halen as a factor in his ongoing bachelorhood. Clearly, Van Halen meant-and means-everything to Roth. Songs such as 'Ain't Talkin' Bout Love' and 'Jump' are what he brought back from Treasure Mountain. Which is why he's fully entitled to air them on his upcoming UK shows.
" I'm at the top of my game." he says. "I don't know I'll ever be better. What I can do on stage now, no amount of production can transcend. And it is these very elements that bands like The Darkness are feeding upon. The fact that I'm still here, 25 summers later, makin seven figures American, is testament to just how much this whole tribal ritual still has value."
- And as my interview with David Lee Roth winds down, it strikes me just how sparky it might be if he and Edward could reconcile their differences, or at least ignore them long enough to make another album. I'm just about to switch my recorder off when my host intervenes, his raised arm signalling the imminent delivery of one last quote.
( IN CLASSIC DAVID LEE ROTH FASHION!!! )
" To keep up with me, " he says, "you must be fast. To sing like me, you must be great. To beat me? You must be kidding!"
-With that, Roth's big, booming laugh explodes yet again, and I begin to wonder what the rest of the evening has in store. Didn't someone around here mention something about a titty bar?
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