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David Lee Roth (sometimes referred to as "Diamond Dave") (born 10 October 1953, Bloomington, Indiana) is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality, best known for his work with the band Van Halen. After leaving Van Halen, Roth started his own career as a solo artist. His early albums were well received, but starting in the early 1990s, subsequent releases fared successively worse and popular musical tastes changed and Roth's band underwent numerous personel changes.
David Lee Roth has re-united with Van Halen as of August 2007 and the group will be touring North America.
David Lee Roth is the son of the late Nathan Roth, a prominent ophthalmologist, and Sibyl Roth. He is the brother of Allison and Lisa Roth. Roth's paternal grandparents immigrated to Indiana from Lithuania. Roth's uncle, Manny Roth, is an influential New York City nightclub owner and entertainment entrepreneur. Manny Roth built and owned the famous New York establishment Cafe Wha? In the early 1960s, when the likes of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix were working there, seven-year-old David Lee got his first taste of, and desire for, show business from the inside by hanging out at "the Wha?"
Roth moved to Pasadena, California, in his teens after living in Swampscott, Massachusetts, and Bloomington.
Roth was educated at The Webb Schools in Claremont, California and John Muir High School in Pasadena. He later attended Pasadena City College (as did the Van Halens), although he did not graduate.
Roth rose to prominence in the 1970s Los Angeles rock scene as the lead singer of Van Halen. In 1974 Roth rented his PA system to the brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen, after failing a previous audition, and later joined their hard rock band as lead vocalist. Roth soon persuaded the Van Halen brothers to change the band's name from Mammoth to Van Halen. In the late 1970s, Van Halen released their debut album. It quickly established the group as a commercial success, and it is credited with establishing Los Angeles as pop music's unofficial capital during the 1980s and early-1990s.
Soon after Van Halen's debut, Roth became well-known for his flamboyant showmanship and outrageous off-stage behavior. He became a media celebrity; his ribald witticisms were frequently quoted. Establishment criticism came—the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide Vol 2. said that Roth was "the most obnoxious singer in human history, an achievement notable in the face of long tradition and heavy competition"—but it had little effect. Although often noted more for physical than for technical, vocal prowess, Roth's bluesy baritone voice and distinctive screams (whistle register), along with his often humorous and campy lyrics, were integral to Van Halen's sound. Roth was able to take his voice into a multi-pitched wheeze/rasp, almost like a train whistle (see Throat singing), that few can imitate successfully.
1979 to 1984 saw Van Halen release five more albums: Van Halen II, Women and Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down, and 1984, each to increasing popular success and critical acclaim. In 1983, Van Halen was paid $1,000,000 to play one set at the US Festival in California, and thus became one of the two highest paid bands in modern history, along with the festival's other headlining act, David Bowie. Van Halen achieved their greatest commercial success, including their first Billboard #1 single, for the song "Jump", in 1984. Soon after, tensions boiled over between Roth and his bandmates. In early 1985, while still a member of Van Halen, Roth released a solo EP of off-beat standards, which became wildly popular. Singles for "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody", and "California Girls" succeeded largely due to their innovative music videos, which featured ridiculous characters created by Roth.
In April 1985, Roth left Van Halen. Reportedly, tensions between Roth and guitarist Eddie Van Halen broke over Van Halen's desire to incorporate keyboards, synthesizers, and power ballads into the group's sound. In his 1998 autobiography, Crazy From the Heat, Roth characterized Van Halen's music just before his 1985 departure as "morose." Reportedly, Roth wished to record an album quickly, tour, and then shoot a movie (the ill-fated Crazy From the Heat), but found his bandmates apathetic, lethargic, and drunk. Reportedly, Roth also disliked Eddie Van Halen's behavior regarding an appearance on Michael Jackson's 1983 hit "Beat It"—Van Halen did not tell Roth that he had recorded the song, for fear that Roth would prevent him from releasing it. In Crazy From The Heat, Roth writes that he approved of Van Halen's participation on "Beat It"; he believed that the Quincy Jones-produced track provided an excellent vehicle for Van Halen to showcase his talents. Differing reports persist to this day regarding the causes of Roth's departure from Van Halen. Regardless, since 1985, Roth and his former bandmates have engaged in an acrimonious, if often colorful, feud that has made headlines for twenty years and has become the subject of much popular debate and speculation.
In late 1985, Roth assembled a band that many considered a supergroup, composed of guitarist Steve Vai, bass player Billy Sheehan and drummer Gregg Bissonette. He later enlisted Van Halen producer Ted Templeman to produce the band's debut album. Eat 'Em and Smile saw Roth return to hard rock music, and met with huge commercial success. In interviews around this time, Roth claimed that he had recorded additional Spanish and Portuguese language versions of the album, but to date only one of these, the Spanish language (all songs sung in Spanish) version titled "Sonrisa Salvaje", appeared. The Eat 'em and Smile Tour was one of the most successful concert tours of 1986.
Van Halen's first album with Sammy Hagar, Roth's replacement as lead vocalist, entitled 5150, met with greater commercial success than Eat 'Em and Smile, although it had lost a lot of the heavier rock edge from the previous Roth-era albums. Van Halen titled their 1988 album OU812 (i.e. Oh, you ate one too?) to ridicule Eat 'Em And Smile.
In early 1988, Roth released Skyscraper, a more experimental offering than the first solo album. It featured Roth's most famous original solo song, "Just Like Paradise", which was a world-wide hit. Skyscraper was co-produced by Roth and Steve Vai, and displayed the growing influence of the guitarist, featuring on many songs the dense layers of compressed guitars that gave it a unique sound that was to differentiate the album from the more Van Halen-sounding "Eat 'Em and Smile". The album was certified platinum, reaching #6 on the Billboard album chart. Nonetheless, it met with a more tepid commercial response than anything Roth had released previously. Soon after Skyscraper's release, Billy Sheehan left Roth's band, who then embarked on a world tour with new bassist Matt Bissonette during most of 1988. The tour was a major production featuring, at various points, Roth surfing above the audience on a surfboard suspended on wires and in a boxing ring, (both parts of the stage show seen in the "Just Like Paradise" video). The show also featured all members of the band in a calypso segment and all playing Caribbean steel drums and in an unplugged segment where the band performed acoustic covers of some rock'n'roll classics such as 'Wake-Up Little Susie' by The Everly Brothers. The tour was a huge success and met with ecstatic reviews in many places. A Sounds magazine review of a show on the tour at St. Louis, Missouri (published 5th May, 1988) declared it "the greatest rock show on earth" and Kerrang magazine summed up the tour as "a don't blink or you'll miss it spectacular" that had the reporter Mick Wall "scrabbling to put new batteries into his pacemaker." Despite the critical and commercial triumphs of the Skyscraper Tour, Steve Vai left the band to join Whitesnake. In 1991, Roth released A Little Ain't Enough, a more mainstream hard rock album, produced by Bob Rock; it achieved RIAA gold status. Twenty-year old guitar prodigy Jason Becker played on the album, but he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease shortly before the accompanying arena tour. He was replaced by Joe Holmes. The stage for the A Little Ain't Enough Tour featured statues that spat whiskey at Roth's audience, and a pair of giant inflatable legs, positioned 'spread-eagle', wearing ripped, fishnet stockings. Musical tastes changed dramatically by the end of 1991, with the arrival of grunge music, hence Roth's tour did not sell out many venues, as in the past.
In 1993, Roth was arrested in New York City's Washington Square Park for buying what he once described as "$10 worth of Jamaican, bunk reefer maan" from an undercover police officer. The arrest made headlines, and became a late-night television punch-line. When asked by Howard Stern whether the bust was a publicity stunt, Roth said, "Howard, in New York City this small of a bust is a $35 traffic citation. It literally says 'Buick, Chevy, Other'. Your dog poops on the sidewalk, it's $50. If I was looking for publicity, I would have pooped on the sidewalk."
In 1994, Roth released Your Filthy Little Mouth, an eclectic, lyrically intricate album produced by Nile Rodgers. It combined elements of rock, country, reggae, hip hop, lounge, and others; for example, it included the song "Cheating Heart Cafe", a duet with the popular country singer Travis Tritt. It did not sell well, failing to achieve gold status. Roth then began to perform at smaller venues in the United States.
Nevertheless, many partisan fans remained, and the Roth/Van Halen split entered iconic pop culture. For example, in the film Airheads released that year, people who sided with Roth in the Van Halen split were denoted as cool, whereas a character siding with Van Halen was fingered as an undercover police officer. Similarly, in 2001, the title character of the film Joe Dirt declared he was a Van Halen fan, not a "Van Hagar" fan. In Bowling For Soup's song "She's Still Preoccupied With) 1985", the narrator sings about the frustrated soccer mom, "Where's the mini-skirt/ Made of snakeskin? Who's the other guy/ Singing with Van Halen?..." And in the 1998 Adam Sandler film The Wedding Singer, set in 1985, Sandler's character tells his cheating girlfriend "Please get out of my Van Halen t-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up". Nerf Herder had a minor hit in 1996 with the song "Van Halen". The lyrics heralded David Lee Roth ("I bought Van Halen I / It was the best damn record I ever owned") and bemoaned Sammy Hagar ("Is this what you wanted, Sammy Hagar? ... I'll never buy your lousy records again").
In 1995, Roth devised and performed an adult lounge act, largely in Las Vegas casinos, with a brass band that featured Nile Rodgers, Edgar Winter, and members of the Miami Sound Machine. It also featured several exotic dancers, who in Roth's words were "so sweet, I bet they shit sugar!"
Living in New York City since the late 1990s, David Lee Roth trained as an Emergency Medical Technician, and, as recently as last year, has "worked the streets" as an EMT. Supposedly, he occasionally told stories from his EMS days on his radio show.
In June 1996, Roth reunited with Van Halen for a brief time and to great public fanfare. He recorded two new songs for Van Halen's Best of Vol. 1 album, "Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "Me Wise Magic." After an infamous appearance on September 5, 1996, at the MTV Video Music Awards during which Roth and Eddie Van Halen reportedly threatened each other, Roth was passed over for Van Halen's new lead vocalist job in favor of Gary Cherone. (Cherone's previous band, Extreme, had opened for Roth in 1991).
In 1997, Roth wrote a well-received memoir, entitled Crazy From the Heat. The 359-page book was whittled down from over 1,200 pages of monologues, which were transcribed by a Harvard University graduate student who followed Roth around for almost a year. Among the book's revelations, aside from stories about backyard parties, Van Halen, and catching malaria in Third world jungles, was the infamous "Brown M&Ms" clause written into Van Halen's early contract riders. The clause was included in contracts not because of ego, but rather to make sure that structural stage specifications in the contract were read thoroughly and were adequately provided. Roth writes of a time when he found brown M&M's in a bowl and subsequently had a fit. In the press, he was accused of causing US$85,000 worth of damage to the arena. Most of the monetary damages were due to Van Halen's staging sinking through the floor. Roth writes, "they didn't bother to look at the weight requirements or anything, and this sank through their new flooring and did eighty-thousand dollars worth of damage to the arena floor. The whole thing had to be replaced. It came out in the press that I discovered brown M&M's and did $85,000 worth of damage to the backstage area. Well, who am I to get in the way of a good rumor?"
In 2001, rumors swirled that Roth and the members of Van Halen had recorded several new songs together and were in the process of attempting yet another reunion. Roth later confirmed this, but nothing became of the music. A box set was also rumored, but never materialized. Instead, Warner Bros. re-released remastered versions of all six early Van Halen studio albums.
In 2002, Roth's Heavyweights of Rock and Roll Tour with Sammy Hagar revived his career somewhat. Despite this, Roth's future with Van Halen seemed uncertain.
Yankee Rose appeared in the 2002 videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on Rock station V-Rock.
In 2003, Roth released Diamond Dave, an album of (mostly) classic rock cover songs ("If 6 Was 9", "Soul Kitchen," and a solo/big band version of "Ice Cream Man").
In 2004, he appeared on The Sopranos as a poker-playing guest of Tony Soprano, to which Roth was quoted on his website as saying, "Mom says I'm going to look like Lee Marvin in 10 years whether I'm in movies or not, so I might as well get after it!"
On July 4 2004, Roth performed with the Boston Pops at Boston's annual Pops Goes the Fourth celebration. Roth introduced the crowd to his Daughter Actress "Brenna Roth" during the show.
Roth's website has stated that he is also working on the book The Tao of Dave: Rock 'n' Roll Philosophy with David Lee Roth, a follow-up to his autobiography.
On May 25, 2006 in an interview with Billboard magazine, Roth predicted a classic Van Halen reunion. "There's contact between the two camps..." says Roth, and "To me, it's not rocket surgery. It's very simple to put together. And as far as hurt feelings and water under the dam, like what's-her-name says to what's-her-name at the end of the movie 'Chicago' -- 'So what? It's showbiz!' So I definitely see it happening." In the same interview, Roth also admitted that he hadn't seen Eddie Van Halen "in a couple of years."
During the summer and fall of 2006 Roth toured the United States. He performed classic Van Halen hits as well as selected songs from his solo career. Roth also promoted a new CD, "Strummin' with the Devil," a Van Halen bluegrass tribute album, which features his vocals on two songs, "Jump" and "Jamie's Cryin'". Roth performed a bluegrass rendition of "Jump" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
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