VAN HALEN's David Lee Roth

VAN HALEN's David Lee Roth Talks Tour Disappointments, Lack Of New Music- "Edward And I Haven't Written A New Song In 20 Years"





In a new exclusive interview with Steve Baltin from Rolling Stone, legendary VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth talks about the past, present and future of the band and his own career:


Roth on the possibility of new Van Halen material…


"I would certainly look forward to working with Ed on some new
material, but we have yet to do that. Almost all of the music that you
hear on our most recent album was written and demoed before the first
album. And I would certainly look forward to writing a whole list of
songs with Ed, but we haven't found the time to do that [laughs]. You
hear the tone. I'm not sure what's in Ed's mind at this point. I'm gonna
guess that his plans are to write with his son, and I'm not sure where
that actually leads. But truth be told, Edward and I haven't written a
new song in 20 years."





Roth on tour dates past Japan…


"There's nothing on the ticket as far as travel, and that's a
disappointment, frankly. How long have I been back with the gang? Maybe
six years, we'll say and we have yet to travel to Europe, South America,
Japan, anywhere outside of those basic 50 cities in the United States.
And again that's been a disappointment. We have an audience and we have a
potential future in many, many places, but our story is one of a whole
lotta Shakespeare going on. And I don't know where the Van Halen future
lies aside from the States. We'll always be able to play our hits – and
keep in mind we have more hits than Beethoven, we have more hits than
Tony Soprano – so getting onstage and playing that is glorious, and
certainly getting onstage with the brothers will always be an excitement
for me. But in terms of taking the music past where we found it, I'm
not sure where that's going to go.


And in the interim I've written and recorded an entire album of
material with a fellow named John 5. It's called Somewhere Over the
Rainbow Bar & Grill, and it was designed as a jukebox musical after
seeing what the South Park fellows did. Those fellows are ardent Van
Halen fans – they're been to Vegas and L.A. variously on the last tour. I
saw the play (Book Of Mormon) and went home and we started putting
together what I guess is called a jukebox musical, but it's not
particular to Van Halen. Indeed we can create Van Halen material as the
interstitials, but we have 15 songs ready to go, and it's my story.
Indiana kid goes to the big city, sells his soul to the devil. Whatever
Lola wants, Lola gets Dave. It's knockout stuff.


The "Jump" remix is part of an approach I wanted to take of, "What
if we take a specific song and update it both in terms of time period
and neighborhood, and you use that throughout the play?" The way "Jump"
sounds originally is very different than the way it sounds on this
latest version. You can turn it country, you can make it a very sad
song. I was also thinking to take this material to one of our finer
filmmakers and see if the whole package might be used. That being said,
it's not heavy metal, and no, it's not dance music. It's R&B-based, a
lot of B3 [organ] and a lot of girl-friendly . . . It's rock, but think
early Rod Stewart, perhaps, arguably the best years, [or] "Tumbling
Dice" if you're thinking in terms of classic. So who knows where that's
gonna go.





But Ed has his own vision, I'm assuming. We haven't really been able
to speak about it and it's a disappointment, just as not having a
chance for a reunion of the original band. Clearly, vocals are every bit
as much a component of success as a rhythm section or a guitar solo,
and there's an old expression saying, "They don't go home singing the
lighting show, they don't go home singing the production." You're right,
they sing my words and my melodies. And what we have at our fingertips
is arguably one of the greatest high tenor voices ever – that was in
Michael Anthony. In our tiny little corner of the universe, that voice
is as identifiable as the high voice in Earth, Wind & Fire, as
identifiable as the high voice in the Beach Boys. Van Halen is an
indelicate house blend of both – that's intentionally. So I would always
look forward to that reunion, and I would always look forward to
writing a whole variety of material. I've offered the fellows, come on
out here to the land of the gods. And if you don't want to make it that
far we'll make it halfway – Konishiki [his friend and former champion
sumo wrestler] has said he'll lend me his house in Hawaii, Let's go
woodshed. But so far there hasn't been any response, so hope and faith
are not actual tactics and strategies – they're strippers from
Albuquerque."


Read more at Rolling Stone.