One of the most animated figures in rock brings his drive and bravado to Rupp
This might not come as a surprise, but a Sunday morning call from David Lee Roth possesses the same jolting immediacy as an alarm clock. From the moment you pick up the phone, life accelerates.
“It’s David Lee. Time to rise and shine, wake up and smell the prosperity. Self promotion, it’s the American way, so let’s get it on.”
With that, you realize the drive and bravado that has made Roth, both in and out of Van Halen, one of the most animated figures in contemporary rock ‘n’ roll has not been a put-on. Sure, it helped redefine arena rock culture with Van Halen through guitar riff-and-ready hits like “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “Jamie’s Crying” and “Panama,” along with such pop-centric radio staples as “Jump” and “Dance the Night Away.” But the music largely serves as an introduction to a performance attitude that hasn’t settled or compromised through the last four decades.
“David Lee Roth is not a rock band,” he stated. “David Lee Roth is an attitude. David Lee Roth is an answer. ‘What would Dave do?’ And that’s not always so funny. I’ve seen young people join the Marines based on that. I know a couple Marines who didn’t come back. I know what their parents think. I know people who got married based on that. And I know a few who got divorced based on that. There are a lot of considerations bittersweet. There’s a little sea salt in the caramel and I take it all seriously. It has always been way more transcendent than simply music.”
At age 65 – or he views it, “56 when I look in the mirror” – Roth plays Rupp Arena this week for the first time since 1988. He won’t be in the company of Van Halen. He won’t even be the headliner. The singer will instead be the loud and proud evening opener for Kiss, a band whose history and popularity has largely paralleled the career of Van Halen. He has some advice for his tourmates, too, who are proclaiming, again, that this is their final tour.
“Kiss has transcended the bias of music the way Cirque de Soleil or Blue Man Group has. I, myself, would recommend to them if that, in fact, this is the final tour, perhaps go Blue Man Group. Why couldn’t there be six variations of Kiss traveling on the continent because it includes so much more than the music. It begins with the music, but it extends into theatre and, I’ll say with respect, circus.
“For myself, I’m calling this ‘The Last Tour Unless It Isn’t.’ Once I throw in the shoes, though, I’m thinking of going Lassie. There will be five of me touring and, allegedly, one of them will be a girl. You’re going to have to come and see the shows. Several times.”
The Kiss tour coincides with a two-part concert residency that has Roth performing at the House of Blues in Las Vegas (the first set of shows commenced in January, the rest will follow in March). For those familiar with the singer’s ageless performance savvy, Vegas would seem a natural, if not completely inevitable, locale to set up shop. But his shows there have been largely business as usual, mixing a variety of solo career material with a bounty of Van Halen hits. As for the future of the California-rooted band that made him a celebrity, Roth is uncharacteristically wistful.
“What I do can be derailed by a whole lot of things. My closest, dearest colleague Edward (Van Halen, the band’s guitarist and co-founder, who is reportedly dealing with cancer related issues) has run up against the wall on turn three. He’s not doing well. I’ve heard only what you’ve heard. I have not seen him in some time.”
“I remember the days when we would set up the gear wearing overalls we bought at the War Surplus out at Silver Lake. Then we’d say, ‘Okay, let’s go have a cigarette and we would – four of us with one Marlboro. And we would take off our overalls and be rock stars for five 45-minute sets on a Tuesday night out at some little road bar in Pomona. I always thought it might be me that got sidelined first. I would fall off something tall or get rolled under something I shouldn’t have been trying to climb on. Singers usually fall quickest because what we do is so highly physical.”
What surfaces so readily when you examine the music Roth has made outside of Van Halen is an intuitive understanding of show business tradition that predated rock ‘n’ roll. It also galvanizes the Van Halen music, to be sure. But listen to his 1986 solo hit versions of “Just a Gigolo” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody” (the songs were initially popularized in medley form by bandleader Louis Prima in 1956), and tradition is unleashed. Ask Roth about that inspiration and his first reference goes to “West Side Story” before discussing his devotion to soul music.
“Most of my material is a reprise of ‘When you’re a jet, you’re a jet all the way’ times Wilson Pickett. I didn’t spend time trying to imitate the fella in Led Zeppelin. I didn’t try to mimic the fella in the Rolling Stones. I spent my time trying to be black.
“I didn’t do what I’ve done in search of acceptance. An ‘American Idol’ paradigm may compel that thinking, but for me it’s the thrill of invention. For me, it’s the getting ready way more than the actual. During the actual, the monitor always blows up and the bass player is always angry. It rains and your knee hurts. But those three months working with the 80 people getting ready, that’s spectacular. And you really need to have the taste for that as opposed to everything else so you can get to the show.
“I’ve done some very, very high mountain climbs in the Himalayas, like up to 24,000 feet, and I can tell you, it’s all about the going up and the getting back down in one piece. The top? It’s about the size of your kitchen table. And it’s really, really, really cold there.”
Kiss/David Lee Roth
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13
Where: Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine
Tickets: $44.50-$997.00
Call: 859-233-3535, 800-745-3000
Online: rupparena.com, ticketmaster.com, davidleeroth.com
This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM.