David Lee Roth

Countless devotees of hard rock regard David Lee Roth as the quintessential frontman. His extravagant, outsized stage persona, carefree surfer attitude, gymnastic leaps, flowing blond locks, and form-fitting spandex apparel helped drive Van Halen’s rapid ascent to worldwide supremacy in the closing years of the 1970s and the opening years of the 1980s. Born October 10, 1954, in Bloomington, Indiana, Roth encountered music early through his father’s fondness for Al Jolson, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Prima. As adolescence began, the family settled in California, and during the early 1970s Roth immersed himself in rock, favoring Led Zeppelin, Black Oak Arkansas, Grand Funk, ZZ Top, Alice Cooper, and similar acts. He soon lent his voice to local groups, among them the Red Ball Jets, who shared stages with the rising Pasadena band Mammoth.

The members of Mammoth—brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen on guitar and drums—frequently borrowed Roth’s PA for performances, sparking a friendship that led to his joining the Van Halen brothers and new bassist Michael Anthony. By the mid-1970s the quartet, performing on the Sunset Strip, adopted the name Van Halen, an idea reportedly supplied by Roth. Warner Bros. signed the group in 1977, and their self-titled debut arrived the following year, becoming one of rock’s landmark recordings. Blending heavy-metal riffs with punk energy, Van Halen forged a fresh sound that swept the globe. Successive multi-platinum albums followed—Van Halen II in 1979, Women and Children First in 1980, Fair Warning in 1981, Diver Down in 1982, and 1984 in 1984—while the band filled arenas night after night.

At the height of this dominance, Roth released the four-song solo EP Crazy from the Heat in 1985 amid reports of internal friction and rumors of an impending feature film. His departure from Van Halen later that year stunned fans, prompting a public war of words as Sammy Hagar stepped in. When the film project collapsed, Roth assembled a new band featuring ex-Talas bassist Billy Sheehan—often hailed as the Eddie Van Halen of bass—ex-Frank Zappa guitarist Steve Vai, and ex-Maynard Ferguson drummer Gregg Bissonette. The first full-length solo album, Eat ’Em and Smile, appeared in 1986, scored another hit, and supported an extensive sold-out tour.

Roth meanwhile mastered the creation of inventive, humorous videos populated by eccentric characters, among them Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” and his own “California Girls,” “Just a Gigolo,” “Yankee Rose,” and “Goin’ Crazy.” Despite early promise, the solo lineup fractured across subsequent releases—Skyscraper in 1988 and A Little Ain’t Enough in 1991—leaving Roth as the sole original member. Seeking new directions, he issued the experimental Your Filthy Little Mouth in 1994, produced by Nile Rodgers, yet it met lukewarm response, as did his concurrent attempt to enter the Las Vegas circuit.

Van Halen’s split with Hagar in 1996 revived speculation of a Roth reunion. On September 4, 1996, the singer joined the band onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York to present an award. Although several new tracks had been recorded the previous summer—two ultimately appearing on the Best Of: Vol. 1 collection—the reunion dissolved quickly after Eddie and Roth nearly came to blows backstage. Relations deteriorated further when it emerged that Van Halen had misled Roth into believing he had rejoined while secretly recruiting ex-Extreme singer Gary Cherone months earlier.

Roth responded by publishing the memoir Crazy from the Heat in 1997 and delivering the back-to-basics DLR Band the next year. After Cherone’s dismissal following the poorly received Van Halen III in 1999, reunion talk resurfaced. Roth ended the silence in April 2001, announcing on his website that the original lineup had reconvened in the studio the prior year yet had received no further word. A week later Eddie revealed his cancer diagnosis; in May 2002 he declared a “100% clean bill of health—from head to toe.”

The positive medical update did not restore Roth to Van Halen. Instead, his 2003 album Diamond Dave appeared, a 14-track set of covers recalling the style of Diver Down. In 2005 Roth briefly assumed Howard Stern’s satellite-radio “Shock Jock” slot, and the following year he assembled friends for the playful Strummin with the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen.

After several aborted attempts, Roth and Van Halen reunited for a tour that began in September 2007, ran nearly nine months, and comprised 75 shows, proving a major commercial triumph. Four years later the band announced both another tour and A Different Kind of Truth, their first studio album with Roth since 1984. The record revived the classic Van Halen sound, incorporating re-recorded versions of seven late-’70s and early-’80s demos. Released in February 2012, it garnered favorable reviews and entered the U.S. charts at number two. A live document, Tokyo Dome in Concert, followed in 2015.