David Lee Roth Says He Structured the Guitar Solos on Van Halen’s Debut
David Lee Roth has once again made incendiary comments regarding Van Halen.
In a new interview about his upcoming Las Vegas residency, Roth described the show saying, “Van Halen live is lead, bass, drums – here, we start with three or four guitars and we bring it with an unforgiving attitude.” Roth continued, “We’re not up here strumming with the devil, this is not some tribute band. I wrote those songs, structured those songs. I designed the backgrounds on the stage. I came up with the album covers. I thought of the stripes on the guitar. I’m the one who said, ‘Call it Van Halen.’ And we take it with that attitude. We ain’t talking about love.”
Roth was then asked whether he needed permission to perform Van Halen songs as part of his residency. He then responded with, “No. I wrote the songs. I wrote every word you heard, every syllable, every melody. I structured even the guitar solos on that first album. Why do you think the solos later changed so radically? I sang the solos for Jamie’s Cryin’ and Runnin’ With The Devil etc., because they’re thematics.”
This is far from the first eyebrow-raising thing Roth has said about Van Halen. He said on Talkin’ Rock with Meltdown back in September about Van Halen’s highly-rumored summer tour, “Well, that’s been canceled a number of times, and I think Van Halen’s finished, and I think this is the next phase. I’ve been hearing in the band ‘de facto,’ whatever that means. I think it means, ‘You’ve inherited it. Carry this proudly.’ Van Halen isn’t going to be coming back in the fashion that you know, and that being said, Eddie [Van Halen’s] got his own story to tell. [It’s] not mine to tell it.”
Eddie Van Halen has been in the news recently regarding his health, but he or any other member of Van Halen has yet to comment publicly on any of Roth’s remarks.
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