David Lee Roth
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"This must be just like living in paradise!" Many of you rocker out there in rockland seem to whine about David Lee Roth and the whole Van Halen debacle, but here at www.ilovethe80s.com, Diamond David is still king.
This page is primarily dedicated to Roth's adventures as a solo artist, although we will pay some homage to his days in Van Halen. In fact, at the time of this writing, the reunion between the Van Halen brothers and David Lee Roth seemed to be off to a more promising start that in years past. They released their first studio album together since 1984 in 2012 (A Different Kind of Truth) and continued to collaborate well into the 2010's.
David Lee Roth was born in Bloomington, Indiana. While a teenager, Roth moved to Pasenda, CA. and eventually attended Pasenda City College, which is where he met the Van Halen brothers. At the time, Roth had his own band, called "Mammoth", and the Van Halen brothers had a band called the "Red Ball Jets." After some time, the Red Ball Jets hired David Lee Roth to sing and it was Roth's idea to call the band "Van Halen."
In 1985, while still a member of Van Halen, David Lee Roth released the off-beat album, Crazy from the Heat, which included songs like "California Girls" and "Just a Gigolo". The album did well, and it was soon after that Roth departed the band (not to reunite again until 1996).
With Steve Vai on guitar and Billy Sheehan on bass, Eat 'em and Smile was released in 1986 and made it all the way to number 4 on the Billboard Top 200. Their second release, Skyscraper, also charted (number 6) with the great song "Just Like Paradise". After this album, both Steve Vai (went on to Whitesnake) and Billy Sheehan left the band. Roth picked up guitar veteran Jason Becker and released A Little Ain't Enough in 1991.
Roth's 1994 release, Your Dirty Little Mouth, was his first solo effort to not at least hit Gold, and it wasn't long after that solo days of David Lee Roth came to a close. In 1996, we received two new songs from Roth during a brief reunion with Van Halen ("Me Wise Magic" and "Can't Get This Stuff No More"), but the next drought lasted until the release of A Different Kind of Truth in 2012.
Some other notable things regarding David Lee Roth: In the late 1990's, Roth became a Emergency Medical Technical (EMT) and worked in this capacity for a time; In 1997, Roth wrote a book called Crazy from the Heatthat was on the New York Time Best Seller list; Roth replaced Howard Stern's syndicated radio show for a time after Howard went to XM. In the 2010's, Roth returned to Van Halen.
At the time of this writing, the David Lee Roth Discography was as follows:
Listen for free or download any David Lee Roth track for just 12 cents per song!
- 1985: Crazy from the Heat
- 1986: Eat 'Em and Smile
- 1986: Sonrisa Salvaje (Spanish version of Eat 'Em and Smile)
- 1988: Skyscraper
- 1991: A Little Ain't Enough
- 1994: Your Filthy Little Mouth
- 1998: DLR Band
- 2003: Diamond Dave
With Van Halen:
Listen for free or download any Van Halen track for just 12 cents per song!
- 1978: Van Halen
- 1979: Van Halen II
- 1980: Women and Children First
- 1981: Fair Warning
- 1982: Diver Down
- 1984: 1984
- 2012: A Different Kind of Truth