| David
Lee Roth Biography
Infamous as the lead vocalist
and colorful front man for Van Halen, one of America's most popular hard-rock
bands, David Lee Roth turned solo artist in 1985. Indeed, after the enormous success
of his extended play album Crazy From the Heat, Roth, in a decision that stunned
Van Halen fans, decided to leave the group permanently. Although many of Van Halen's
followers feared that neither he nor the band would survive the split, each has
continued to dazzle rock and roll devotees. Roth, flamboyant as ever, has managed
to keep his talents in the public eye with masterful videos and such albums as
Eat 'em and Smile and Skyscraper.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, the rock star
remembers being introduced to music fairly early in life. His father, an ophthalmologist,
presented him, at age seven, with recordings by jazz artist Al Jolson--still one
of Roth's heroes--and at age eight he began listening to Ray Charles sing on the
radio. Summer visits to his Uncle Manny, who operated the famed Greenwich Village
Cafe Wha, were also influential, enabling him to view a variety of performers.
By the time he was a teenager the aspiring musician, then living with his family
in California, was singing solo as well as with a group called the Red Ball Jets.
Another Los Angeles area group, Mammoth--comprised of a bass player and the two
Dutch-immigrant Van Halen brothers, Alex on drums and Edward singing and playing
lead guitar--occasionally rented the Red Ball Jets' PA system. They were impressed
with Roth and soon invited him to join them as lead vocalist (later joking that
all they really wanted was his amplification equipment), and the group was eventually
completed with the permanent addition of Mike Anthony on bass. Around 1974, after
discovering that another group already owned the copyright to the name Mammoth,
the group renamed itself Van Halen and began its struggle for fame and fortune.
The fledgling band seized the opportunity to play wherever and whenever it could,
with its members doing everything for themselves, from securing engagements to
promotional work. Performing both original songs and established tunes, Van Halen
eventually became a local success and began to routinely open for such established
acts as UFO and Santana; they also became a regular feature at the Starwood Club,
the West Coast venue to fame. It was during their four-month stint there, in fact,
that they were "discovered." First, Gene Simmons, bass player for the
rock band Kiss, helped the group produce their first demo tape, then Warner Brothers'
Ted Templeman came to the Starwood, heard the group, and signed them to a contract
with his label.
Released in 1978, the band's first album, Van Halen, brought
the group national attention. The album was a smashing success with more than
two million copies sold, and the original members of Van Halen went on to release
five more successful albums over the next seven years. Unlike many up-and-coming
groups, the increasingly popular Van Halen never lacked press coverage, which
was generated by its members' wild lifestyles as often as by its music. More than
any other band member, Roth is credited with promoting Van Halen's image as the
quintessential rock band, one devoted to a lifestyle described by David Fricke
in Rolling Stone as "a nonstop booze-and-babes party train." An on-stage
rowdy, Roth became an expert at sexist slapstick who, in the opinion of Carl Arrington,
writing for People, "helped gild the groups' head-banger image ... with mock-macho
stage posturing and costumes that looked like they were ripped off the backs of
passing lions." But if, as Arrington suggested, Roth has fostered the image
of himself as a "renaissance rocker," the critic also found him "less
a fraud than most good actors or successful politicians." According to Arrington,
Roth has played the part so long that "his concert persona and offstage personality
[are] closer than most of his peers."
Sometimes referred to as "the
bad boy of rock and roll" and "Mr. Bigmouth," Roth, in fact, is
just as famous for his off-stage antics. Reports abound of the rocker's antipathy
toward marriage, his refusal to permit other band members' wives to go on tour
with the group, and of nude girls dancing on table tops backstage as well as of
his party-till-you-drop philosophy. Interviewing the star for Rolling Stone, Nancy
Collins asked if the Van Halen backstage scene was really "akin to a bacchanalian
feast." Roth, a student of karate, responded: "It's excessive. In terms
of the fringe benefits you're supposed to get from rock & roll, I'd say we're
black belts." Despite his propensity for debauchery, Roth has earned applause
for his abilities as a lyricist and singer. With a friend at the wheel of his
1951 Mercury convertible, Roth pens his words while cruising around the Los Angeles
canyons. The generally simple lyrics work in harmony with the musical scores composed
by Edward Van Halen to create the band's trademark tunes, tunes that helped transform
Van Halen, in Fricke's words, into "the monster rock action squad that ruled
the charts and the airwaves for seven years."
In 1985, after some much
publicized squabbling, Roth decided to leave Van Halen and try his luck as an
independent artist.
The star's 1986 Eat 'em and Smile and 1988's Skyscraper,
featuring Steve Vai on guitar each went double platinum. The colorful videos for
Goin Crazy, Yankee Rose and Just Like Paradise recieved top rotation on MTV. Soon
after Skyscraper's world tour, Vai left for a solo career. He was replaced on
A Little Ain't Enough by a young axeslinger named Jason Becker (who would later
leave due to health reasons) Dave's next album, Your Filthy Little Mouth, featured
a different musical approach with a duet with Travis Tritt and a Willie Nelson
cover. In 1995 Dave played some Vegas shows to decent reviews, but like Dave said
"Good show, bad timing." In 1996 Van Halen reunites and Sammy Hagar
is fired from the band. Van Halen, and Dave enters the studio to cut two new songs
with his old bandmates. The reunited Van Halen appear at the MTV Video Awards
and get a standing ovation. After the show, tensions flare up among the band.
Roth soon releases an open letter to the press stating that there is no reunion,
due to the fact that "Eddie did it." The VH Best Of Volume One album
is released, featuring "Me Wise Magic" and "Can't Get This Stuff
No More," the songs from the "reunited" Van Halen.The album enters
as #1 on Billboard charts. His 1997 efforts included a Greatest Hits package and
a critically acclaimed autobiography .In 1998 Dave put out his DLR BANDcd, featuring
John Lowery and Mike Hartman, on his own label(Wawazat!!).The single SLAM DUNK
was Rock and Active Rock's most requested song for three weeks in a row in May,
and the cd received rave reviews. What's most important to Roth, however, whether
alone or with a group, whether involved in showmanship, writing lyrics, or singing,
is to be "rockin'." That, he told Collins, is "all I ever really
wanted to do."
From: http://www.rotharmy.com/bio.shtml
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