David Lee Roth hints that Van Halen will play live show this summer and band to “happen” in 100 days
David Lee Roth hints Van Halen will play live show this summer and band to “happen” in 100 days
Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth continues to promote his new tattoo skin-care line as the singer was recently interviewed by Vulture.
Roth hinted on a number of occasions throughout the interview that Van Halen would be playing some live shows this summer.
When asked about his starring role in the shot film Tokyo Story, Roth advised: “It is the test run for a parallel project that I’ve been working on. Those characters from the short are in a script that has now been worked into a graphic novel. And it is by our accounting the world’s first graphic novel with a full soundtrack. I’ve been working on it for four years. I called Colin Smith, who’s written, I don’t know, 15 books on how to use Adobe Photoshop. He’s been over at my shop three times a week. Working with stellar talents is part of the luxury of being Diamond Dave. I’m smart enough to know these folks, so how much smarter do I need to be? And it’s art-centric. We don’t think about the price. Because, you know, next time my rock band will be playing the same place that the Yankees play. Okay?”
When asked whether Van Halen would be playing Yankee Stadium next summer, Roth stated: “Yeah, but I can’t … If I say something on tape here and everybody goes, “Oh, this leaked…” But, the band will be — I can’t say.” Roth added: “Well, I don’t know how far this privacy actually goes. But the band is solvent. And I can say that I contacted colleagues about being part of the show — Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Jason Aldean, the Foo Fighters, Church, and Stapleton. And they all said that, if everything happens, they would certainly be involved.” When asked whether this would be a festival, Roth replied: “No, all I talked about was a phone call.”
When asked about a Monk book, Roth indicated: “I’d really rather focus on some other stuff. When Van Halen happens, I’m willing to answer all of these questions. And that’s around the corner by a hundred days. But what I’m doing now behind the scenes, it’s kind of a Wizard of Oz approach, and I enjoy it more than the spotlight. The spotlight has been wildly entertaining for 50, 60 years. But, this is a whole different composite of talents that I can follow into a future beyond singing “Runnin’ With the Devil” over and over. There’s a time-capsule element that goes along with my kind of music. You can’t keep serving it every year. We’re on a James Bond schedule, every three-and-a-half summers, so you don’t go, “Weren’t you just here?” and then we’d start selling fewer tickets. That happened with the third Pirates movie. Johnny Depp was scarred, emotionally. But classic rock is great. It funded everything we’re doing today.”
You can read the rest of the interview with David Lee Roth at Vulture.