Guitarist Brian Young recalls David Lee Roth’s up and down mood swings

Guitarist Brian Young recalls David Lee Roth’s up and down mood swings

Guitarist Brian Young was recently interviewed by Bode James for the Rock N Roll Icons podcast. Wikipedia indicates that Young was in David Lee Roth‘s solo band from 2002 to 2006 and played guitar on eight of the 14 tracks on Roth‘s solo album Diamond Dave (2003).

In terms of what it was like to work with Roth, Young indicated (as transcribed by the Rock N Roll Icons podcast with slight edits):

“Working with Dave was great. You basically have to go through this boot camp to toughen you up. Dave’s not what I would call di5cult, but he expects a lot. He’s demanding and he’s a perfec’onist. He expects a lot from everyone else, but he expects a lot from himself too.”

“Working with Dave wasn’t easy. I heard about his mood swings before I joined, but I didn’t see a single one for the first month. Then when it finally happened it was kind of like a volcano erupting. He kind of has an up and down mood swing kind of thing. When he’s in a good mood it’s the coolest hang you’ll ever have in your life…absolutely. But when he’s in a bad mood it’s a bummer.” (laughing)

“But like I said, the good thing about working with Dave is that it’s like a training ground. If you play with him a while you can handle anything” (laughing)

“What I liked about working with Dave is that he’s the boss and you know it. He’s paying everybody and it’s his name on the marquee so there’s no argument. When David says something you just do it. I like that because when you’re in a band with four guys and there’s no real boss there can be more arguing and this and that. With Dave, you just do what he tells you and everything’s fine.”

You can listen to the interview with Brian Young with the Rock N Roll Icons podcast below: