Van Halen’s split with David Lee Roth back in 1985 — what really happened?

Van Halen’s split with David Lee Roth back in 1985 — what really happened?

The Van Halen News Desk ran an article back on April 7, 2016 about David Lee Roth‘s departure from Van Halen.

The article provided Pete Angelus‘ account of what actually happened. The Van Halen News Desk introduced Angelus as follows:

“Greg Prato, author of MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video, gives VHND an exclusive excerpt from his book, where Van Halen insider Pete Angelus shares his side of the breakup. Pete held myriad jobs while with Van Halen from 1977-1985 (including lighting director, creative consultant, and video work), and was later one-half of the solo David Lee Roth video team, The Fabulous Picasso Brothers, and can be seen in some of Roth’s solo videos.”

In terms of what Angelus stated, you can read the excerpt from Prato‘s book in the Van Halen News Desk article. In essence, Angelus advised that Roth along with brothers Alex and Eddie Van Halen agreed that the Van Halen band members would take a one year hiatus after about five years of consistent touring. Within one or two weeks of the agreed upon break, a RollingStone article ran apparently indicating that Roth had quit the band. Roth was miffed and felt betrayed at the news. Angelus ended up speaking to Alex Van Halen who opined that they were not willing to wait for Roth to do a movie for a year. Angelus ended up going with Roth given that he was closer to the singer than the Van Halen brothers.

You can read the rest of the article at Van Halen News Desk.