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David Lee Roth

Born in Bloomington, IN

David Lee Roth's Genre:

Pop-Metal, Hard Rock, Album Rock, Heavy Metal, Contemporary Pop/Rock

Biography

In the eyes of countless hard rock fans, David Lee Roth is the prototypical frontman. With a flamboyant, larger than life stage presence and a party-hearty surfer dude persona (not to mention his acrobatic leaps, long mane of blond hair, and skintight spandex outfits), Roth was an integral part of Van Halen's meteoric rise to global dominance from 1978 through 1984. Born on October 10, 1954 in Bloomington, Indiana, Roth was introduced to music at an early age, via his father's affinity for Al Jolson, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Prima. By the dawn of his teenage years, his family had relocated to California, and by the early '70s, Roth had become a major rock fan (Led Zeppelin, Black Oak Arkansas, Grand Funk, ZZ Top, Alice Cooper, etc.). Roth was soon singing in local bands, including the Red Ball Jets, who would play shows along with another up-and-coming rock band from Pasadena, California -- Mammoth.

The members of Mammoth, including brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen on guitar and drums, respectively, would often borrow Roth's PA system for their gigs, and a friendship was struck up. Soon after, Roth was asked to join forces with the Van Halen brothers, who had enlisted a new bassist as well, Michael Anthony. The new quartet decided on a name change by the mid-'70s as they played the Sunset Strip -- Van Halen (reportedly Roth's idea). By 1977, the quartet was signed to Warner Bros., and 1978 saw the release of their landmark self-titled debut, one of rock's all-time great recordings. Mixing heavy metal riffs with punk's fury, Van Halen were onto a whole new sound, which resulted in the band taking the world by storm. The band issued a string of classic mega-selling albums (1979's Van Halen II, 1980's Women and Children First, 1981's Fair Warning, 1982's Diver Down, and two years later, 1984), while becoming a major arena-headlining concert draw in the process.

Just as Van Halen had hit their peak and appeared they could do no wrong, Roth issued a four-track solo EP in 1985, Crazy from the Heat, with rumors swirling that the bandmembers were bickering behind the scenes and that the singer was going to make a major motion picture. Still, it was a shock to rock fans everywhere when Roth left Van Halen later that year (Van Halen would soldier on with Sammy Hagar filling Roth's spot) -- leading to a war of words in the press. When his plans for the movie proved to be a bust, Roth immediately formed a top-notch solo band, consisting of ex-Talas bassist Billy Sheehan (often called "the Eddie Van Halen of bass"), ex-Frank Zappa guitarist Steve Vai, and ex-Maynard Ferguson drummer Gregg Bissonette. In 1986, Roth issued his first full-length solo effort, Eat 'Em and Smile, which was another hit and gave way to another sold-out tour.

Roth had also become a master of creating hilarious and highly original music videos (featuring a wide assortment of wacky characters), especially Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" and Roth's solo clips "California Girls," "Just a Gigolo," "Yankee Rose," and "Goin' Crazy." But while Roth's new solo band seemed to be on the way to a very promising future, the lineup began to splinter with each subsequent release (1988's Skyscraper, 1991's A Little Ain't Enough), until Roth was the only remaining member. With interest waning, Roth attempted to branch out musically on his experimental 1994 release, Your Filthy Little Mouth (produced by Nile Rodgers), but it was met with a cool reception, as was his attempt to break into the Vegas circuit around the same time.

By 1996, Van Halen had parted ways with Hagar, leading to an onslaught of rumors that a Roth/Van Halen reunion was in the works. The rumor appeared to become reality on September 4, 1996, when Van Halen and Roth appeared together at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York to present an award. Despite the fact that they had recorded several new songs the previous summer (two of which would appear on their forthcoming Best Of: Vol. 1 collection), the reunion was short-lived -- Eddie and Roth got into a near fistfight backstage on the night of the awards show, as relations soured once again when it became known that Van Halen tricked Roth into thinking that he was back in the band (meanwhile, they had secretly hired ex-Extreme singer Gary Cherone a few months prior).

Undeterred, Roth penned a tell-all biography, 1997's Crazy from the Heat, and issued his best solo album in years, 1998's back-to-basics DLR Band. When Cherone was dismissed from Van Halen in 1999 after only a single album (the horrific Van Halen III), rumors began swirling once again about a possible Roth/Van Halen reunion. With both camps keeping things very hush-hush, Roth finally broke the silence in April of 2001, issuing a statement on his website that he and his former Van Halen bandmates had indeed regrouped the previous year in the recording studio, but that he hadn't heard back from them in months. Barely a week later, Eddie Van Halen went public with the fact that he was diagnosed with cancer; in May of 2002 he reported on his website that his cancer treatments had been successful and he had "just gotten a 100 percent clean bill of health -- from head to toe."

Meanwhile, the good news from Eddie Van Halen did not apparently coincide with a return of Roth to the Van Halen fold, as the singer's Diamond Dave, a 14-track collection of mostly covers that echoed the 1982 Van Halen classic Diver Down, was released in 2003. In 2005, Roth took over FM "Shock Jock" duties for the satellite radio-bound Howard Stern, and the following year he gathered friends for the tongue-in-cheek Strummin with the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen. ~ Greg Prato

AOL Radio Stations David Lee Roth is Featured on (8)

4th of July Celebration

Celebrate the U.S.A. on the 4th of July with patriotic music and summer fun songs. Festive Independence Day hits, party oldies and stirring marches. 4th of July Celebration on Slacker is your soundtrack to the holiday weekend and America’s independence.

Party Metal

Party Metal on Slacker Radio is a groupie's dream. If you owned anything spandex, fringe leather, a Trans-Am and 5 different brands of hairspray, then Party Metal is your backstage pass to the glam side of the '80s rock scene. The era lives on with bands like Poison, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. So, throw up your devil horns and let's party!

'80s Rock

The '80s was the decade of decadence and music was no exception. From bands like Poison and Cinderella who celebrated excess to U2 and R.E.M., that rebelled against it, '80s Rock on Slacker Radio covers the best rock the ‘80s had to offer.

Matt Nathanson Showcase

This is the Matt Nathanson Artist Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by Matt including music that he hand-picked as well as commentary about the songs that influenced his music and his life.

'80s Hits

80's Hits takes the biggest hits from the decade of big hair and music videos and puts it together on one station. From the new wave of Duran Duran, to the arena rock of Def Leppard, from the end of disco to the beginning of hip hop (remember Tone Loc?), it's all on 80's Hits.

Classic Hits

Classic Hits on Slacker plays the greatest pop and rock hits of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

David Lee Roth's Selected Discography (12)

Artists Related to David Lee Roth (50)

	Van Halen	With their 1978 eponymous debut, Van Halen simultaneously rewrote the rules of rock guitar and hard rock in general.
	Sammy Hagar	After spending several years as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the mid-'70s hard rock band Montrose, Sammy Hagar began a solo career that produced several hits and made him an album rock favorite.
	Whitesnake	After recording two solo albums, former Deep Purple vocalist David Coverdale formed Whitesnake around 1977.
	Kiss	Rooted in the campy theatrics of Alice Cooper and the sleazy hard rock of glam rockers the New York Dolls, Kiss became a favorite of American teenagers in the '70s.
	Def Leppard	In many ways, Def Leppard were the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder (and were more dangerous) than the Sheffield-based quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well.
	Scorpions	Known best for their 1984 anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and the 1990 ballad "Wind of Change," German rockers the Scorpions have sold over 22 million records, making them one of the most successful rock bands to ever come out of Continental Europe.
	Aerosmith	Aerosmith were one of the most popular hard rock bands of the '70s, setting the style and sound of hard rock and heavy metal for the next two decades with their raunchy, bluesy swagger.
	Poison	In a decade fueled by party anthems and power ballads, Poison enjoyed a great amount of popularity, with only Bon Jovi and Def Leppard outselling them.
	Mötley Crüe	Mötley Crüe were one of the most influential hair metal bands of the '80s, boasting a striking visual presence and hedonistic reputation rivaled only by Guns N' Roses.
	ZZ Top	This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums).
	Cinderella	Hard rock band Cinderella gained success in the mid-'80s, turning out a series of million-selling albums and hit singles while placing music videos in heavy rotation on MTV.
	Night Ranger	Featuring ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Brad Gillis and former Montrose keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald, Night Ranger was one of the most popular mainstream hard rock bands of the mid-'80s.
	Queen	Few bands embodied the pure excess of the '70s like Queen. Embracing the exaggerated pomp of prog rock and heavy metal, as well as vaudevillian music hall, the British quartet delved deeply into camp and bombast, creating a huge, mock-operatic sound with layered guitars and overdubbed vocals.
	Ratt	Ratt's brash, melodic heavy metal made the Los Angeles quintet one of the most popular rock acts of the mid-'80s.
	Quiet Riot	For a very brief moment, Quiet Riot was a rock & roll phenomenon. Famously described as the first heavy metal band to top the pop chart (a claim that greatly depends on one's exact definition of heavy metal), the Los Angeles quartet became an overnight sensation thanks to their monster 1983 smash album Metal Health.
	Rush	Over the course of their decades-spanning career, Canadian power trio Rush emerged as one of hard rock's most highly regarded bands; although typically brushed aside by critics and rarely the recipients of mainstream pop radio airplay, Rush nonetheless won an impressive and devoted fan following, while their virtuoso performance skills solidified their standing as musicians' musicians.
	.38 Special	Initially, .38 Special were one of many Southern rock bands in the vein of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd; in fact, the band was led by Donnie Van Zant, the brother of Skynyrd's leader, Ronnie Van Zant.
	Cheap Trick	Combining a love for British guitar pop songcraft with crunching power chords and a flair for the absurd, Cheap Trick provided the necessary links between '60s pop, heavy metal, and punk.
	Bon Jovi	After ushering in the era of pop-metal with their 1986 blockbuster Slippery When Wet and its hit singles “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and “Living on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi wound up transcending the big-haired ‘80s, withstanding changes in style and sound to become one of the biggest American rock bands of their time, selling over 120 million albums worldwide, and sustaining their popularity well into the new millennium.
	Billy Squier	Many point to Billy Squier as early-'80s rock personified -- an era when he and many of his peers tempered hard rock with pop melodicism -- and by adding just the right amount of posing and posturing for the newly constructed MTV set, he scored a string of arena rock anthems and power ballads.
	Guns N' Roses	At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts.
	Foreigner	While quite a few arena rock acts of the '70s found the transformation into the '80s quite difficult, several acts continued to flourish and enjoyed some of their biggest commercial success: Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, and especially Foreigner.
	Great White	While one infamous nightclub show eclipsed their previous achievements, the hard rock/heavy metal band Great White would much rather you remember their Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance, the over six million records they sold, and their double platinum album .
	AC/DC	AC/DC's mammoth power chord roar became one of the most influential hard rock sounds of the '70s. In its own way, it was a reaction against the pompous art rock and lumbering arena rock of the early '70s.
	Loverboy	One of the most popular North American rock bands of the 1980s, Loverboy scored a string of multi-platinum albums and hit singles with their canny blend of pop hooks and polished but energetic arena rock.
	Warrant	With a pair of double-platinum albums and three Top Ten singles, Warrant were one of the most popular pop-metal bands of the late '80s.
	Joan Jett	By playing pure and simple rock & roll without making an explicit issue of her gender, Joan Jett became a figurehead for several generations of female rockers.
	Bad Company	Formed in 1973, the British hard rock outfit Bad Company was a supergroup comprised of ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, and singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, both previous members of Free.
	Alice Cooper	Originally, there was a band called Alice Cooper led by a singer named Vincent Damon Furnier. Under his direction, Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.
	Styx	Although they began as an artsy prog rock band, Styx would eventually transform into the virtual arena rock prototype by the late '70s and early '80s, due to a fondness for bombastic rockers and soaring power ballads.
	Ted Nugent	Throughout his lengthy career, guitar wildman Ted Nugent has reveled in the controversy and criticism that always seems to follow in his path.
	Ozzy Osbourne	Though many bands have succeeded in earning the hatred of parents and media worldwide throughout the past few decades, arguably only such acts as Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, and Marilyn Manson have tied the controversial record of Ozzy Osbourne.
	Heart	Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson are the creative spark behind Heart, a hard rock group who initially found success in the mid-'70s only to reach greater heights after engineering a major comeback a decade later.
	Twisted Sister	A product of New York City's early-'70s glam rock scene, Twisted Sister were eager students of the New York Dolls, with the theatrics of Kiss and the shock rock of Alice Cooper thrown in for good measure.
	Boston	The arena rock group behind one of the fastest-selling debut albums in history, Boston was essentially the vehicle of studio wizard Tom Scholz, born March 10, 1947, in Toledo, OH.
	Skid Row	Skid Row were one of the very last hair metal bands to hit the mainstream before grunge took over in the early '90s.
	Billy Idol	Along with Duran Duran, Billy Idol was one the first pop/rock artists to achieve massive success in the early '80s due to a then brand-new U.
	Tesla	Although Tesla emerged during the glory days of hair metal, the band's music was equally indebted to contemporary blues and '70s-style hard rock, a fusion that helped differentiate albums like The Great Radio Controversy from its contemporaries.
	Journey	During their initial 14 years of existence (1973-1987), Journey altered their musical approach and their personnel extensively while becoming a top touring and recording band.
	Damn Yankees	For a brief time in the early '90s, the supergroup Damn Yankees enjoyed a considerable amount of success on the arena rock circuit.
	Dokken	At a time when the charts were ruled by pop-metal acts, Dokken was a major attraction throughout the 1980s.
	Judas Priest	Judas Priest was one of the most influential heavy metal bands of the '70s, spearheading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal late in the decade.
	Eddie Money	Eddie Money arrived in the late '70s at the height of album rock's popularity. While Money didn't have a remarkable voice, he had a knack for catchy, blue-collar rock & roll, which he delivered with a surprising amount of polished, radio-friendly finesse.
	REO Speedwagon	Three bands were the undisputed arena rock kings of the early '80s -- Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon -- yet all weren't overnight success stories (in fact, each group began pursuing different musical styles originally -- prog rock, fusion, and straight-ahead hard rock, respectively, before transforming slowly into chart-topping mainstream rockers).
	Lynyrd Skynyrd	Lynyrd Skynyrd was the definitive Southern rock band, fusing the overdriven power of blues-rock with a rebellious Southern image and a hard rock swagger.
	Blue Öyster Cult	Blue Öyster Cult was the thinking man's heavy metal group. Put together on a college campus by a couple of rock critics, it maintained a close relationship with a series of literary figures (often in the fields of science fiction and horror), including Eric Von Lustbader, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, and Stephen King, while turning out some of the more listenable metal music of the early and mid-'70s.
	White Lion	Of all the glam/pop-metal bands that crawled out of hair salons coast to coast during the mid- to late '80s, one of the more talented acts was New York's White Lion, led by singer Mike Tramp (originally from Denmark) and guitarist Vito Bratta.
	Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin was the definitive heavy metal band. It wasn't just their crushingly loud interpretation of the blues -- it was how they incorporated mythology, mysticism, and a variety of other genres (most notably world music and British folk) -- into their sound.
	Slaughter	Former Vinnie Vincent Invasion members Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum formed Slaughter with guitarist Tim Kelly and drummer Blas Elias in 1988 in an attempt to cross over to pop audiences.
	Winger	A former member of Alice Cooper's band, bassist Kip Winger formed his own group in 1986; in addition to vocalist/bassist Winger, the group featured guitarist Reb Beach, bassist Paul Taylor, and drummer Rod Morgenstein, formerly of the Dixie Dregs.

Goin' Crazy!

1986 Warner Bros. Records Inc.

Así Es La Vida

from: Sonrisa Salvaje

1986 Warner Bros. Records Inc.

Cuánto Frenesí

from: Sonrisa Salvaje

1986 Warner Bros. Records Inc.