David Lee Roth Tears Up Recalling Final Songs With Eddie
David Lee Roth became visibly emotional during a recent solo show at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania, as he reflected on the last time he wrote songs with the late Eddie Van Halen. Speaking to the crowd during his May 19, 2026 performance, Roth described how his earliest writing sessions with Van Halen began in cramped, makeshift spaces—and how their final collaboration echoed that same closeness decades later.
Roth told the audience that, after years apart, he and Van Halen reunited in the guitarist’s multimillion-dollar home studio to “write two more songs,” and Van Halen pulled a chair up until their knees touched, mirroring how they worked when they were younger.
In his onstage story, Roth said many of the early Van Halen songs were built from near-silent guitar ideas because Eddie’s mother would not allow him to plug into an amplifier. Roth recalled recording rough sketches on a small cassette device, taking them home to write lyrics, and returning with ideas—often accompanied by the kind of blunt, joking arguments that became part of their chemistry.
The moment also fit into the long, complicated history between the band’s original singer and its primary songwriter. Roth’s description of their early “friction” echoed the broader creative push-and-pull that shaped the classic-era lineup, and it follows other Van Halen-related recollections we’ve covered, including how a singer once backed out of replacing David Lee Roth in Van Halen.
Roth’s tribute offered fans a rare glimpse of how personal the collaboration remained right up to the end, framing their final writing session as a deliberate return to the intimacy that helped launch the band. Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020, but Roth’s account underlined how their partnership continued to resonate for him years later—both musically and emotionally.
