Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth was interviewed on a recent edition of Marc Maron’s podcast, WTF w/ Marc Maron. Here, the Van Halen frontman shares a story about the last phone call he had with Eddie Van Halen. He also discussed the negatives of a Van Halen reunion tour, which has been rumored with Michael Anthony. Alternative Nation transcribed Roth and Maron’s comment.
Maron: So you guys are always at each other’s throats?
Roth: All the way up to the last phone call.
[both laugh]
Roth: Really!
Maron: Is there any love there, Dave?
Roth: Oh we love to scrap, are you kidding? Put any one of the brothers in a room, like myself, you can put me in a room naked, you come back and there is conflict.
Maron: What was it usually?
Roth: [It’s] just like a kitchen. Out front, in a restaurant it’s very deep. [Roth hums] In the back, it’s punk rock [Roth screams] and it’s a Balkan accent vs a French accent with fire, burns and flames – let’s go back out front [Dave hums], out to be the back! [Dave resumes screaming] And they are fighting with boiling water but you can’t let them know.
During the same interview, David Lee Roth described his issues with the Van Halen brothers. Eddie Van Halen’s wife recently shared a terrible injury photo.
“Van Halen’s perfect, and I always sensed that perfect would get back together, perfect in its imperfections. Think of your most ruined jeans that barely are jeans. They’re your favorite because of the holes in ’em… Your favorite part of your cowboy boots is the fucked up part… That kind of imperfection, we value that and we still have it, it’s in the music, and it makes the music more popular than ever.”
He said he’d be incapable of having dinner with Van Halen.
“Nope. Not even close. Not even close. This is not a golf club. This is a little closer to ‘The Wild Bunch’. There is a fury and an antagonism, and what comes out of that is, when it’s good — oh, man.”
He later explained his 1985 exit from the band.
“Why did it fracture? ‘Cause all rock bands fracture. It turns into diverse interests. People have the friction of time. And that friction is family; that friction is… sometimes it’s partying, but I don’t know if that’s what really separated Van Halen.”
“There were always creative differences. We never got along. It was a beautiful, beautiful pairing of… You’ve seen cowboy movies where the guys are always sabotaging each other but they’re working to somehow accomplish something. And I think you’ll see that in a lot of popular bands. They may have gotten through it, but I don’t know that we ever really grew up and became gentrified. Now, that may not be a good thing; a part of me remained 23 years old forever.”
