David Lee Roth has blown more than a few longtime fans' minds with the unannounced drop of his tribute to Van Halen, called “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway.” The acoustic-based track popped up on his official YouTube site sporting a photo of the band circa 1979 jumping while on tour.
The track finds a clearly nostalgic Roth sifting through memories and touching on the band's early days and their unprecedented ride at the turn of the 1970's. “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Then Anyway” stems from 2007 sessions with guitarist John 5 and Roth's original solo band drummer Gregg Bissonette for a project that never materialized.
“Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” – lyrics via Blabbermouth:
We laughed, we cried, we threw the television off that balcony
That memory means so much to me
No doubt in me, I do believe that no one listens to both sides except the neighbors
Fine art of compromise, happy losing half of mine 'cuz she'll lose her half later
First taste of being victim of the very songs I sing
Ended up with “say goodbye” and “I hope I hear good things”
Walk away
Walk away
Nothing could have stopped us back then anyway
Remember when you safety pinned the tablecloth to my pants
And I stood up to the sound of dancing and the sound of our romance beginning
Kicked out the restaurant to make the night complete
Six pack and a happy meal on a park bench down the street
Dinner with Tennessee’s elite
“Once upon a time” is how a fairy tale sells it
“Sit down you won't believe this s***” is how the trucker tells it
Strike up the band, hire the piper we will pay
Nothing could have stopped us back then anyway
David Lee Roth told us that these days bands just don't make their bones playing out the way the pre-fame Van Halen did in the first half of the 1970's: “Used to be, you would play in clubs five, six, seven 45-minute sets a night. The mighty classic Van Halen, when I was quarterback, must have learned 400 songs by other people, ranging from KC & The Sunshine Band, doing four-part harmony on 'Get Down Tonight.' We played Led Zeppelin, and we played Ohio Players, and we played ZZ Top. Somewhere in between, you had a balancing act there.”
Author Greg Renoff received raves for his Van Halen biography, Van Halen Rising: How A Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal. In the book Renoff explained that what David Lee Roth lacked in vocal prowess was covered by his passion and total dedication to delivering onstage: “One of the people I talked to was the bass player in Red Ball Jet — that was the band Dave formed after the Van Halen brothers turned him down the first time. He said from the first time he saw Dave — so this is even before Red Ball Jet — he said he saw him play in a park, on the same bill. These are like high school kids, everybody else is kinda swaying to the music while they play — y'know, Dave goes out there, he's got, like the Mick Jagger rooster tail going out of the back of his jeans and he's, like, y'know, grinding and doing these things and everybody's, like 'We were just having lunch with you in the cafeteria six hours ago — what are you doing, man?!' Like, y'know? But that was who he was. He was entrainment first all the time from the get-go. No. It's about the show. It's about being an entertainer.”