David Lee Roth kicked off his solo Las Vegas residency — and also gave a brief and worrying update on Eddie Van Halen's health.
Roth launched his three-night run at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino's House of Blues venue on Wednesday night (January 8th), and returns for a six-show run on March 18th, 20th, 21st, 25th, 27th, and 28th.
Roth, whose show balanced Van Halen classics with a smattering of solo favorites, shed light on why he's hitting the stage again — albeit without his Van Halen bandmates — telling The Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Ed (Van Halen)’s not doing well, and singing and dancing is a perishable skill. If you have the capacity, it’s something that has to be used routinely, if not for the thrill of it and the magic of creating with other incandescent spirits."
Roth went on to say that this show — which will serve later this year as Kiss' North American opening act — has been workshopped to perfection: "Most bands spend six weeks, minus auditions, to bring you a superb show. I started two years ago. I bring two guitars, sometimes three, and now it picks up the way you first heard it inside that car, the way you first heard it in those great big ugly Koss headphones your brother lent to ya.”
Roth went on to sell the show by saying, "What we bring here is a whole sensibility of storytelling and toasting and dedications. I’ve already had one request, fella wants to propose on stage, so we’ll prepare a gospel moment, clearly. We’ll have to."
Back in the day, David Lee Roth spoke candidly about the allure of showbiz: ["It's no good unless there's an audience. I can get away with more in rock n' roll. Y'know, I can, kinda, dance around from side-to-side; and if it's a little bit risky, y'know, 'Oh, is that acceptable?' Like that, that's pop entertainment. That's not even necessarily just rock 'n roll. But, what happens is one man's really badness is somebody else's wonderful. And that's how you wind up as the guy on the post office wall on the poster in one hand and on Muppets magazine on the other."] SOUNDCUE (:16 OC: . . . on the other)
David Lee Roth plays tonight and tomorrow (January 10th and 11th) at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino's House of Blues.