David Lee Roth to retire in January 2022

David Lee Roth has announced his retirement from music. He’s going to end it in what must surely be the single most appropriate place for him to do so on Earth: Las Vegas.

When the conversation turns to greatest rock ‘n’ roll front man of all time, Roth is generally at or near the top of the list. And there’s little doubt that when he was in his prime, nobody could touch him.

However, his “prime” is deceptively short. If we start it at 1977, when Van Halen came to national prominence, Roth was at the top of his game for about 11 years. That was good for six Van Halen albums, one solo EP, and one solo LP. (Though he had successes beyond Eat ‘Em and Smile, it was the only towering solo record he did. Fight me.)

Oakland in June 1981, on the Fair Warning tour, is right down the middle of his prime:

Regretfully, the only time I ever saw him in person was in 2002, on a tour with Sammy Hagar. Charles and I were so happy Sammy played first, because Dave was awful. It would have been a good Van Halen lounge revue, okay? Five years after the event, I commented:

Charles and I saw David Lee Roth in 2002, and it was not pretty. I mean, the guy was sloppy as hell even back in the day, but he more than made it up with vibe and energy. Five years ago, he was living in the Self-Parody subdivision on the outskirts of Suckville, and it wasn’t new construction. It would have been really good had it been your tenth-grade geometry teacher impersonating David Lee Roth at the Halloween carnival, gnome sane?

So we heard/watched half a dozen tortured classics, with mostly spoken vocals with Vegas revue phrasing, accompanied by an occasional pathetic knee-high sweep kick. Having already had our asses thoroughly kicked courtesy of Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas, we decided to beat the traffic.

(Frankly, I’d guess that’s about how he’ll go out, given the environs.)

I don’t want to disrespect the guy, but I won’t lionize him either. My understanding is that he did a decent job on the A Different Kind of Truth tour, which I had no interest in seeing because I didn’t consider it a Van Halen reunion without Michael Anthony.

Fare thee well, Mr. Roth. Thanks for the memories.

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