Alex Van Halen Reveals Why Van Halen Really Hired David Lee Roth: ‘If He’s in the Band, We Can Save 

Alex Van Halen Reveals Why Van Halen Really Hired David Lee Roth: ‘If He’s in the Band, We Can Save 

For many Van Halen fans, David Lee Roth was their definitive singer and frontman. After all, he was involved in their two best-selling albums, “Van Halen” and “1984,” both of which have been certified “diamond” in the US, for over 10 million copies sold of each.

 

However, it was not clear at the very beginning that it would work out creatively between Roth and the Van Halen brothers, Eddie and Alex. During a recent interview Ariel Levy, Alex recalled how an initial tryout with Roth didn’t pan out, but, how a second attempt did finally work.

“It was no mystery to me, and I had to do some arm twisting with Ed,” Alex said (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “But the way Ed and I made decisions is that if one of us wanted to do it and the other one didn’t, then we wouldn’t do it. If both of us were in agreement, then we would do it. For no other reason than just to be equitable in how we approached what we did.”

“Like I said, everybody was leaving town, and the people who were serious about music were very few left. Ed and I went to Dave’s house to try it one more time.”

In addition to possessing undeniable on-stage charisma and rock star looks, Roth also had something that the Van Halen brothers could definitely use. And it would save them a substantial sum going forward if they joined forces.

“We’d been gigging, and we were paying a lot of money to his PA, and it just didn’t make any sense to me. ‘Ed, why do we pay him 20 bucks a night for PA? If he’s in the band, we can save 20 bucks.’ You gotta combine everything, man. You gotta make things work, stretch.”

“So we went to this house,” Alex continued. “And we, long story short, we drank a few shots of this, that, and he was very entertaining and very articulate and very convincing in that he should be in the band. And so at the end of the night, Ed and I are going all over all the things that our dad has said, and we said, ‘Yes,’ just like that, ‘You’re in.'”