David Lee Roth - David Letterman 1985

all right here we go are you ready my first guest of the new year is the lead singer of Van Halen and here is a sample of his latest a solo a video work take a look at the monitors vote [Music] you how you doing oh I'm doing great Dave happy new years - same to you all right you have a nice New Year's the best yet we come from Los Angeles to New York City here we did the we did the countdown for MTV we did the world premiere of the video there is a matter of fact and that was an auspicious kiss-kiss occasion now you know cable though cable cable television is dead though this year it's it well you know I think what happens is that you know when you get something like MTV it's like regular television you know you get it and at first it's novel and its brand new and then you watch every channel every show right and then you become a little more selective and more selective until ultimately you'll end up with a radio now tell me about the video we just saw there a little bit of now what is the does this have a any kind of a background what is the concept well you know we keep trying you know in in Van Halen we kept trying to have a concept you know with the roads that were announced and Alex kept forgetting the concept that's a good thing to have somebody to periodically remind you the concert but the big thing with this is that we decided and we were going to be major movie moguls and direct our own video which is kind of an unusual thing I I've always maintained that that was not too difficult when you watch these videos on television what you're getting generally is the work of a producer or director who is like a hired gun you know like the like the little Mexican village hired Yul Brenner to come in and save the day or I'm well usually they're hiring the beer cane guy you know did the commercials or whatever and I said I've always said well I don't see why this would be so difficult and to prove it next time that you watch a mtv or one of the videos on television or something all you have to do is turn off the sound and you can on some vogner or some Black Sabbath and it makes perfect sense but you know that's that's a good point because when but if it's good work if you can get now when they when they give up the award for these things it'd be nice if the band actually directed them that would be an extra touch there that would be great yeah it's although judging from some of my peer group I'm not sure I would hand them the responsibility or peer group who do we mean well you know you can't expect somebody who spends ten years of their life on a postage stamp stage in a bar somewhere you know always said to be a major movie mogul I just lucked out postage stamp stage in a bar somewhere now this is obviously a reference to somebody who's successful in contemporary music today now who is it well that that is that's your classic background for the musician yeah there's somebody that you don't like your and now you know I use behind it no no just give us just give us the name this would be great give us the name and people will respond and we'll do a commercial we'll come back and talk more I can't name names i name names on the last show and I was lucky to get on this one now wait a minute it was the last shoe you're talking about so you're not gonna tell us yeah we'll have to go into something how about New Year's resolutions we'll take a shift here and things you make any oh absolutely and that you know as I said it watch before I think it's better to generalize in terms of the year to come you can't get any make a resolution and I and my resolution would be this year is that dog-eat-dog world that it is I think now's a good time on New Year's to decide whether you're going to be a hot dog or a little weenie [Music] well I have just beautiful I have chosen to remain a little wiener for one more season you're gonna be a weenie for another year all right we yeah we're gonna do a commercial we'll be back more with David Lee [Music] David Lee Roth is here now you're doing you're doing solo work is the does this mean that the band will soon be breaking up no no that happens you know that does happen that's that's the spinal tap story no I still have very I still have very strong tribal instincts and we'll be going into the studio like the middle of this month to start arguing again and we'll come back out with an album sometime this year hopefully I have I have here a book called everything you want to know about Van Halen by Gordon Matthews you know Gordon Matthews no I don't we have a couple of passages underlined and I just want you to respond to a couple of these during the concert van Halen roadies scour the audience for the cutest girls they can find according to legend every roadie gets five backstage passes to hand out well we do that every night here don't we Paul [Laughter] many a girl has been known to leave her boyfriend behind for a chance to party with the boys oh my god David Lee Roth claims to be actively searching out girls from the stage at you when he spots a girl in the audience he thinks his cute he dances over to the side of the stage while Eddie takes a guitar solo oh this is pitiful Eddie takes a guitar solo there he will shout something to an available roadie like read write read t-shirt out of sight six feet back while david dances back to the microphone a roadie in the front row will receive a radio communique from the stage then he will go to work to find the girl and give her a pass now is is there a hint of truth anywhere in this well it all started it all started when you start building your own stages and you're taking your own production on the road and they said Dave we have to build our own custom barricade out there you know and I said well and this was a few years ago I said well let's then let's customize it so we can so we can do exactly what you just read and we planted numbers on the on the inside and you know people keep reminding me of this kind of crazy image people keep invoking this there's wild-eyed slack-jawed image and everything and I tell you I've been seeing the same girl now for maybe two maybe three weeks man but you know if you have it down to radio communique and a grid work and cold well this is the 80s day I think and I'm sure quality guys will will testify look at their your lap in the routed stage and there goes the light side yeah you want to interact with the audience as closely as possible music music is a sharing experience and I feel that we can use technology to bring them bring ourselves closer to each other even in private tell me about brings us back to video tell me about the club here you have a club that's not actually what you would think it would be but well that's so that's a that's an enterprise that we started out in Los Angeles's it is very difficult to have an after-hours place there you know and everything kind of should they roll up the streets at two o'clock in the morning and we had to have a reason for keeping a place open after 2:00 and originally what we would do is I remember one fella came in his name was tomato tomato came into doing exhibits in art galleries what we call tomato and you know and we had it members-only from two o'clock on Friday and Saturday and we had to have some art on the world only to keep out the goofy people exactly and and tomato came in to do an exhibit and he looked at the walls and about six days later he came back with all of his art did the place up and everything fit just perfectly yeah man you know around the door jambs you know you know the custom of the windows and up into the corners of the ceiling at each it was a custom-made framing and everything and it turns out what he did is he just made it all up on the spot and he came in and measured the gallery you know and then made it kind of to order and everything and that's the kind of art that we had in there ultimately we just kept the same exhibit going and going going just covered it with plastic on Friday and Saturday this is this is not what I was talking about it's a great story but it's not what I was talking about this one right there that about the jungle oh that's something else entire well that's what well I'm afraid that you're talking about the jungle style we don't have time to go into the jungle studs now so we'll we'll have to have you come back another time now is is the the solo effort out yet yeah came out midnight at New Year's Eve which is kind of my personal holiday and let's see what happens for 1985 well good and and so you're gonna be a weenie one Gloria all right David Lee Roth [Music] [Applause]

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Views: 756,343

Rating: 4.7839956 out of 5

Keywords: van halen, david lee roth, david letterman, 1985, new york, newyear, interview, funny, Late Night with David Letterman, talkshow

Id: CwS72f2gxmY

Length: 11min 52sec (712 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/MichiganBrolitia]

Note how CFTH is out but he talks about the next VH album