we got a good show to start the new year here don't we stupendous
ah from van halen david lee roth is here
and of course whenever you have anybody on from van halen you have to have
sex therapist dr ruth westheimer all right here we go are you ready my first guest uh
of the new year is the lead singer of van halen please welcome david lee roth
how you doing oh i'm doing great dave happy new years to you thanks 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 uh
we did the countdown for mtv we did the world premiere of the video there as a matter of fact
and that was an auspicious aspis occasion now you know cable uh 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 you get it and at first it's novel
and it's 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 wind up with a radio
um now uh tell me about the the video we just saw there a little bit of now what is
the does this have a uh any kind of a uh uh background a concept what is the concept of
well you know we keep trying you know in in uh van halen we kept trying to have uh a concept you know
with the brothers edward and alex and um alex kept forgetting the concept you know so it was kind of
it was it was sort of up to me you know i might come out with it it's a good thing to have
somebody to periodically remind you of the concept but the big thing with this is that we decided
that we were going to be major movie moguls and direct our own video which is kind of an unusual
thing uh 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 yule brenner to come in and save
the day for them well usually they're hiring the beer cane guy you know who 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 mtv or one of the videos on television or something all you have to do is
turn off the sound and you can put on some wagner or some black sabbath and it makes perfect sense
but you know that's uh that's a good point because when uh but if uh it's good work if
you can get it now when they when they give out the awards for these things
uh it'd be nice if the band actually directed them that would be an extra touch there that would be
great yeah it's uh although judging from some of my peer group i'm not sure i would hand them the
responsibilities yeah they're like like when you say some of your peer group who do we mean
here well you know you can't expect somebody who spends 10 years of their life on a postage
stamp stage in a bar somewhere you know all of a sudden 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 your that's your classic
background for the musicians yeah but there's somebody that you don't like here now you know
why he's behind the door no no just give us just give us the name this would be great give us the
name and people will uh respond and we'll do a commercial we'll come back and talk more about
it and i can't name names i named names on the last show and i was lucky to get on this one then
uh now wait a minute what was what was the last show you're talking about
um so you're not going to tell us no we'll have to go into something how about new year's resolutions
we'll take a shift here and things you make any people don't make those absolutely and
uh you know as i said it once before i think it's better to generalize in terms of the year to come
you can't you know you 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
i have chosen to remain a little weiner for one more season you're
gonna be a weenie for another year yeah you bet all right
uh we yeah we're gonna do a commercial we'll be back uh more with david leader
thanks paul lee roth is here now uh you're doing you're doing solo work is the is the does this
mean that the band will soon be uh breaking up no no no that happens you know that does happen
that's that's the spinal tab story no i still have very s i still have very strong tribal instincts
and we'll be going into uh the studio like the middle of this month and 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
do you know gordon matthews no i don't know well then at least it's authentic
we are indicting him though oh really there's some heat here no not at all here we have a
couple of passages underlying and i just want you to respond to a couple of these
uh 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
uh many a girl has been known to leave her boyfriend behind for a chance to party with
the boys oh my god uh david lee roth claims to be actively searching out girls from the stage
that's you when he spots a girl in the audience he thinks is cute he
dances over to the side of the stage while eddie takes a guitar solo oh this is pitiful
no i can't no anyway let me just finish this one little thing here and then you can say
whatever you want to say night court let me take it but let me just finish there's one
little line here uh david uh i feel like this is judge wapner eddie takes a guitar solo there he
will shout something to an available roadie like red right red 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 uh do exactly what you just read
and we painted numbers on the on the inside and uh you know people keep reminding me of this
kind of crazy image people keep invoking this this wild-eyed slack-jawed image and everything
and i'll tell you i've been seeing the same girl now for maybe two maybe three weeks man
but you know you have it down to radio communique and a grid work and codes well this is the 80s
dave you know and there's time to i i think and i i'm sure paul the guys will will testify yeah
they're the they're you're laughing the loudest ain't you man yeah and there goes the light sign
yeah you want to interact with the audience as closely as possible music
music is a sharing experience and um i feel that we can use technology to bring bring ourselves
closer to each other and uh even in private uh now tell me about it brings us back to video
tell me about the uh the club you're you have a club that's uh not actually what you would
think it would be but well that's sort of that's a that's an enterprise that we started out in los
angeles is it's very difficult to have an after hours place there you know everything kind of 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 two and um originally what we would do is uh i remember one fella came in his name was
tomato tomato came in to do an exhibit it's an art gallery is what we call the tomatoes and uh
you know and we had it members only from two o'clock on on friday and saturday and uh we
had to have some our online only to keep out the goofy people exactly and uh and uh 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 and did the place up and everything fit just perfectly yeah man you know around the door jams
you know you know on the cusp of the windows and up into the corners of the ceiling 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 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 now this is this is not what i
was talking about it's it's a great story but it's not what i was talking about this one right there
about the the jungle oh that's something else entirely well that's what i said
well i'm afraid you're ty you're talking about the jungle stats the jungle studs
but we don't have time to go into the jungle studs
now so we'll uh we'll have to have you come back another time oh well
now uh is is the the solo uh effort out yet yeah came out midnight at new year's eve
which is kind of my personal holiday and we'll see what happens for 1985. well good and and
so you're going to be a weenie one more year all right david lee roth we'll be right back
you