David Lee Roth | Matt Connarton Unleashed

David Lee Roth's Tour Cancellation

David Lee Roth has canceled the rest of his solo tour, and some of you will chuckle at that news because it's become kind of a thing on YouTube.

The YouTube Criticism of David Lee Roth

All these people are posting videos of David Lee Roth and his recent live performances, and it's pretty bad. I don't remember who we were talking about this with on the show recently, but we were talking, oh yes, when the Melted Chapsticks were here in studio with us. We were talking about Motley Crue and how for years, for years now, people have been posting videos on YouTube about Vince Neil and how terrible his vocals are. And when I say that's been going on for years, I mean probably close to two decades now.

Well, David Lee Roth has also gotten similar treatment, especially over the past I don't know year. You know, at one point he had said he was retiring from touring and he had posted this was a couple of years ago, before he decided to come back. He had posted something on social media about It was very cryptic, but it sounded like he was saying that he was having some severe health crisis or something because he said he couldn't perform anymore. Because I wish I could remember how he put it exactly.

It sounded like he was hinting at something, something was very wrong. And he said something about every time he steps on stage, he imperils his own future, and doctors have told him that he actually used that terminology indicating something medical, that every time he was stepping on stage he was imperiling his own future, and so he wasn't gonna do it anymore, and even makes a very dark joke in the post, something about because Eddie van Halen, of course, passed away a number of years ago, and he says something about something in the post about Eddie, I might be right behind you, or something a little creepy, very cryptic.

But he basically announced his retirement from the stage course, as often happens, you know, just like in professional wrestling, in the music industry, retirements are never Retirements are never permanent until you're dead. Right, Once you're dead, you might, you might, you might. Sorry, I just got a text that made me chuckle. Once you're dead, that's what you're definitely done. So David Lee Roth is not dead, but he did cancel his current tour. Now it would be interesting. Oh, the other thing that happened too is Kiss during their At one point during their farewell tour, David Lee Roth was the opening act.

I think it was during the farewell tour. If not, it was the one right before it, you know, the end of the road tour. I should say to be more specific so I don't get a tongue lashing from my fellow Kiss fans. Uh Roth had left the tour or was asked to leave the tour. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but all of a sudden, David Lee Roth was no longer an opening act on the tour. And Gene Simmons.

Gene Simmons' Elvis Analogy

I forget if this wasn't a post or if he said it in an interview, but he was talking about David Lee Roth and kind of comparing him to Elvis. He's talking about how it's typical of Gene Simmons. And by the way, Kiss is my favorite band. I love Gene Simmons, so if I say anything critical about him, I'm being constructively critical. I do love him, but he does make me cringe at times. He said something about he's talking about Dave. He says something about how Elvis got to a point where you know, because if you look back, if you look at the career of Elvis Presley.

You know, you've got young Elvis. He was thin, he was, you know, doing the movies in addition to music, and he was so cool and so hip. And then you've got look, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I'm going to be blunt. You've got fat Elvis. I don't know how to say it, Vegas Elvis. Maybe that's a more polite way of saying it. You've got vegas Elvis. You know where he's wearing the jumpsuits and he's a little heavy, and he's not necessarily if you see some of those performances. He's not the Elvis of old or the Elvis who was young.

He's a different Elvis. And Gene Simmons kind of compares David Lee Roth to Elvis. Not that David Lee Roth got heavy, David Lee Roth is still very thin than as he ever was, but kind of saying, you know, Elvis got to a point where he was a bit past his prime and could not recapture his earlier, former, younger glory, and that David Lee Roth might be in that same position, might be in that same point of his career. And Roth responded to this on social media, I don't remember which platform it was, by offering Gene Simmons an emoji, or actually a series of emojis, but they were all the same, and they were just a to Gene Simmons, and that was it.

He didn't try to defend himself, he didn't try to directly address anything that Gene had said. Now, whether or not that comparison is fair, I'll leave that up to you to decide for yourself what you think of it. I don't think Gene should have said any of that. I think that was mean. Again, I love Gene. Kiss is my favorite band. I love Gene. I love, you know, everything he's done, except for the things that make me cringe a little. And I did cringe at that. But he said it, and he did apologize too.

Jane did apologize after and he, you know, because there wasn't backlash, and he said, look, I didn't mean to hurt Dave's feelings, and I am sorry. Sometimes I speak out of turn, and Gene has done a lot of that over the course of his life and career. Speaking out of turn has had gotten a little bit worse as he's gotten older. Probably that seems to happen everyone though.

The Aging Brain and Cringe Comments

This is a bit of an aside, but did you know there is research that shows, you know, people when they get and gene is what he's late seventies now or mid seventies, mid seventies. Did you know that? Because when people get older, people reach a certain age and they start to be a little more outspoken, and they start to say, you know, some of those things that you think maybe should be inside thoughts become outside thoughts, and older people, people of a certain age, will kind of blurt things out that maybe a younger person wouldn't.

And everybody kind of assumes that that's because when people get old, they just don't care anymore. They're like, I'm old, I might as well just say what's on my mind. Might as well just speak whatever pops into my head. Who cares? Right, I'm old, What are you gonna do? People assume that that's the reason, But there's actually something that happens to the brain where that for lack of And look, I'm not a you know, I'm not a neuroscientist. This is I only know what I've read and I'm trying to explain it and articulate it as I can, and I'm probably getting someone this is wrong, because again I'm not a neuroscientist, but my understanding is your brain at a certain point does actually change to where that filter that exists in your brain, that filter that sort of prevents you from blurting out things that you know should remain inside thoughts, prevents those things from getting outside.

That filter kind of goes away. And that's why, you know, and sometimes it can be uncomfortable if you have old people in your family. Sometimes people think it's cute, Oh Grandma. You know, Grandma blurted out something racist today. For some reason, if it's your grandma, you're supposed to think it's cute and funny. When anyone else you would be horrified. But it's grandma, so ohh, that's so funny. What grandma said is like, no, actually that's not funny. But I really wish Grandma hadn't said that.

But but there is something that changes in the brain. So maybe that's why Gene Simmons keeps saying cringey things, because he's said other cringe things, but he seems to do it more as he gets older. Maybe that filter is going away in his brain.

David Lee Roth's Tour Cancellation and Weak Ticket Sales

The point being David Lee Roth cut his tour short. I know, I took a very long way around back to this, but he abruptly canceled the rest of his remaining tour. This has happened recently, it says here, scrubbing upcoming shows in cities like Louisville, Kentucky, and Dylan Colorado from his schedule full. I don't know why those two cities are mentioned specifically. Full refunds are being issued to ticket holders, and no official reason was provided, though industry speculation. Speculation points to weak ticket sales.

Now, why would there be weak ticket sales? Who doesn't want to see David Lee Roth. Well, here's the problem. If if there's all these videos of you butchering these songs, I mean, he's there. It's really bad. We're actually I would say, I don't know if I would say worse than Vince Neil, but pretty bad. That's not exactly a good advertisement for your show, for your tour, right, you know, if people can go online and it's easier now than ever, and go on social media and find out and discover that you can't sing anymore.

And in reality, if we're really being honest, there are people who went to see Van Halen. You know, when Roth rejoined the band in what would that have been two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, around there, two thousand and nine, maybe on the reunion tour with Roth? Who would say even then, well Roth, really he's just kind of talking his way through the songs. Can't really do it. That's you know, cumulattleumul cumulatively. I don't know why I can't say that word. You know, you get to twenty twenty six and you see these videos of Roth just acting like a buffoon on stage and he can't sing at all.

I mean, he's that bad. You know, you're probably not gonna sell a lot of tickets. Somehow, this has not hurt Motley Crue. I don't know why, but the Vince Neil situation with Motley Crue, maybe fans are just used to it. They just know, Okay, Vince is going to sound terrible, but the rest of the band is fine. Then there's all that stuff about backing tracks and stuff. We won't get in all that. That's a whole we don't have time to get in all of that. But Molly Crue has not seemingly suffered from Vince Neil's inability to sing.

But apparently this is I mean, I'm guessing that's the reason he has weak ticket sales. Yeah, but there's no official reason that's been given.

Sammy Hagar's Sympathetic Response

Oh, there is something here about Sammy Hagar's response. Former Van Halen rivals. Sammy Hagar posted a sympathetic video wishing Roth well and publicly inviting him to guest perform or host during his Las Vegas residency. Sammy always tries to be the bigger person, doesn't He always takes a high road, he really does. I love Sammy Hagar. I'm I'm a bit of a anomaly. Perhaps I am one of the few Van Halen fans who will publicly say I actually preferred Van Halen with Sammy Hagar to David Lee Roth. Every other Van Halen fan on earth will tell you that they prefer Roth to Hagar.

And yet, and yet, this is a fact. If you just go by the numbers, they were more successful during the Hagar years than the Rothiers. Don't get me wrong, during the Roth years they were already huge. They were already one of the biggest bands in the world. But they sold even more tickets and more albums with Hagar. When Hagar was in the band, and yet no one ever likes to say, I'll do it. I'll be the uncool kid in the room. I don't care. Actually, I love them both. I love all eras of Van Halen. I didn't like some of the stuff on the one album they did with Gary Scharon.

So I love both Dave and Sammy I do. I love them both for different reasons. They're different flavors, right, but gone to my head, I gotta go Hagar. Hagar's got the pipes. Hagar is a hell of a singer. Roth is a more clever lyricist. I will say that. Got to give Roth that, but Hagar, Hagar is a better singer, and Hagar can still sing to this day. Hagar can sing. I don't see Hagar canceling anything. And Hagar is older than Roth by I don't know what six or seven years, and Hagar is still able to do it.

Closing Thoughts on Van Halen Eras

All right, We absolutely have to get to a break. But that is the uh. David Lee Roth news he has canceled the rest of his summer tour and he has not said why, and I do hope he's okay. I know we picked on him a little bit. I picked on him a little bit, but I do ope he's okay. Maybe he's going to try to maybe work with a vocal coach and see if there's any way to salvage what's left of those pipes.

God bless him, but he's done for now. And you know he's seventy one years old. I mean, that might be it. You know, it wouldn't be the first time he's retired. If he is in fact retiring, we'll see.