The reason why David Lee Roth claimed Kurt Cobain killed his career
In the ever-evolving world of rock and roll, nothing is guaranteed. While some artists may continue to thrive on the nostalgia circuit after several years in the industry, there comes a finite time when their relevance begins to wane and audiences start seeking the next big thing. Despite maintaining a magnetic stage presence over the years, David Lee Roth felt that much of his own relevance in the spotlight dwindled the moment he laid eyes on Kurt Cobain.
When breaking down the aesthetic of David Lee Roth, though, nothing about him exactly screams ‘subtle’. From the first time he opened his mouth on the first Van Halen, Roth never claimed to be an introspective type, always making the most of his time onstage by singing his heart out while Eddie Van Halen sprinkled his tasty licks behind him.
By the time the 1980s rolled around, Roth had started to grow distant from what Eddie was working on. Since the band had substituted many of Eddie’s trademark guitar licks for keyboard sounds on the album 1984, Roth would be out the door, claiming that he would eat the band for breakfast when he started his solo career.
As hard as it must have been to see these two bandmates fighting over everything, fans won out in the end, with Roth moving on to a decent solo career on MTV and Van Halen ploughing forward with Sammy Hagar at the microphone. Like most groups of their ilk, things weren’t nearly as kind once grunge hit.
While Roth may not have given birth to the idea of hair metal, he sure as hell was a victim of it when the alternative nation took over. Compared to the new sounds of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Roth looked like a cartoon character for all the wrong reasons, presenting the kind of over-the-top rockstar attitude that most grunge rockers found reprehensible.
It’s not like Roth didn’t hold a grudge against Cobain for putting his career into decline. When asked about why he had trouble booking dates in the 1990s, Roth pointed the finger squarely at Nirvana, saying, “Two words: Kurt Cobain. I went from playing to 12,000 people to 1,200. From arenas to casinos and state fairs, and the local House Of Blues. That will cause you to reflect a lot more clearly on your values. Fun wasn’t seen as fun anymore”.
Even though Roth’s brand of fun-loving rock and roll was starting to be looked at as cliche, his counterparts did have a few more years under their belt to weather the storm nicely. While Van Halen songs like ‘Right Now’ may not have been the greatest of their career at the time, the fact that they came out a little bit early into the alternative genre led to many happily putting their records right next to the Soundgardens and Pearl Jams of the world.
Van Halen would even get introspective about the grunge scene once Cobain tragically passed away, with Hagar penning the song ‘Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do’ specifically as a response to Cobain’s suicide. Roth may have gotten the last laugh by getting the gig in Van Halen in the 2000s, but by that point, it didn’t matter. Van Halen was still playing the old hits, and the rest of rock was still dealing with the shockwaves of what Nirvana had already done.
