David Lee Roth on how he saved Van Halen from being “statues”
When Van Halen burst onto the scene, they delivered a genre of music that people simply hadn’t heard before. It was inspired by the hard rock sound that was dominating airwaves at the time, forged by bands such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, but their way of playing was different, and their approach to the riff was so left field that it almost sounded like a new genre.
Eddie Van Halen developed a name for himself as being one of the best guitarists on the planet. This wasn’t just because of his skill (of which there was a lot) but also his innovation. He played the guitar in an alien way, utilising the shredding and tapping technique in a way that people hadn’t done before. It stopped being an occasional gimmick and started being used to make riffs that were instantly recognisable.
Of course, the music was intense to listen to and even harder to dance to. This is something that David Lee Roth picked up on when he first started playing with the band. As a man who enjoyed listening to soul music and R&B, a lot of Lee Roth’s performances centred around movement and groove. As such, he became very critical of the band’s movement so that he knew he, and subsequently, the audience, could move to it once played.
“The Van Halen’s were all Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple,” he said when talking about the contrast between the band and himself, “The only thing white I wanted to hear was the drummer from Sly and the Family Stone. It was the perfect balance.”
Because of their contrasting music tastes, the Van Halen brothers and Lee Roth were able to help one another when working out how to put the band together and what kind of music they wanted to play. Van Halen made very heavy music, which ultimately appealed to those who listened, but Lee Roth managed to inject something that meant they became radio-friendly and had a wide appeal worldwide.
“Nobody could dance to their stuff, so it becomes an exhibition like going and looking at a statue at a museum,” he said, “You got to get smooth… You ain’t gunna get any girls like that.”
Lee Roth had a strict process for greenlighting the band’s songs, as he wanted to ensure that people would be able to “get smooth” when listening to their music. He had his own PA system, so when they had a draft of a song made up, he would put it through the PA system to ensure that if it ever came on in a bar or in the background, people would be keen to dance to it.
With such experimental music, Van Halen had the opportunity to mess up early on in their career and make something inaccessible; however, the range of taste within the band meant that they could hone in on their sound and create something new but also accessible.
