“I wasn’t someone”: What David Lee Roth’s brief gig as a paramedic taught him about life values
There are no rules for feeling like a rock star. Most musicians get the rush when on stage in front of the spirit and energy of an enthusiastic audience, while others feel it in the studio, knowing their music has an impact on people. David Lee Roth might fall into those categories, but there was one other venture that left him feeling a newfound sense of purpose.
Roth has never been what you might call a subdued personality. Even in interviews, he exudes the kind of passion and energy of someone who adores and appreciates art in all its forms. This is what led him to explore other territories beyond music, channelling his inner thoughts, feelings, and experiences into his drawings and comics as a way of venturing further: “Social commentary is what I do,” he once said. “It’s what I’ve always done.”
However, Roth’s legacy solidified when he began fronting Van Halen, giving him the perfect stage to flex his glam rock bravado. A true larger-than-life figure, Roth’s animation stems from a desire to enhance the taste of the rock landscape, always adorning the stage with the kind of charismatic and flamboyant showmanship others could merely dream of.
In this way, he always made sure he engaged with the audiences with a natural flair, often delivering physically demanding stints with extreme and consistent movement onstage, leaving many to wonder how someone could ever have the stamina even to pull it off. This earned him the nickname of the quintessential frontman, earning respect from other players like Henry Rollins.
Roth was the rock frontman blueprint for someone like Rollins and countless others. When asked about his favourite hard rock frontman, he once said Roth was someone who mastered the art of making music seem as demanding as it felt: I always admired David Lee Roth for his physicality,” he said. “He was in top shape and burned a lot of calories up there. He once said to me that music should look like it sounds. I think he embodied that perfectly.”
That said, Roth sought gratification in other arenas besides his showmanship. As well as his drawings, he once accepted a brief gig as a paramedic, which brushed him with a reality check about what it truly felt like to be of service in a way that had nothing to do with fame, adrenaline, or the spotlight. As he explained on CBS: “I wasn’t someone until I put on that 5.11 uniform and went on my first call.”
Although starkly different to his eccentricity on stage, he also said the job taught him about one of our biggest values in life—having a sense of humour. “I’m not gonna kid you, I knew I was in for the humbling experience,” he said. “A white-boy rock star thinks, ‘What, this is an easy gig?’ Humour is your only weapon, your only life-preserver that you can give to somebody who thinks they’re gonna die.”
There are no rules to feeling like a rockstar, but in that moment, Roth recalled feeling impassioned by a different kind of drive—not just caring for another but knowing how to ride on instinct during some of life’s more crucial moments. Many might not necessarily pin Roth down as a healthcare professional, but even if he didn’t possess a natural knack for it, there’s no denying the power of his charisma to put people at ease.
