Home Featured DAVID LEE ROTH Is Reportedly ‘Holding Up’ The VAN HALEN Tribute Project

DAVID LEE ROTH Is Reportedly ‘Holding Up’ The VAN HALEN Tribute Project

david lee roth van halen tribute, DAVID LEE ROTH Is Reportedly ‘Holding Up’ The VAN HALEN Tribute Project

Apparently singer David Lee Roth is the reason the planned VAN HALEN tribute project has not been moving forward.

According to SiriusXM radio personality Eddie Trunk, who provided an update on the VAN HALEN tribute plans on his radio show this past Friday (July 1), after checking out THE BLACK CROWES concert in Asbury Park, New Jersey, David Lee Roth is the main holdup for the proposed project. Trunk said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I had a very, very, very reliable source tell me last night at THE BLACK CROWES show that the hold-up on the VAN HALEN-anything happening is a lot of it falling on David Lee Roth, that David Lee Roth — to no surprise; it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody — is a difficult guy to wrangle, a difficult guy to get an answer on, a difficult guy to get focused on anything, a difficult guy to get to sign off on anything. He is all over the map, as you would expect and have seen throughout history, and that the big hold-up in anything happening with VAN HALEN is not Alex, who wants to do it and is trying; it’s actually Roth who needs to sign off and be involved. Also, contrary to any reports of anything different, Alex and [former VAN HALEN bassist] Michael Anthony are totally cool and there’s no issue there at all. And the stumbling block is trying to get Alex and Dave on the same page and Dave wanting to do this and how they’re gonna do it. And that’s really one of the big stumbling issues. And it did not escape anybody, as I’ve said before, you’ve got two Taylor Hawkins [tribute concerts] in two different countries [announced] two months after Taylor passed or so, and here we are coming up on two years [after VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen‘s death] and they can’t figure out anything for Eddie. It’s crazy. Hopefully that’ll be corrected.”

The proposed VAN HALEN tribute project, whether it be in the form of a single show or an actual tour, was first reported back in April when former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted revealed to The Palm Beach Post that he was approached by drummer Alex Van Halen about six months earlier about playing bass for the tribute, in whatever form it may take. Newsted revealed to the Florida newspaper that he agreed to go to California to jam with Alex and guitarist Joe Satriani to see if it felt right, but he eventually declined after realizing that it would be impossible to do justice to VAN HALEN‘s legacy. “How could you?” Jason said. “There’s nobody that can top it, so how do you show it honor? I didn’t want it to be viewed as a money grab. And then it kind of just all fizzled.”

Last month, Michael Anthony confirmed to Eddie Trunk on his radio show that he was involved in some of the early conversations about the planned VAN HALEN tribute project.

“I haven’t spoken to him in a little while, but I have spoken with Alex on occasion,” Michael said. “And for the most part, we don’t even speak that much about music — more about just family, how we’re doing and stuff like that. I know it still pains him a lot as far as Eddie goes and will probably for the rest of his life. But I spoke with him and Dave last year about a possible something, but Dave just starts going [talking really fast] And I’m, like, ‘Okay.’ And we basically just had kind of a conference call about having a conference call to discuss it, and then that other call didn’t happen for whatever reason on their end. I told them that I’d obviously be interested. And it would be more like a celebration of the music rather than putting together something and calling it VAN HALEN because that just wouldn’t be right at this point.”