NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The blond mane and leather pants are gone from his days fronting Van Halen in the ’80s, but David Lee Roth’s boisterous personality is still intact.
Roth performs Saturday in Tacoma.
His latest project, a bluegrass tribute to his former band called “Strummin’ With the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen,” came out this summer, and in an interview about the CD, he seemed every bit the “Diamond Dave” of old – a wisecracking, motormouth cross between Robin Williams and Wolfman Jack.
“It’s been 27 summers – like the way I put that?” he said, explosively laughing. “That’s metric for years. Sounds like less. Sounds thinner (more loud laughter). Easier to digest, like, ‘I’m watching what I eat as opposed to I’m on a diet’ (laughter). I venerate the language also, sir (laughter).”
Roth emerged as Van Halen’s party-loving lead singer in the late ’70s and stayed with the group until splitting on less-than-amicable terms in 1985 for a solo career.
In January, Roth took on the daunting task of replacing Howard Stern on a syndicated morning show for CBS Radio. His show was canceled in April.
In a posh hotel suite with the bed still unmade and empty beer bottles on the end tables, the 51-year-old Bloomington, Ind., native picked up a guitar and played a country-flavored tune he said he wrote when he was 9. He discussed his appreciation for 1970s country-tinged rock acts such as Jackson Browne and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The tribute album began with Roth deciding he wanted to cut an acoustic record and putting out the word to some of Nashville’s finest pickers, including Blue Highway, the John Cowan Band, Mountain Heart, Larry Cordle and David Grisman. He said he wanted the album to be a credible interpretation of Van Halen, rather than a tongue-in-cheek exhibition.
8 p.m. Saturday, Emerald Queen Casino, 2024 E. 29th St., Tacoma. $30 to $65, Ticketmaster.
“Nine times out of 10 when people do a tribute album or tribute songs for somebody, it’s what I call ‘white boys playing reggae,’” Roth said. “They know they can’t, we know they can’t, so they sing like they can’t and play like they can’t. They gently make fun of the idiom or sing in a false accent.
“My only real insistence was that we reinvent the songs completely. “
As odd a concept as the record might seem, it mostly works. Hard rock classics including “Panama” and “And the Cradle Will Rock ” retain the energy of early Van Halen, but with mandolins and fiddles instead of electric guitars and drums.
Roth sings on only two tracks: “Jump” and “Jamie’s Cryin’.”
“I’ll never convince you that I’m either a cowboy or black. Those two stuck out as most legitimate,” for his vocal style, Roth said.
If he had sung on the others, “Well … white boys playing reggae.”
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