During an appearance on Metal Express Radio, original Yngwie Malmsteen singer Jeff Scott Soto talked about the classic Van Halen singer David Lee Roth.
When the interviewer said, “The big rock news is that David Lee Roth is officially retiring. He didn’t clarify what that meant. Have you met Dave in your adventures in the rock world?”, Soto replied (transcribed by UG):
“One time and one time only, he was at our show when I was singing with Yngwie at the Hollywood Palladium in 1985.
“I heard that Dave was in the audience, and of course, the reason why Dave was in the audience wasn’t told to us then – he was basically there scouting and seeing [bassist] Billy Sheehan there to be starting up his solo band, the ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ band.
“And I got to meet him once quickly, took a quick photo with him, and that’s the only time I met Diamond Dave.
“Massive influence, massive inspiration, a lot of people gave him flack for his lack of vocal prowess, but even there, when you truly listen to what that guy did.
“Maybe, OK, he’s not Lou Graham or Mike Reno or Steve Perry or Jimi Jamison, but what he did not only put a stamp to what that band sounded like and stood for, he actually was a good singer.
“You hear certain qualities of his voice – yeah, there might be some things he’s throwing away, but the narrative of what he’s doing to those songs is why those songs became so important.
“And then you get just another singer who’s actually a good singer to sing them, and it sounds stupid, it’s goofy as far as I’m concerned.
“I love Sammy Hagar to death, but I didn’t enjoy Sammy singing Dave’s songs, and I think he also realized that, ‘People don’t want to hear me singing Dave. I would sing them the way I sing them, and it loses that magic of what David did to those songs.’
“Sammy chose to, he asked the band, ‘Let’s just stick to the majority of the stuff that we’re doing together,’ and I respect him for that just the same, but Dave had a certain magic.
“And for whatever the reasons are – and I hope the reasons aren’t deep-rooted, I hope he truly is OK – I hope he really just wants to enjoy these last years that we all have.
“Our days are numbered, we’re all older now. I hope that’s the case, I really don’t want to lose another icon, such an important figure in music history, and in my life, I’m not ready for that.”
7 comments
Diamond Dave should sing his songs & thats final. Sammy sings the songs he did with the band & Dave sings his . Period end of story. Love DLR stuff better anyway.
I love Sammy’s voice when he sings, my two favorite songs are right now and when it’s love, they are awesome
Pop songs at best! Definitely not the true VH! Diamond Dave era was the best!
because they were goofy and stupid (Lyrics) and suited the music at that time…
8/26/86 my first concert ever was 5150. VH with DLR was my favorite band. At least the crew played a lot of the real hits and made Hagar stand around for a good half hour. He didn’t even know all the lyrics to DLR stuff at that point. Was happy he didn’t attempt to sing
David Lee Roth sounds great in the early Van Halen stuff, I much prefer it to the Sammy stuff. Dave’s solo stuff was great as well. Dave was the ultimate frontman.
Jeff is such an amazing vocalist in his own rite!