So this is honestly one of the funniest stories in rock in the past few years. The other day in Las Vegas, David Lee Roth was attending an electric dance festival, specifically EDC. He loves EDM music and all his other dance oriented genres. And he’s been popping up at these EDM festivals that are playing remixes of ‘Jump’ and other hits. He gets up on stage during the songs and does his thing. Of course, probably about 15% of the audience knows who he actually is. And there’s now a little slice of evidence that might prove prove that notion.
During his stop at EDC in Vegas, Roth, who obviously has a crew around him because he’s DLR, approaches a neighboring hotel door with a brimming smile on his face. You know, that David Lee Roth ear to ear smile. ‘Is this the place with the Van Halen?’ he asks. And the crew approaches the door.
One of his crew members rings the door bell and it’s a bachelor party of some mid twenty somethings. The door opens and he just standing there in his glory, ‘HEY GUYS!! We heard there was some Van Halen playing across the hallway.’ And the guys are so confused and dumfounded. They have no idea who this guy is. They have an apologetic demeanor about them. The rest of the bachelor crew comes to the door an apologizes for the noise they’re making. ‘NO MAN! It’s no problem I’m David Lee Roth!’ It goes right over everyones head and they apologize quickly. The real capper is that DLR and crew leave realizing that the party doesn’t recognize greatness. And when they get to the elevator, a shirtless dude, supposedly the dude throwing the party, chases them down and apologizes again. Pure gold.
Now, in their defense if they do know who DLR is they probably would have recognized him had he looked like used to. Which is of course impossible. But DLR has radically changed his image in the past 15 years or so and then some. Honestly even longer than that. He’s at the door in some sort of plaid zuit suit and a tam o’shanter. He looks just like some Vegas high roller who gambles professionally and is looking to get some sleep soon. Also, the probability, whether you’re in Vegas or not, of DLR showing up at your door seems pretty improbable. So maybe they just didn’t believe it. Or maybe they just thought he was some loud, crazy, aging guy. Roth also handles it really well when it’s all said and done. He just does his smile and wave and walks off while the party is apologizing. It’s just so damn funny.
