David Lee Roth has opened up about the volitile relationships within Van Halen.
Van Halen – currently completed by brothers Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen, the former’s son – have had a well-documented tumultuous past and the original frontman has now gone as far to say that they despised each other from the very beginning of their career in the early 70s.
Appearing on the ‘WTF With Marc Maron’ podcast, he admitted: “We have always hated each other, right up until the last phone call.”
David says their hate towards one another is largely down to “creative differences” and being in “rival” groups before coming together.
He said: “There were always creative differences. We’ve never gotten along. We started in rival bands.
“Bitter rivals. But we were thrown together and it was amazing.”
However, he insisted that it’s the “fucked up parts” about his bandmates that made their friendship.
He added: “Think of your favourite jeans, they’re ruined and full of holes. What you love most about them is the fucked up parts.”
When asked if he still meets up with the Van Halen brothers, he replied: “Not even close.”
David quit the heavy rock group in 1985, despite them being one of the most successful bands of the time, and Sammy Hagar was hired by the band in a bid to reinvent their career.
But he also ended up quitting over the direction of the ‘Hot for Teacher’ group in 1996, leaving their future on the line.
By the September of that year, fans were shocked when David reunited on stage with his bandmates at the MTV Video Music Awards.
However, the appearance to present Best Male Video to Beck, which was dubbed one of the most outrageous moments of all time, ended up reigniting their feud and only lasted five minutes.
New York’s Radio City Hall defended into chaos as Eddie physically removed David from the podium and he left the band once again.
Reflecting on what happened that night, David said at the time: “I told Edward [Van Halen] at the time that I didn’t think it was a good idea for the band to go to [the VMAs] half-cocked; and that I didn’t want to imply by our presence there that we were ‘back’ if it was just a quickie for old time’s sake.
“It sickens me that the ‘reunion’ as seen on MTV was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
“If I am guilty of anything, I’m guilty of denial. I was an unwitting participant in this deception.”
The band went through several line-up changes, with David and Sammy even reuniting with the band at different times.
In 2015, the band completed a 39-date tour of North America.
Their last album featuring David is 2012’s ‘A Different Kind of Truth’.
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