Australian news website News.co.au recently caught up with vocalist David Lee Roth to talk about the new album, tour and what the future holds in store for Van Halen.
Perhaps most interesting were his comments when asked if he could see himself back in Van Halen for the long term.
"It's a revised spirit, it's a real band," he said. "However temporary it may be there's a real core of strength, an integrity to the band. An obsessiveness to it that will ring true at least for the rest of this tour. To promise anything beyond that, I don't know. That kind of friction and back and forth solicits the best. In the battle of the bands, we actually are a battle of the bands in one band."
When asked about his currently relationship with Eddie Van Halen, Roth replied, "If Ed and I can get along, then world peace can have a chance. There's sparks, there's energy, there's a team enthusiasm closer to pirates than little league. There's still some pillaging going on there. You can hear it in the music. There's routinely conflict but there's a lot of laughter. A lot of appreciation for the privilege of the job; compared to some of the other jobs we've all held, this is better."
You can read more here.
The Eddie Van Halen Guitar World Box Set is a limited-edition package that includes all four Guitar World February 2009 issues, each of which has a unique cover photo featuring Eddie Van Halen with a different version of his new EVH Wolfgang guitar. It's available now at the Guitar World Online Store.
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Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.
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