12 Daves Of Christmas: 2 - David Lee Roth

By Simon Bradley
published

Although DLR has been known to strum on occasion, he's more importantly responsible for bringing Steve Vai to the fore and helping to make the original Van Halen truly great...

© Neal Preston/CORBIS

Although Freddie Mercury might have something to say about DLR being referred to as rock's Greatest Ever Showman, the Van Halen frontman is certainly amongst the very best and most revered of performers.

Van Halen were, at first, blessed and ultimately cursed with a line-up that included not one but two mega-watt superstars. Van Hagar have their fans, but not many who lauded the band's genre-defining first album have much positive to say about the current incarnation that features Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang on bass. Still, the fact that Diamond Dave is still out there doing it says something for his drive...

Did You Know?

In 2004, he appeared in an episode of The Sopranos.

Here's visual proof, albeit of a terrible quality, that Dave can play guitar...

And here's the track that launched Steve Vai into the stratosphere...and our rock-lovin' hearts...

Simon Bradley

Simon Bradley is a guitar and especially rock guitar expert who worked for Guitarist magazine and has in the past contributed to world-leading music and guitar titles like MusicRadar (obviously), Guitarist, Guitar World and Louder. What he doesn't know about Brian May's playing and, especially, the Red Special, isn't worth knowing.