David Lee Roth is retiring from music.
“I’m throwing in the shoes,” Van Halen’s frontman announced to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a new interview to promote his forthcoming residency in the city. “I’m retiring.”
“This is the first, and only, official announcement,” Roth added. “You’ve got the news. Share it with the world.”
One of rock music’s greatest showmen, ‘Diamond’ Dave will bow out with five January shows at the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay. Tickets for the shows go on-sale tomorrow (October 2).
“I’m not going to explain the statement,” Roth declared. “The explanation is in a safe. These are my last five shows.”
In a typically loquacious monologue delivered to writer John Katsilometes, Roth touched upon “the departure of my beloved classmate,” a reference to his former bandmate Eddie Van Halen, who passed away on October 6 following an extended battle with cancer.
“I thought I might have been the first, frankly,” Roth admitted, “I might have thought the Marlboro Man would’ve got me… And my doctors, my handlers, compelled me to really address that every time I go on stage, I endanger that future.”
“I am encouraged and compelled to really come to grips with how short time is, and my time is probably even shorter.”
Roth ended his ‘interview’ with Katsilometes without taking a single question from the Las Vegas Review-Journal writer.
“I’ve given you all I’ve got to give,” he declared before exiting. “It’s been an amazing, great run, no regrets, nothing to say about anybody. I’ll miss you all. Stay frosty.”
