David Lee Roth has shared a couple of new pieces of original artwork in which he reflects on his brief stint as a morning radio show host. Check them out below.
After Roth‘s syndicated show ended in April 2006, he was philosophical about the whole thing, telling Launch it was a clash of styles that led to his firing. “They were looking for familiar morning radio, and I gave them a warm and happy little corner candy store — but Tony Soprano was selling guns out of the back room,” he laughed. “Which to me is familiar and warm. [Laughs] Maybe they live in a different neighborhood — whaddya think?”
Roth was hired with much fanfare as a replacement for Howard Stern, and the show debuted on several radio stations on January 3, 2006. While some people enjoyed the program, it didn’t really look like there would be significant ratings increases, and he was let go at the end of April that same year. Roth later said he was told about the syndicated show’s demise while riding in a car to the WFNY-FM studios in Manhattan.
“I was booted, tossed, and it’s going to cost somebody,” Roth said on his last show, implying that his lawyers would go after CBS Radio for the full compensation due from his reported $4-million contract.
In a 2010 interview, former CBS executive Rob Barnett said that Roth was hired because he was the only viable candidate with an ego large enough to think he could step into Stern‘s shoes. Roth reportedly did a tryout in Boston that Barnett called “amazing,” but ended up being a major disaster when he took over Stern‘s seat in early 2006.
“The meltdown came day one or day two,” said Barnett, “when he got in the chair … and wouldn’t listen to anyone that was there to do only one thing… to help him.”
In March 2020, Roth postponed the final six shows of his Las Vegas residency due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Roth performed as the opening act for the February/March 2020 North American leg of KISS‘s “End Of The Road” farewell tour.
VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen died of cancer in October at age 65.
Roth, who performed with VAN HALEN for the last time in 2015, tweeted shortly after Eddie‘s death: “What a long great trip it’s been.”
