David Lee Roth

It's an old joke, but when David Lee Roth delivers the punch line it sounds more like a mission statement: "How many lead singers does it take to put in a lightbulb? One. You hold the bulb and wait for the world to revolve around you. " Missing from the joke is how the singer is left standing there in the dark waiting for his proper wattage. On Feb. 7, Interscope Records will release "A Different Kind of Truth" and, as the world turns, it will represent the first Van Halen studio album featuring Roth as lead singer since "1984" - which was released 28 years ago this month, right before Ronald Reagan announced plans to run for a second term.

It's an old joke, but when David Lee Roth delivers the punch line it sounds more like a mission statement: "How many lead singers does it take to put in a lightbulb? One. You hold the bulb and wait for the world to revolve around you. " Missing from the joke is how the singer is left standing there in the dark waiting for his proper wattage. On Feb. 7, Interscope Records will release "A Different Kind of Truth" and, as the world turns, it will represent the first Van Halen studio album featuring Roth as lead singer since "1984" - which was released 28 years ago this month, right before Ronald Reagan announced plans to run for a second term.

Rocker David Lee Roth has caught the wary eye of city officials with a 20-foot-high portrait of a scantily clad woman on the outside wall of a recording studio. The portrait, with Roth's name emblazoned across the woman's chest, is on the rear wall of Little Mountain Sound studio, where fans waiting for a peek of favorite rockers who record there have sprayed a montage of graffiti.

Instead of sweating to Van Halen, the ravers who packed Staples Center on Tuesday often looked as if they were gaping at a movie. They were; they all had to stand at seats, and the dynamic angles on the behind-stage mega-screen pumped the scene with a cinematic dimension. They had another reason to lurk like peepers behind their cellphone cameras, though: They couldn't quite believe they were seeing Van Halen reunited with singer-ringmaster David Lee Roth after more than two decades.

If you're planning to vacation in Vancouver, Canada, this year, David Lee Roth has a few tips. Eager to recapture the bawdy sound of his early albums with Van Halen, hard rock's most mischievous sex symbol (and self-promoter) is in Vancouver recording a new album with hot-shot producer Bob Rock. But it's not the album that's causing a stir--it's Roth's hotel accommodations. "I think you could say this place is a combination of New York's 42nd Street and the gorilla exhibit at the L.A.

Roth's fourth solo release serves up his usual ham on wry with a wide stylistic spread that suggests he's out to appeal to every hard-rock taste.

You can tell a lot about a rock star by the way he serves drinks to his fans, and that is especially true of rock's strange bedfellows of the moment, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. The rival voices of Van Halen are touring as an uneasy alliance, and their approaches to music and life are as different as a high-priced strip club and a beach bar where the regulars get a free shot.

Infinity Broadcasting finally confirmed Tuesday what the company's shock jock and long-time cash cow Howard Stern had been saying for months -- that ex-Van Halen rocker David Lee Roth and comedian Adam Carolla will take over his morning radio slots in key East and West Coast markets, respectively. Carolla, already with a late-night talk show on Comedy Central and a home improvement one on cable's TLC, will assume Stern's drive-time duties at KSLX-FM (97.

How did that old Van Halen song go? "I found the simple life ain't so simple .... " The iconic Los Angeles metal band is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a New York banquet Monday night, but now it appears that only one original member, bassist Michael Anthony, will even show up. Eddie Van Halen released a statement Thursday saying he is going into a rehab program.

Rock fans were stunned by the announcement Wednesday that Van Halen had reunited with singer David Lee Roth--who left the band acrimoniously in 1985--and had fired his replacement, Sammy Hagar. But not as stunned as Hagar. "[Eddie Van Halen] just wanted me to change one lyric in a new song, and I didn't want to," said Hagar, recalling the incident that precipitated the upheaval. "I thought [the song] was great," Hagar said.

How did that old Van Halen song go? "I found the simple life ain't so simple .... " The iconic Los Angeles metal band is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a New York banquet Monday night, but now it appears that only one original member, bassist Michael Anthony, will even show up. Eddie Van Halen released a statement Thursday saying he is going into a rehab program.

Give credit (or blame?) to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Lee Roth is back with Van Halen and planning to tour. The mercurial Roth, who officially left Van Halen on April Fool's Day in 1985, will reunite with his old band for a tour that kicks off in North Carolina in early May and includes June stops in L.A., Orange and San Diego counties, according to sources in the concert industry. Joining Roth will be guitar hero Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen.

Like a lot of fans, Sammy Hagar winced when he heard Monday that he and old rival David Lee Roth would both be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March with Van Halen. "This could be a complete and total disaster. It could be wonderful too. It really could. But it also could be such a disaster and an embarrassment that it goes down in history." Roth was the voice of Van Halen from its mid-'70s Sunset Strip days up into the monster success of the 1980s.

Rocker-turned-radio host David Lee Roth, who accepted the no-win task of replacing ratings king Howard Stern in January, was bounced from the airwaves Friday after barely three months on the air in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and four other markets. "I was booted, tossed, and it's going to cost somebody," Roth said on his last show, intimating that his lawyers would go after CBS Radio for the full compensation due from his reported $4-million contract.

Infinity Broadcasting finally confirmed Tuesday what the company's shock jock and long-time cash cow Howard Stern had been saying for months -- that ex-Van Halen rocker David Lee Roth and comedian Adam Carolla will take over his morning radio slots in key East and West Coast markets, respectively. Carolla, already with a late-night talk show on Comedy Central and a home improvement one on cable's TLC, will assume Stern's drive-time duties at KSLX-FM (97.

Rocker David Lee Roth, the former Van Halen frontman, is taking up a new trade. Instead of screaming "Jump," he'll be yelling "Clear!" Roth, 50, has been riding for several weeks with a New York ambulance crew in training to become a paramedic, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Yes, the Stones should tour. Keith could hire David Lee Roth. Keith and Mick could thrash around in a tag-team with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. GLENN BRANTHOOVER Anaheim Hills

Rocker-turned-radio host David Lee Roth, who accepted the no-win task of replacing ratings king Howard Stern in January, was bounced from the airwaves Friday after barely three months on the air in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and four other markets. "I was booted, tossed, and it's going to cost somebody," Roth said on his last show, intimating that his lawyers would go after CBS Radio for the full compensation due from his reported $4-million contract.

David Lee Roth has canceled the remainder of his U.S. tour after clobbering himself in the head with a martial arts staff he has been using during performances. The gash, which he received last week in Philadelphia, required 21 stitches. "Needless to say, singing and dancing is a bit difficult currently, necessitating the cancellation of the last few weeks of my tour," Roth said in a statement. He hopes to reschedule the dates after the first of the year. -- Randy Lewis

A neighbor who tumbled onto David Lee Roth's Pasadena estate found himself staring into the barrel of the rocker's publicity machine Thursday, if not the muzzle of the musician's personal shotgun. The former Van Halen front man and Pasadena police have given conflicting accounts of the Saturday morning incident in which police arrested a neighbor who was found splayed on his back on Roth's front lawn.