DAVID LEE ROTH Is EDDIE VAN HALEN'S 'Biggest Fan'

According to The Pulse Of Radio, VAN HALEN frontman David Lee Roth was asked by the New York Post how he feels guitarist Eddie Van Halen is playing these days, more than 35 years after they first met. Roth replied, "We're doing a lot of tunes that don't usually get out of the deck and Edward is more lucid now than any time in my memory. I'm his biggest fan. I still remember the first time I saw him playing in a backyard party in Pasadena in high school. He was great then and he's great now. We've come full circle."

VAN HALEN is touring North America behind its new album, "A Different Kind Of Truth", its first all-new set since 1998 and first with Roth on vocals in 28 years.

Asked how the music scene has changed since VAN HALEN first began playing bars back in the mid-Seventies, Roth replied, "These days, I see too much cheerleading and not enough stagecraft, and what I'm seeing isn't worth cheering for. The questions I want to ask most of my colleagues are: Can you even do the whole song from beginning to end? Can you do it onstage like you did it in the studio? Do you float like a butterfly or sting like a pre-recorded bee?"

As for what sets VAN HALEN apart, Roth said, "We throw a sick party, and if you get invited you gotta go. For starters, on this tour KOOL AND THE GANG are opening our shows, and that's full circle for us because we used to play 'Hollywood Swinging' in five-sets-a-night-beer-bars. And the first three songs on our new record are thunder-funk. What we're giving is the best of the old and the new — think of it like watching 'Dragnet' on your iPad."

VAN HALEN plays the second of two shows at New York's Madison Square Garden on Thursday night (March 1).