DAVID LEE ROTH Says VAN HALEN 'Spawned A Whole Lot Of Imitators'

David Lee Roth has shot down suggestion that VAN HALEN was instrumental in spawning the hair-and-spandex fashion sense that dominated much of the 1980s glam-rock scene. "Hair bands were the imitations of VAN HALEN," Roth told 96.3 KKLZ's "The Mike & Carla Morning Show" in a new interview (hear audio below). "It is true. And spandex [was] what they came up with as something visual. I started off in leather with the same haircut that Bono and [Bruce] Springsteen and guys in METALLICA had. It's a famous haircut. If I had that haircut today, it'd have its own Instagram. But VAN HALEN was a '70s band — we started off in 1972, and our first two albums were in the '70s. We sold our first 10 million records before the '70s were over. We spawned a whole lot of imitators who resorted to gimmickry and trade crap. It's easier to imitate a haircut and a kind of pants and to exhibit bad behavior as a way of… I'm probably on your station 14 times a day unless it's Halloween or New Year's."

Roth's residency at the House Of Blues at Las Vegas's Mandalay Bay kicks off on January 8. He recently told the Atlanta radio station Rock 100.5 that he "started getting ready" for the Sin City run last October.

At press time, Roth's backing band hadn't been revealed. But he promised "a changing set of 26 instantly recognizable songs," pulled primarily from the VAN HALEN catalog.

Tickets for "David Lee Roth: Rocks Vegas" start at $63.50 and are on sale now.

The full itinerary: January 8, 10-11; March 18, 20-21, 25, 27-28.

VAN HALEN last performed on October 4, 2015 at Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Last month during a chat with Phoenix's KSLX, Roth declared: "I'm the face of VAN HALEN from this point on, most likely. I'm not sure what's happening with Ed [Van Halen], but he's probably not gonna answer the bell this time. It's not my place to guess."