David Lee Roth's Original Van Halen Departure

Way back in 1978, a little band named Van Halen from California released their eponymous self titled "Van Halen" debut album and changed the musical landscape of their home state forever. Arguably, the album was the driving factor in establishing Los Angeles as the home of hard rock from the late 70s all the way throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Van Halen looked unstoppable in 1984 (even releasing a multi-platinum selling album called 1984) but behind the scenes the cracks were beginning to show in the relationship between flamboyant frontman "Diamond" David Lee Roth and the rest of the band. On April 1^st 1985, David Lee Roth left Van Halen. What was the straw that finally broke the camel's back and caused Roth to leave a band that was, at the time, phenomenally successful?

1984 was Van Halen's most successful album in terms of commercial success and the lead single "Jump" became a worldwide smash and one of the best selling songs of the 1980s and was nominated for a Grammy. However, the album was also a breaking point for the band.

In the middle of the tour to support the album the animosity that had always existed in some degree between Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth reached a head. Eddie Van Halen, a guitar virtuoso and musician who eschewed the limelight as a "rock star" as much as he could, became exasperated with the ostentatious, over-the-top antics of David Lee Roth both on and offstage and was also annoyed that David Lee Roth had developed a successful solo career alongside the band. In Eddie Van Halen's eyes, David Lee Roth was not concentrating on Van Halen the band 100%. David Lee Roth also had his professional and personal grievances with Eddie Van Halen and the two other members of the band (Eddie Van Halen's brother Alex Van Halen on drums and bassist Michael Anthony). In his autobiography Crazy From The Heat, David Lee Roth claimed that the music Van Halen was making immediately before his departure was "morose" and that he wished to record an album quickly and go on tour to support it but found his bandmates idle and uninterested, with alcohol and drug issues. He finally left the band on the 1^st of April 1985.

David Lee Roth was estranged from Van Halen for the next 22 years and with the occasional snipe from him or Eddie Van Halen in the press, this looked likely to remain the same for the foreseeable future. On February 2 2007 however, the official Van Halen website posted that Diamond Dave had rejoined the band. After a few hiccups, including Eddie re-entering rehab for alcoholism, the tour finally went ahead. In mid 2008 the band announced that the 8 month long tour had grossed a huge $93 million and that they had played to nearly one million people throughout the United States and Canada; a personal record for Van Halen since their inception. Although they are currently on hiatus following the tour, it is expected that the band will write and record an album of new material sometime in 2010. All's well that end's well? Only time will tell...