Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth surprised fans this week with a half-nude video showcasing the colorful tattoos covering his backside. The clip quickly caught fans off guard, many of whom hadn’t expected to see this side of the rock icon on social media.
In the video, Roth walked viewers through the artwork on his body before launching into a colorful story from Van Halen’s early, wild years.
“See this? [Shows the tattoos covering his butt] That’s a 45 caliber pistol with an extended magazine strapped for life, motherf*cker,” Roth said. “That’s right. And I’m covered with flowers. Look at that shit. ‘Cause I’m a scary motherf*cker to begin with. Boom, boom, out go the lights.”
From there, Roth shifted into a story about a memorable night in New York City decades ago.
“So I step out of the helicopter at the 32nd Street heliport Wednesday night, right after the Liberty Island festival, right around 1986,” he continued. “The ’80s. A short decade because it was up all night, and so was I, allegedly. 32nd Street is late-night women, low-down gamblers, midnight ramblers, and me. Remember who I used to dress like, with the Prince Valiant haircut, and the striped pants, and the knee-high boots?”
He went on to describe an encounter with police while searching for a taxi.
“And I’m wandering around with a buddy or two. There are no taxis. The only cars that are going through is what we call a transit hub,” Roth said. “Hey man, what do you got? What do you got that’s good? Don’t be eyein’ if you ain’t be buyin’. Hey white boy! Boom! And he’s pointing at me. We’re trying to find a taxi. There are no taxis, and we get lit up. New York City’s finest, the cops. ‘Hey man, who are you? What are you doing out here?'”
“We’re not dressed like anybody else. In fact, I never fucking dress like anybody else, as you can see,” he continued. “And he checks the ID and goes, ‘Diamond David Lee Roth?’ Hey, if you carry a gun to work on either side of the bars, you know the sound of the mighty Van Halen. Spiritually, emotionally, okay, legally, illegally. He says, ‘Dave, we’re all fans here. You know what? Jump into the patrol car. We’ll drive you to the hotel that you’re at. It’s not too far away.’ Good idea. We get in the car.”
Roth then recalled a prank the officers proposed on the way to the precinct.
“He says, ‘You know what? The night sergeant, or however you call him at the time, he’s kind of a jerk. Let’s do a little prank. You want to play a prank?’ Remember, it’s 1986. I say, ‘Sure,'” Roth said. “He hands me the handcuffs. True story. I put the handcuffs on, hang on loosely, and when we get to, I believe it was the 13th precinct, I get out and he leads me in, and it’s Halloween, actually, in there. It looks like every kind of character from every kind of video of every hip-hop video of every country-western shootout of the Star Wars bar scene.”
The story ended with Roth describing the reaction inside the precinct.
“And everybody sees me. Well, this is the big-time MTV, and everybody recognizes me instantly. Hey, that’s that guy,” Roth said. “And as we walk through, the place starts getting quiet, quiet, and the only one who doesn’t recognize me is the jerk night sergeant. He looks at me, evil eye, gets that Popeye kind of look, says to the two cops, who are very straight-faced, playing it perfectly, ‘What do you got here?’ And the cops go, pin-drop silence, ‘I don’t know, Sarge. We found him wandering around down by 32nd Street. He says he’s just a gigolo.’ [Laughs]”
Fans reacted swiftly to the tattoo reveal in the comments. One follower wrote, “Dave’s tattooed butt wasn’t on my bingo card for the day.” Another commented, “Welp, never thought I’d see DLR’s bare ass (outside of assless chaps ofc) so…that was a fun surprise reveal!”
Roth’s willingness to pull back the curtain, quite literally, fits a broader pattern that has defined his recent online presence. It also ties neatly into a year already thick with Van Halen nostalgia.
Roth has spent recent months treating his social media accounts as something closer to a personal gallery than a typical celebrity feed. He has been steadily posting original artwork alongside these kinds of off-the-cuff stories, giving fans an unfiltered look at both his creative output and his unguarded personality decades after Van Halen’s commercial peak.
The 1986 setting of Roth’s NYPD story lands during a particularly significant chapter for the band. That year marked Van Halen’s pivot into the 5150 era, the album that introduced Sammy Hagar as the new frontman. The album also proved the group could still top the charts without Roth on vocals. Its success set the stage for one of the band’s most celebrated tours.
That same tour produced Live Without a Net, the concert film captured during Van Halen’s August 27, 1986, performance at the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The show is widely regarded as one of the most iconic live recordings in the band’s history. It’s a fitting backdrop for a year Roth clearly remembers vividly, even from outside the band at the time.
Interest in that period of Van Halen’s history has resurfaced recently with the release of a 40th anniversary edition of 5150, which combines a remastered version of the original album with rare single edits, B-sides, and a previously unreleased live recording from that same New Haven show. The renewed attention on the 5150 era underscores just how much 1986 still resonates with Van Halen’s fan base. Roth’s own recollections from that year, meanwhile, take a decidedly more personal and unexpected turn.
