The rocker David Lee Roth became famous for his wide vocal range and screams, and it has left fans curious as to which artist or band is the inspiration behind the iconic David Lee Roth scream. Greg Renoff, the author of ‘Van Halen Rising,’ recently provided an insight into the inspiration behind DLR’s signature screams on his Twitter account.
Roth has made his name as one of the most versatile rock singers who have mastered his ranges of at least five octaves while others are still trying to catch up. In one particular song titled ‘Dance The Night Away,’ the singer managed to catch the attention of many with his powerful lead vocals and one-of-a-kind scream.
In one of the rare interviews of Roth, he talked about his signature scream and its inspiration in the ‘Dance The Night Away’ track. The vocalist said, “People say, I love that scream you do, Dave—where’d you get it? Deep Purple? And I say, no-The Ohio Players, baby!” Greg Renoff shared more details about this little-known point in a recent tweet.
Greg shared a snippet from this interview with Dave, revealing a detail that probably none of us had noticed before. Of course, capturing this detail is challenging for casual listeners like us, and Greg makes these breakthroughs by referring to isolated versions of the vocal parts of the respective songs. His tweet suggested that one can hear almost identical references to Roth’s signature screams in the Ohio Players’ song ‘Love Rollercoaster.’
Later in another tweet, Greg said similar screams were also featured in other songs. The screams at the beginning of one of the Van Halen classics, ‘Running with the Devil,’ are similar to the abovementioned examples. You can take a look below to see it in more detail.
David Lee Roth, when asked what inspired his signature screams, has said: “People say, I love that scream you do, Dave—where'd you get it? Deep Purple? And I say, no-The Ohio Players, baby!”
He wasn’t joking. Take a listen: pic.twitter.com/7RxmxSQRKf
— Greg Renoff (@GregRenoff) November 26, 2022
Allow me to get granular for a moment: Listen closely to this isolated vocal clip and you can hear DLR finger-snapping to the beat as he sings vocals for “Runnin’ with the Devil.” pic.twitter.com/Ib7g8mjgBC
— Greg Renoff (@GregRenoff) November 26, 2022
