Former David Lee Roth Guitarist Brian Young Says Working With Roth Wasn’t Always Easy

Former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth‘s former guitarist Brian Young opened up about working with David Lee Roth and revealed that his expectations were high since he was a perfectionist in addition to revealing that working with him was hard at times due to his mood swings.

As you might know, Brian Young worked with David Lee Roth for four years between 2002 and 2006 when Roth formed his own band named after himself. Young played in Roth’s band’s sixth studio album named ‘Diamond Dave’ which was released in 2003 and consisted of mostly covers of Classic Rock and Blues songs.

Since David Lee Roth has an infamous reputation for having a split personality and mood swings which sometimes puts his bandmates and the musicians who work for him in difficult positions, whenever somebody who worked with him is being interviewed, that person is asked about what it was like to work with him.

During a recent interview with Rock N’ Roll Icons With Bode James, Brian Young opened up about working with David Lee Roth and revealed that although it was great, due to the fact that Roth has high expectations, along with being demanding, difficult, and perfectionist, it was not always easy.

Here is what Young said:

“It was great. To be in the David Lee Roth band, you’ve basically gotta go through this boot camp to toughen you up. I wouldn’t say he’s difficult, but he expects a lot, and he’s demanding. He’s a perfectionist for everyone else, even for himself. So working with him wasn’t easy.”

In addition to this, Young also revealed that David Lee Roth had mood swings that felt like a volcano eruption when the worse side hit, however, when he’s in a good mood, he is the coolest person to hang out with which ultimately thought Young to train himself in order to deal with different positions.

Here is what Young revealed:

“I heard about his mood swings before I joined, but I didn’t see a single one for the first month. Then finally, when it happened, it was like, ‘OK, he can get where it’s like a volcano’s erupting.’ So he kind of has a little bit of an up-and-down mood-swing type thing. But when he’s in a great mood, it’s the coolest hang you’ll ever have in your life – absolutely.

And when he’s in a bad mood, it’s a bummer. But like I said, the good thing is – it’s a training ground. After you play with him for a while, you can handle anything. It toughened me up for being able to deal with different things. I’ve always been pretty easy-going. And what I liked working with Dave is he’s the boss, and you know it.”

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