During a recent appearance on The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Steve Vai talked about David Lee Roth’s retirement announcement and said that it seems unlikely that he will be back on the stage.
As you’ve possibly heard of, the former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth announced his retirement decision back in October 2021, which shocked the fans. He was planning to retire after the five shows that would take place in January 2022, but he had to cancel all his final live shows due to his concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
For many fans, his retirement decision came earlier than expected. Diamond Dave announced his decision nearly a year after Eddie Van Halen’s death, so some speculated that his bandmate’s passing may have affected his unexpected decision. One of the people who could provide insight into this situation is Steve Vai since he started working with David Lee Roth just after he left Van Halen and formed a new backing band in 1985.
As they have a good and long-term relationship, during his recent conversation with Eddie Trunk, Steve Vai was asked whether he had any conversations with David Lee Roth about his retirement decision. The guitarist stated that Roth had a hectic schedule over the years, so it is hard to say whether he will return to the stage or not. However, Steve Vai assumes that there is little chance of him returning to the stage.
When asked about Roth’s retirement decision, Steve Vai replied:
“Well, I might assume when they played with KISS in LA, I went to the show, and I wanted to hang out with David a little bit after the show. It was really nice. It is hard to say because obviously, through time here, it was always Van Halen. That would be the priority because it was Van Halen, but we don’t know what was going on behind the scenes.
I don’t know what was going on in David’s mind. We talked about it a little bit back when we had a failed gig when the fire marshal shut down the whole venue. We chatted about it, it is a little bit about an issue with scheduling and things like that. It was something that was kind of in the background a little bit, but when I saw David made his announcement about this retirement stuff… I guess the train has left the station.”
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