Teddy Swims recently opened up about his experience collaborating with Van Halen icon David Lee Roth. He shared a series of remarkable stories about the rock legend in an appearance on the Zach Sang Show.
Swims, who welcomed Roth on stage during his Coachella performance, spoke enthusiastically about Roth’s larger-than-life personality and the unexpected adventures that have defined his life off the stage.
“What a badass, bro. He did Coachella and Stage Coach with us. And that dude really is like on and off stage David Lee Roth. Like he is David Lee Roth like all the time, man,” Swims said.
He went on to describe Roth’s unconventional way of keeping in touch, painting a picture of a man who operates entirely on his own terms.
“He has this bit where he, you know, he’s 72, 73. He doesn’t quite want to know how to work his phone, I guess. So he like has his manager call mine and then we’ll get on like a four-way call so he can tell me about it. And the other day he calls me,” Swims continued. “This is going in the second week of Coachella and he calls me and he goes, ‘Hey Teddy, I just wanted to hop on.’ I thought he was going to talk to me about the show or anything. And he goes, ‘Dude, I was thinking and I have this playlist that I want you to hear. I don’t listen to a lot of rock and roll songs, but there’s this playlist of mine that I made.'”
Swims then recounted one of the more colorful stories Roth shared with him — a 13-hour playlist tied to a jungle bike ride through Thailand.
“It’s 13 hours and he’s like, ‘Dude, I lived in Thailand for a little while. And so when I was in Thailand, I did this thousand-mile jungle bike ride. So when I was doing this, when we’d camp here and there in the jungle, I had this JBL speaker under my balls. And I’d play this playlist. So I want you to hear this because I don’t listen to a lot of rock again. When you listen to it, I want you to think about me and my jungle bike and this JBL speaker and me going through the jungles of Thailand and I think it’ll inspire you.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘All right, see you Friday.’ I was like, shit yeah, dude. I’m kicking ass, dude. He tells me stuff like that,” Swims said.
Beyond the Thailand adventure, Swims also touched on Roth’s time living in Japan and his surprising stint as a certified EMT — a detail that clearly left a lasting impression.
“He spent like two years living in Japan and he just will start speaking like fluent Japanese to you and then tell you about these crazy stories in Japan. Dude he was an EMT for a couple years too which is crazy. He’s on these like crazy side missions and if you ever get a chance to talk to him, ask him about his EMT journey. And he just like went and got like certified to do it,” Swims said. “And he was telling me these stories about like, you know, sitting in the back of the ambulance like holding this guy’s hand while he’s thinking he’s about to die. I mean, imagine you just like wake up and maybe you got in a wreck or something. It’s David Lee Roth at like 70 years old holding your hand saying things like ‘Stay with me,’ you know? And he’s got these crazy stories, bro.”
Roth’s EMT chapter is not just a colorful anecdote — it is a well-documented episode in his life that surprised many fans and industry observers alike. While the rock world knew him as Diamond Dave, the flamboyant frontman of Van Halen, Roth quietly pursued a second calling in emergency medicine in the early 2000s, long before Swims ever heard the stories firsthand.
HMP Global Learning Network reported that Roth joined the ranks of emergency medical services as an EMT-Basic in New York City, working alongside emergency crews in the Bronx in 2004. Ultimate Classic Rock noted that Roth described the experience as deeply humbling, saying, “I wasn’t someone until I put on that 5.11 uniform and went on my first call.” He framed EMS work as a team effort and a personal challenge — a far cry from the arena stages that made him famous.
Chron reported that Roth had been riding with a New York ambulance crew for several weeks in training to become a paramedic, with reports emerging as early as November 2004. While some later accounts referred to him as a paramedic, the more precise designation based on primary sources is EMT-Basic — a certification he earned and actively put to use on real emergency calls.
Far Out Magazine highlighted Roth’s own reflection on the experience, in which he said it gave him a new kind of passion and described the work as more rewarding than anything he had encountered in the music industry. For a man who had spent decades commanding sold-out arenas, the back of an ambulance in the Bronx represented something entirely different — a sense of purpose rooted in service rather than spectacle.
Roth’s time in Japan adds yet another dimension to his restless pursuit of new experiences. Ultimate Classic Rock documented that Roth spent approximately two years in Japan on an educational visit. During that time, he began studying sumi-e, the traditional Japanese art of ink wash painting. The stay also gave him a working knowledge of the Japanese language — something Swims witnessed firsthand when Roth would casually break into fluent Japanese mid-conversation before launching into another wild story.
Taken together, the EMT certification, the years in Japan, the Thailand jungle ride, and the 13-hour playlists all point to the same conclusion Swims arrived at: David Lee Roth has never stopped being exactly who he is, on stage or off.
The full conversation is available on the Zach Sang Show’s YouTube channel.
