Exclusive: Diamond Dave Spills His Guts About Van Halen Reunion

Van Halen recently announced that they'd be touring together with their original frontman David Lee Roth for the first time in twenty-three years. Roth spoke exclusively to our Brian Hiatt about burying the ax with Eddie, playing the old favorites with a different attitude and the possibility of a permanent VH reunion. He also dropped more metaphors than we ever thought humanly possible. Read highlights from the interview, which will appear in its fully-realized form in the next issue of Rolling Stone, which hits stands everywhere February 23rd.

On his first post-reunion jam with Eddie:
Eddie and I wrote the songs, every note, every syllable, as if we invented a language that only we can speak. It was an easy, natural thing...When you speak a language that you both created, it's natural to go, "I know you." So it was very easy. There wasn't any stumble at all. I just showed up, and twenty minutes later, it was the usual, "How's the wife, how's the kids, let's play." When you're born to do that language, you speak it naturally. I never forgot it.

On how rehearsals are going:
The chemistry is combustible. There's an explosive sound there that is, I think, perhaps, unless you were there, which most folks weren't, than you may have forgotten. This is really sophisticated, smart stuff. Everybody's at the top of their game in terms of...it's not just intangible things. My voice is arguably better than it was when I left the band back when. I love what I do, perhaps for some different reasons now than I did, more so than I did. It's a privilege to do what I do for a living.

On whether or not the reunion will be permanent:
God willin', and the creek don't run dry, just like Grandma Roth used to say. Barring any act of God or Ferrari...yeah. I have hope and faith, and that's more than just the name of a couple of strippers from Albuquerque.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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