Guitarist JOHN 5 Reveals DAVID LEE ROTH Wrote A Song About VAN HALEN "Probably Five Years Ago; It's So Good"

August 20, 2021, 3 years ago

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Guitarist JOHN 5 Reveals DAVID LEE ROTH Wrote A Song About VAN HALEN "Probably Five Years Ago; It's So Good"

Speaking with Ultimate Classic Rock, guitarist John 5 - who got his first major break playing on David Lee Roth Roth’s 1998 solo album, DLR Band - revealed that Roth is sitting on a collaborative track that would blow fans’ minds.

"There’s a song, called 'Nothing Could Have Stopped Us'," the guitarist tells UCR. "This song is so great, and I just literally will beg Dave and Dave's team to release this song. 'Cause it's about Van Halen, and it's so good. I mean, it's so fucking good. And I just wish he would release it."

The guitarist estimates that he and Roth cut "Nothing Could Have Stopped Us" 'probably like five years ago.' Based on his description, it sounds like the song is musically similar to Roth's last two singles, both of which were primarily acoustic, good-humored romps.

"The music is really sophisticated, if you will," John 5 says. "It's not just strumming, it's sophisticated. And it (took only) a couple takes, and Dave just nails it. I mean, you would have heard this and (gone), 'Oh, this could have been on Women and Children First.'"

Read more at Ultimate Classic Rock here.

In 2020, Roth released the solo song, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar And Grill", which John 5 appears on. In an interview with Variety, Roth explained the songs is a tribute of sorts to bandmate Eddie Van Halen, who passed away on October 6th, 2020 following a long battle with cancer.

The song was written before Eddie Van Halen's death, but writer Richard Bienstock suggests - and Roth agrees - it functions as something of a tribute to their shared history.

Roth: "I don’t usually write autobiographically, but this was a specific effort to replicate a time and a place. I actually walked past the door of a local drinking establishment and smelled the sawdust, and like Proust with a lemon cookie, it triggered volumes of memory.

There are two kinds of burials in show business. One’s very quiet, behind the scenes, nobody attends. And then there’s a 'show biz' approach, where you have a solemn ceremony and it’s followed by a reception where everybody gets up and tells stories. They can be off-color, they can be tear-jerkers, they can be of any nature. When my dad passed, the reception was at a Mexican restaurant around the corner. Everybody was eating and drinking and then the speeches become more colorful and much more energetic. Sometimes that’s the most heartfelt, heartbreaking, best material ever. And so I thought, if that occurred for Ed — which it did not — and everybody was going to get up and tell a story, when it got to my turn I would start with, ‘The smell of fresh sawdust on the floor…’ And go from there. That’s the beginning of the story, at least for me. Because that was everywhere we played — the smell of fresh sawdust on the floor."

Read the complete interview here. Listen to / download "Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar And Grill" now at this location.

The Rainbow Bar and Grill can be found at 9015 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, California. Opening in 1972, The Rainbow has since become a world famous hangout for musicians. Further details can be found here.


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