While talk of a Van Halen tribute tour seems to be going nowhere, that hasn’t stopped David Lee Roth from putting his own spin on a Van Halen classic – with someone else taking the lead on guitar.

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For many the idea of Van Halen without Van Halen is close to sacrelige, but DLR’s guitarist Al Estrada certainly pays faithful homage to the 1984 original, and there’s no denying that Roth’s pipes are in fine fettle.

“It’s all LIVE and it’s Van Halen free. No samples. No autotune,” a source told the Van Halen News Desk of the latest rendition back in September.

Recorded on 3 May last year in Hollywood at Henson Recording Studio, the track features Estrada on guitar, Ryan Wheeler on bass, and Francis Valentino on drums. The recording session was a short, sharp burst of gold, laying down 14 cracking tracks in just two hours.

The live recordings are set to be a treat for fans of Roth’s live vocals, especially considering the uncertainty surrounding whether Roth will perform live again. In 2020, Roth served as the opening act for the North American leg of KISS’s End Of The Road farewell tour – fitting, as he was planning on seeing off his musical ventures himself.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2021, Roth said he was “‘throwing in the shoes [and] retiring’, announcing a Las Vegas residency to mark his final farewell.  However, in January 2022, Roth cancelled the remaining dates of his farewell Las Vegas residency due to the COVID outbreak.

That seems to have Roth wavering on calling it a day, as the new recording empahsises. What’s more he appeared on-stage with Royale Machines in September, collaborating for a performance of Van Halen’s ‘Panama’.

This new recording shows that Roth feels like he’s still got plenty of fire left in him, even if the much-debated joint tour with Sammy Hagar feels like a very unlikely possibility.