Wednesday, June 15, 2005

David Lee Roth: Highly Advanced

There is an article here where David Lee Roth explains that "much of his style and energy came from fury over anti-Semitism and an urge to crush Jewish stereotypes." Here are some other choice quote from the highly Advanced Mr. Roth:

"Be different," he urges. "Keep it separate. Every neighborhood’s got something to contribute, so let’s not mash it all together, let’s not shop at Beige R Us. No, I want a bagel in the morning and Chinese food at lunch, and I’d like a Russian to teach me chess, and I want a Mexican to make me tacos. And there should be a black guy on bass." [As you may remember, embracing international culture is Advanced, and most Advanced Artists have an African-American bass player. -jh]

"My whole show is based on something between the guy in Led Zeppelin and chief of the village at Club Med," Roth says later on the bus. "Somewhere between 'and she’s buying a stairway to heaven...’ and 'don’t forget, two-for-one happy hour, five till February. Welcome to Diamond Dave’s tiki bunker!’ Ha ha ha ha ha ha! It’s Spider-Man meets Groucho Marx. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"There’s not a lot of Jewish action figures," says Roth. "Heroes for little Jewish kids are very few and far between, when it comes to belligerent enthusiasm, a confrontational red-meat approach. I’m a highly literate slut. I dig only intellectual smut."

"Jewish kids take a paperback to the beach instead of a football," he says, half-approvingly. Roth might take a paperback, but he’d also persuade a dozen blondes in bikinis to join him and then shoot a raunchy music video when he wasn’t reading. If he still had the spendthrift budget of his Van Halen days, he says he’d have a Portuguese teacher on one bus, a kung fu teacher on another bus, and a chess tutor stashed somewhere else.
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The great thing is that I believe him. I understand his autobiography is a great read, by the way.

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