With Van Halen’s show in San Jose just a week away, the question has suddenly become whether they can make it to HP Pavilion before the wheels fall off their reunion. The ever-feuding metal legends are apparently at it again, having “postponed” more than 30 dates on their U.S. summer tour—basically everything after June 26, meaning San Jose slides in by barely a month with the June 5 show at HP. No one seems to know exactly what’s going on, but Rolling Stone is reporting that David Lee Roth and the Van Halen brothers are fighting again.
In response, Van Halen went into full-blown damage control mode this week, issuing a bizarre video featuring Roth in the woods with his dog, never directly addressing the rumors but claiming that “the band is getting along famously, better than we have in quite some time, and I think the shows reveal that.” Though news outlets are reporting that he claims “exhaustion” as the reason for dropping the dates, a close look at the video reveals that he never exactly does. First he hints at it, saying “As usual, we bit off way more than we could chew when it came to scheduling,” and claiming that too much touring would leave them “robot zombies.” But then he specifically claims that the band is in fact not exhausted: “You don’t want to get to that point. We’re nowhere near that point, but we’re going to take a break.” Huh?
What is inarguably true is that their current tour is getting rave reviews, and only a couple of cracks from Diamond Dave have even hinted at any unrest underneath the onstage smiles. Fans are going crazy not only for their classic songs, but even the new ones like “Tattoo” and “She’s the Woman” from A Different Kind of Truth, their first record together in nearly three decades.
Is the video Van Halen’s own different kind of truth? Watch it here and decide for yourself.
.Will Troubled Van Halen Tour Make It To HP Pavilion?
