David Lee Roth was offered the opening slot on Motley Crue's The Stadium Tour but he passed on the gig. Nikki Sixx told The Los Angeles Times that Roth told him, “I don't open for bands that I influenced.”
Blabbermouth.net reports that in October of 2019, Roth told KKLZ's “The Mike & Carla Morning Show” about Van Halen's influence on other bands saying, “Hair bands were the imitations of Van Halen. Yeah, it is true, and spandex was what they came up with as something visual. I started off in leather, with the same haircut that Bono and (Bruce) Springsteen and the guys in Metallica had . . . Van Halen was a '70s band — we started off in 1972, and our first two albums were in the '70s. We sold our first 10 million records before the '70s were over. We spawned a whole lot of imitators who resorted to gimmickry and trade crap. It's easier to imitate a haircut and a kind of pants and to exhibit bad behavior.”
Roth accepted the gig as the opening act for the February/March 2020 North American leg of KISS's farewell tour but was not on the bill at the rescheduled KISS shows which kicked off last month. That tour has been postponed altogether due to Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons both testing positive for COVID as of yesterday (Tuesday, August 31st).
