COUNTDOWN TO MELTDOWN

DAYS: 2

You thought it was a rumour. You never thought this would happen again. Love him or hate him, David Lee Roth is back! After a couple of false starts, the original Van Halen lineup is set to tour starting this Thursday, September 27. Here's a video from a rehearsal this fall:







What works for them:
1-Roth had a lot of loyal fans that will undoubtably be back for this show.
2-Eddie & Alex are sounding good and they know their material. Say what you want, they are great at what they do.
3- Eddie is out of rehab and hopefully in control of his issues. It also sounds like he is clear of his physical ailments as well.
4-People are curious about Wolfgang (taking over bass for Michael Anthony).
5-With Roth in the lineup, VH is bound to bring back some deep cuts from the Roth years.

What will work against them:
1-VH just lost 1/2 of their band; Sammy & Michael. This might be hard to recover from, not only technically, but in marketing & public realtions.
2-Wolfie may come from rock & roll royalty, but he's green. He's just 16 with and this is a big project to dive into. Good luck, Wolfie.
3-Hagar has fans that are fiercely loyal and VH may see themselves missing some revenue if Hagar's fans don't buy back into Roth.
4-Roth has been out of the game for a while. Can he recover and rebuild the VH dynasty? Only if his ego doesn't get in the way.

Here's another little peek at rehearsals:





Vegas odds have this VH tour imploding within 5 shows. Place your bets, folks!

Me? I was a BIG Roth fan back in the day and even though I loved, loved, loved Montrose & Sammy Hagar solo, I initially felt like replacing Roth was sacrilege. But Hagar went on to help fuel some powerful songwriting in that band, driving VH to their highest successes to date. Bringing Roth back now is nostalgic, but it's all bittersweet when Michael Anthony leaves at the same time.

I also wonder how they are going to handle the Hagar years. Sammy used to sing Roth's VH songs because he had the chops to do it. Can Roth do the same? Or will they just ignore a great portion of their catalog?

My guess is that VH will bring in the dollars with this tour, even if people are just showing up out of curiosity. If this tour does last, I don't think there will be any new VH music coming from this lineup.

It's kind of like a train wreck waiting to happen....Stay tuned!