DAVID LEE ROTH Talks To Rolling Stone Magazine About VAN HALEN Reunion

RollingStone.com has posted a couple of short excerpts from an exclusive interview it conducted with VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth about burying the ax with Eddie Van Halen, playing the old favorites with a different attitude and the possibility of a permanent VH reunion. The interview will appear in its fully-realized form in the next issue of Rolling Stone, which hits stands everywhere February 23.

On his first post-reunion jam with Eddie:

Roth: Eddie and I wrote the songs, every note, every syllable, as if we invented a language that only we can speak. It was an easy, natural thing… When you speak a language that you both created, it's natural to go, "I know you." So it was very easy. There wasn't any stumble at all. I just showed up, and twenty minutes later, it was the usual, "How's the wife, how's the kids, let's play." When you're born to do that language, you speak it naturally. I never forgot it.

On how rehearsals are going:

Roth: The chemistry is combustible. There's an explosive sound there that is, I think, perhaps… unless you were there, which most folks weren't, than you may have forgotten. This is really sophisticated, smart stuff. Everybody's at the top of their game in terms of… it's not just intangible things. My voice is arguably better than it was when I left the band back when. I love what I do, perhaps for some different reasons now than I did, more so than I did. It's a privilege to do what I do for a living.

On whether or not the reunion will be permanent:

Roth: God willin', and the creek don't run dry, just like Grandma Roth used to say. Barring any act of God or Ferrari…yeah. I have hope and faith, and that's more than just the name of a couple of strippers from Albuquerque.

Read more at www.rollingstone.com.