From VH1.com:
60 years ago today, one of the greatest frontmen in the history of rock n’ roll let out his first cry and he’s been making noise ever since. David Lee Roth made his bones as a member of legendary Southern California band Van Halen who forever changed hard rock with their boisterous party anthems and the over the top personalities. Only an exhibitionist of epic proportions could share the stage with Eddie Van Halen, whose technique and tone revolutionized electric guitar playing, and DLR perfectly fit the bill with his mane of bleach blonde hair, shirt agape, loud screams and absolutely hilarious on stage banter.
Any casual hard rock fan knows about Roth’s firing from the band, his storied solo career and return to center stage, sandwiched between two generations of Van Halens. What’s less known is Diamond Dave’s robust internet presence and sideline as a meme generating machine thanks to his outsize character and legacy. He has been parodied, glorified, turned into a video game and even has his own Youtube channel to boot. In honor of the big guy’s birthday check out 6 times he has absolutely dominated the World Wide Web and say a “boze-de-boze-de-bop, se-de-bop” in honor of the forever loudest dude in the room.
6. “Jump” Gets The Shreds Treatment
Van Halen’s 1984 breakthrough single and video get the “Shreds” treatment via Santeri Ojala a.k.a. StSanders and is overdubbed with laughably corny music and even sillier lyrics to the tune of nearly a half a million Youtube views so far.
5. The Roth Show
After his SIRIUS satellite radio show got cancelled, Roth took to Youtube to give fans more classic Dave-isms. The Roth Show features exclusive live performances and insightful soliloquies about DLR’s life story and worldview.
4. Dave Says “Holy S**t”
When this flyer popped up on the streets of London, savvy music fans might have noticed theFoo Fighters logo on the skateboard being ridden by a youthful image of David Lee Roth. That’s because The Holy S**ts were an assumed name the Foos used to play an unannounced show at The House of Vans. DLR got into the act, sending it out to his 84,000 twitter followers with the message “Guess who?”
3. The Most Famous Tour Rider Of All Time
It was the stuff of legend, the alleged tour rider that stipulated that absolutely no M&M’s were allowed backstage at a Van Halen concert. The demand itself had nothing to do with an aversion to Earth-tone chocolates but rather a way to test promoters attention to detail, however the rumor could never be substantiated until The Smoking Gun found a copy and posted it in 2008.
2. Assteroidz – Diamond David Edition
What’s better than the classic home video game Asteroids? How about Asteroids where you’re David Lee Roth shooting giant “VH” logos and Sammy Hagar as the “Runnin’ With The Devil” bass intro keeps throbbing faster and faster in the background? Yes, this exists and you can play it HERE.
1. David Lee Roth’s Isolated Vocal From “Runnin’ With The Devil”
One can’t help but crack a smile as they listen to Diamond Dave’s solo vocals from this classic song off Van Halen’s debut album. His joie de vivre is in full effect as he hoots, hollers and lets out a serious of ridiculous but also totally awesome vocal ad-libs over the course of the track. Since being uploaded to Youtube in 2010 the clip has garnered almost a half million views and became such a viral hit that it led to a slew of vocal tracks from classic songs being uploaded and written about on the web.
Article from VH1.com.