It may very well be the most publicized non-concert in rock history.
On November 25th, 2015, a one-off reunion concert featuring the members of David Lee Roth’s Eat ‘Em and Smile band was canceled at the last minute by the fire marshal at the Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood. The show would have marked the first time in 30 years that Roth, guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan, and drummer Greg Bissonette performed on stage together. As it turned out, the media attention that came from the cancelation proved to be even more so than if the concert had happened.
During a recent appearance on The Paltrocast, Vai recalled the events of that night, including Roth’s reaction to finding out the fire marshal pulled the plug on the concert. Vai said, “I told Dave, I said, ‘It’s not happening,’ and he goes, ‘Perfect! Now we’ll get more press out of this!'”
Initially, Roth wasn’t even announced as being part of the event. The band was to play the album live along with Steel Panther vocalist, Ralph Saenz, formerly the singer of the popular, long-running Van Halen tribute band The Atomic Punks.
“I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s ask Dave,’” said Vai. ‘I didn’t think he’d be interested but he’s like, ‘Sure, I’ll come down. And he came to the house and we reviewed, we just went through it a bit. And him and I drove down there. When we got there, nobody knew Dave was going to be there. They just thought it was enough to have Steve, Billy, and Greg. The line was…it was very thick, and it went all the way around the building, and the room was totally packed. They shoved like one thousand people in a 300-seat venue.
“There was a curtain on the stage,” Vai continued. “And I was standing behind the curtain and I was about to hit the chords. The opening chord to ‘Yankee Rose’, and I was ready. Right when I was about to hit [the opening chord] to have the curtain open and to start it, the guy comes to me and he says, ‘You can’t play, the fire marshal is here. There’s too many people, and you’ll get in trouble. They’ll fine you.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m playing.’ And he goes, ‘You’re gonna get fined.’ I said, ‘I’ll pay the fine. How much is it?’ He goes away and he comes back, ‘It’s $5,000.’ So I thought, ‘Alright. That’s worth it.'” I’m about to hit [the chord and] he goes, ‘No, but then you’ll go to jail, and the club owner will go to jail, and they’ll close the place.’ And I just never hit the cord.”
Darren Paltrowitz is the author of DLR Book: How David Lee Roth Changed the World. He can be heard on the David Lee Roth podcast The DLR Cast with co-host Steve Roth. You can also catch his interviews with various celebrities on his podcast The Paltrocast.