David Lee Roth says there’s more to the story behind why Van Halen’s A Different Kind Of Truth is no longer on streaming services.
During an interview on Sirius/XM in October, Wolfgang gave his explanation as to why, stating: “The contract ran out on putting it up on streaming services. So, we’ve been working on getting it back, but there are some people involved who do not like that record and are not making it easy to get it back up.”
When asked by host Eddie Trunk if the “people” who were preventing the album from returning were also “involved with the record,” Wolfgang replied: “Yeah.” Trunk then asked, “Might that person commonly be known by three initials?” Wolfgang’s response: “Probably. I mean, yeah, you can put it together. I hate to say it, because people will think I’m making stuff up, but it’s, like, man, I’d love to have the record back up there, but [Roth] doesn’t like it and he’s not working with us to get it back up there. So I hope people who like it have a physical version of it. [Laughs]”
Roth remained silent in the wake of Wolfgang’s comments but that silence ended today in a new video posted to YouTube titled “Family Therapy…”. Roth voices a scene depicting Wolfgang with a therapist who is listening to Wolfgang complain that his “LP” (presumably A Different Kind Of Truth) isn’t getting any streams. The therapist responds by bluntly stating that the album was “DOA (dead on arrival)”, “KTC (kicked to the curb) and “a complete FP (faceplant)”, adding, “Son, commercially speaking, you got your ass handed to you.”
Roth (still in therapy character mode) then implies that there’s more than one person behind why the album is MIA from streaming platforms. He reveals that it was both he and Alex Van Halen who decided against putting it back into the streaming universe. They both felt it wasn’t worth the money spent on high-price attorneys to negotiate a better deal with the record company and streaming platforms for an album that doesn’t match up with the band’s previous Dave-era albums.
Therapist Dave asks Wolfgang: “Do you remember Leon Spinks? How about Larry Holmes or Trevor Berbick? Well, these were the last couple of Muhammad Ali’s fights, and nobody wants to remember them because they were no fun… And your albums with Van Halen are a lot like those last two fights.”
Notice he said albums. As in plural. Three years after ADKOT came out in 2012, the live album Tokyo Dome Live in Concert was released. This one is still on streaming platforms but maybe not for much longer.