(Credits: Far Out / Abby Gillardi)
Sat 28 February 2026 21:00, UK
Rock and roll is full of furious divas in distress, and David Lee Roth embraced this persona every time someone from the press gave him a mic.
Never a prude to speak his mind, the voice once leading Van Halen had a special category of criticism for those who replaced him in the untamed and legendary rock band, and one of those unfortunate victims of trolling was former Van Halen singer Gary Cherone.
Although his tenure lasted a mere three years, Cherone’s run with the band followed his previous band, Extreme, opening concerts for Van Halen throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Diamond Dave was in the band for most of that time, but he didn’t shy away from later comparing their music and Gary Cherone’s contribution to a condom advertisement: “Thousands of tiny little notes, urging you to let go with music so thin, you feel like you’re hearing nothing at all”.
In POPsmear Magazine, Roth described his distaste for the band, saying, “I always pictured Extreme as being short for ‘extremely boring’”.
His interview with POPsmear was given around the time of Cherone’s replacement of the previous Van Halen singer, who had been Roth’s predecessor. Although it’s impossible to replace Roth’s energetic stage persona, he didn’t attempt to hide his bruised ego. “There will always be a Holyfield or a Tyson, but there’s only one Mohammad Ali,” he said. “There will always be a new bodybuilding champion, but there’s only one Arnold. And there’s only one David Lee. I’m the fun in Van Halen, always will be.”
To any DLR fan, his pretentious outbursts were nothing new. From Sammy Hagar to Wolfgang Van Halen, anyone in the band got a public lashing at regular intervals while sharing the stage with him, but shots are often fired at other random artists as well, and even though his musical calibre remains of the utmost respect, his liberal criticisms don’t make him sound like the most exciting person to work with.
Cherone, on the other hand, looks back on his Van Halen collaboration with nothing but nostalgic admiration, telling Rolling Stone in 2012, “It was surreal. You’re growing up with Aerosmith and Van Halen posters on your wall…they treated me like brothers”. The rock singer and songwriter was given a spot in the band during Roth’s brief second stint as Van Halen’s vocalist in 1996, when he had been called up haphazardly to replace the recently departed Hagar to record Van Halen’s Best Of – Volume I.
Performing together after the album’s release at the MTV Video Music Awards, during which Roth and Eddie Van Halen reportedly threatened each other, the former had finally understood that his stint was never meant to be permanent, and that he was already replaced.
Before that, Cherone explained, “Maybe Dave thought that [he was back in], but…maybe he didn’t. I don’t know”, showing that his resentment towards his replacement and his former endeavours might not be so musically rooted after all.
Extreme, on the other hand, had one of the most successful runs out of most ’90s rock bands. Their 1990 album Pornograffiti peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum in October 1992. Their style was unique for the time, emerging from funk-infused metal to hard-rock ballads, and they had their fair share of smearing, often looked at as imitators, or as indecisive with regard to picking a defined style, yet no one can hate quite like David Lee Roth.