David Lee Roth apparently did not “Jump” at the opportunity to open for Mötley Crüe.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the “Dr. Feelgood” rockers asked the Van Halen icon if he wanted a spot on the bill for their upcoming stadium reunion tour. When bassist Nikki Sixx got an answer back from Roth, Diamond Dave did more than just decline the invitation.
“‘I don’t open for bands that I influenced,’ Sixx says Roth told him,” the Los Angeles Times report reads.
As for who will be sharing the lineup with the Crüe on the tour, that’d be Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. The outing is finally set to kick off in June 2022 after being postponed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
By the way, Roth turning down Mötley Crüe isn’t the only bit of opening-act drama he’s been involved in this year. He was supposed to support KISS on their ongoing farewell tour, like he had been doing before the pandemic. However, when the trek started up again this summer, Roth wasn’t included on the bill anymore.
Asked about Roth’s absence by Rolling Stone, Gene Simmons suggested that he is no longer the “ultimate frontman” of his “heyday,” and seemed to compare him to “bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.”
Roth then responded by posting 18 photos of a boy giving the middle finger on his Instagram, after which Simmons apologized for hurting Dave’s feelings with his comments, admitting that he suffered from “diarrhea of the mouth.”
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