David Lee Roth helped bring the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards to a close on Sunday when he hit the stage to present the Video of the Year honor.
Backstage at the event, the Van Halen frontman was interviewed by Us Weekly, and he shared some words of tribute to his late band mate Eddie Van Halen and also revealed that he has plans for a special performance at the end of the year.
Asked if he had any new music plans, Diamond Dave revealed that he was going to be playing “Las Vegas on New Year’s,” and then said a few words about Eddie.
“You know, my guitar player passed away, Eddie Van Halen,” Roth said. “He’s either in heaven raising hell or he’s in hell, consequently in heaven. Read into that as you wish, and he would have me say it just like that.”
Eddie died on October 6, 2020, after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.
Roth also offered a brief quip about one of his other Van Halen band mates, drummer Alex Van Halen.
“I just spoke to Alex,” Dave told Us Weekly. “We’re about to celebrate our 50th year of ragging on each other.”
While no official announcement has been made about Roth performing in Las Vegas later this year, he had been about to play a second series of 2020 shows in Sin City at the House of Blues in March of last year when he was forced to postpone the engagement because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He played his first run of House of Blues gigs in January 2020.
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