UNITED STATES • Typically, David Lee Roth spends his days, or at least his nights, "in tactical spandex, moving at 134 beats per minute", he said.
But the 65-year-old Van Halen singer is now just like the rest of us: stuck at home and obsessing about pandemics.
However, the past few months in quarantine have led Roth to an old pursuit with new focus.
Since April, he has filled his days creating Covid-19-themed drawings – he calls them comics – and then posting the finished works, one each week, on his social media channels.
The art, like Roth's music and disposition, is vibrant, whimsical and somewhat unconventional. In moments, it is confrontational. Several drawings feature his own face. Many are filled with images of frogs.
What sparked this surge of artistic expression? "Well, I lost my job," he cracked over the telephone from his home in Los Angeles on an afternoon late last month.
As recently as March, he was on tour as a solo act, supporting rock band Kiss in arenas across the United States.
Earlier in that run, Roth, who has also worked as an emergency medical technician in New York, had battled an unspecified illness.
"I'm not so unconvinced I didn't have the corona," he said.
Even by rock-frontman standards, his ability to command full attention from his audience is renowned, whether he is launching himself off drum risers for mid-air splits or schooling fans on how Van Halen is "the rock 'n' roll band who sold Ricky Ricardo rumba to the heavy metal nation".
But now his art is doing the talking. "Social commentary is what I do," he said. "It's what I've always done."
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Can you describe your artistic process? My approach is the best of both worlds: vintage and hyper-atomic digital. Sort of like watching (1960s cop series) Dragnet on your iPad.
You know, I moved to Japan for two-plus years to study sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) and calligraphy. Four nights a week, I trained and then did homework.
I have spent thousands of hours learning to use a horsehair brush with a block of ink I grind myself – it has not changed its recipe in 700 years.
What appeals to you about using brush and ink as a means of artistic expression? Hold on. This is not expressing myself. This is performance therapy. I am venting. I am angry. And I am not asking for forgiveness. And this is how I do it.
People do not usually think of David Lee Roth as angry. That is because I have transcended it. It is that secret magic when you take something that is essentially sad and find humour, eloquence and sometimes illumination in it.
You were on tour when the lockdown began. As a lifelong performer, was it difficult being forced to leave the road so hastily? Every jiu-jitsu magazine has a 28-yeaRead More – Source
UNITED STATES • Typically, David Lee Roth spends his days, or at least his nights, "in tactical spandex, moving at 134 beats per minute", he said.
But the 65-year-old Van Halen singer is now just like the rest of us: stuck at home and obsessing about pandemics.
However, the past few months in quarantine have led Roth to an old pursuit with new focus.
Since April, he has filled his days creating Covid-19-themed drawings – he calls them comics – and then posting the finished works, one each week, on his social media channels.
The art, like Roth's music and disposition, is vibrant, whimsical and somewhat unconventional. In moments, it is confrontational. Several drawings feature his own face. Many are filled with images of frogs.
What sparked this surge of artistic expression? "Well, I lost my job," he cracked over the telephone from his home in Los Angeles on an afternoon late last month.
As recently as March, he was on tour as a solo act, supporting rock band Kiss in arenas across the United States.
Earlier in that run, Roth, who has also worked as an emergency medical technician in New York, had battled an unspecified illness.
"I'm not so unconvinced I didn't have the corona," he said.
Even by rock-frontman standards, his ability to command full attention from his audience is renowned, whether he is launching himself off drum risers for mid-air splits or schooling fans on how Van Halen is "the rock 'n' roll band who sold Ricky Ricardo rumba to the heavy metal nation".
But now his art is doing the talking. "Social commentary is what I do," he said. "It's what I've always done."
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Can you describe your artistic process? My approach is the best of both worlds: vintage and hyper-atomic digital. Sort of like watching (1960s cop series) Dragnet on your iPad.
You know, I moved to Japan for two-plus years to study sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) and calligraphy. Four nights a week, I trained and then did homework.
I have spent thousands of hours learning to use a horsehair brush with a block of ink I grind myself – it has not changed its recipe in 700 years.
What appeals to you about using brush and ink as a means of artistic expression? Hold on. This is not expressing myself. This is performance therapy. I am venting. I am angry. And I am not asking for forgiveness. And this is how I do it.
People do not usually think of David Lee Roth as angry. That is because I have transcended it. It is that secret magic when you take something that is essentially sad and find humour, eloquence and sometimes illumination in it.
You were on tour when the lockdown began. As a lifelong performer, was it difficult being forced to leave the road so hastily? Every jiu-jitsu magazine has a 28-yeaRead More – Source
