For many Van Halen aficionados, few albums can touch what the band did with David Lee Roth. Even though the group was able to sculpt themselves into a completely different animal with Sammy Hagar, the amount of charisma that oozed out of ‘Diamond Dave‘ is something that only comes once every generation. Even though the band’s chemistry worked like a charm throughout the early 1980s, it was only a matter of time before everything fell apart.
Roth was dissatisfied with Eddie Van Halen’s preference for keyboards over his guitar as the group entered the MTV generation. Eddie was most comfortable behind the fretboard. His experiments on the keys resulted in songs that many weren’t sure the band could pull off. From the pure pop of ‘Jump’ to the distorted sounds of ‘And the Cradle Will Rock‘. Later which led some to believe Eddie was still playing the guitar.
Eddie Van Halen kept his foot down about keyboards appearing on the album 1984. By the time Roth had decided to leave after the tour to work on his solo material. The band recovered with classic hits from the Hagar era. It was never certain whether the original lineup would ever reunite.
Gary Cherone was brought in behind the microphone after Hagar left while Roth was still in the band. Van Halen began to fracture. The fallout from the album Van Halen III, which attempted to blend both Roth and Hagar’s styles, led many to wonder whether any new version of the band could succeed.
When the band went on tour with Roth and Hagar, the wheels started turning for one of the frontmen to return. As Eddie began to clean up his act. Roth rejoined the band, albeit without longtime bassist Michael Anthony, and Eddie’s son, Wolfgang, replaced him.
Because the tour was going so well, Wolfgang was able to persuade his father to work on some new material. It resulted in the long-awaited return to the studio for A Different Kind of Truth. The album was a collection of Eddie’s best riffs from Roth’s first stint in the band. Wolfgang remembered one song that was never recorded.
The Van Halens had created a new song from scratch under the joke title ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Panama’ out of a jam, only for Roth to shoot it down. In an interview with Louder, Wolfgang recalls Roth determining not to include it and said, “[The producer] He told Dave. ‘Hey, take a look at this…’ And Dave was like, “No, I’m not doing it.” ‘If you’d listened to us, it could have been another cool song on the album,’ we said. .”
They could never flesh out the track. A Different Kind of Truth was a more than competent hard rock record. It was particularly on songs like “Chinatown” and “She’s the Woman.” However, fans still fantasize about the day when someone will release another of Eddie’s classic licks.
