David Lee Roth Reveals His Picks For a Touring Van Halen Tribute Band

Earlier this week, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted revealed that he’d been asked by Alex Van Halen to take part in a Van Halen tribute tour alongside Joe Satriani. Newsted declined the offer on the basis of being worried it would be perceived as a cash grab, but his statement also got a lot of people talking about the possibility of a Van Halen tribute tour. Now, singer David Lee Roth has chimed in, and has mentioned who he thinks should perform on a Van Halen tribute tour.

In case you didn’t get a chance to read it, Newsted apparently got asked by drummer Alex Van Halen to step up to the plat for a tribute tour with Satriani playing late guitarist Eddie Van Halen‘s role. Newsted even agreed to go out to California and jam with the guys — but at the last minute, he decided not to go through with the project, saying:

“How could you? There’s nobody that can top it, so how do you show it honor? I didn’t want it to be viewed as a money grab. And then it kind of just all fizzled.”

In response to this, the Van Halen News Desk reached out to David Lee Roth, asking if he had any thoughts about Newsted’s statement or the possibility of performing on such a tour. Here’s Diamond Dave’s answer (without the all-caps, that is):

“In my mind, ‘Van Halen 4k,’ in the age of COVID is going to require two of us for every position. Satriani and Lukather, Anthony and Newsted, Al or Tommy Lee. Probably the only one who could do my job is Pink.”

Damn! As Ultimate Classic Rock points out, this is the first we’ve heard about Tommy Lee and Toto’s Steve Lukather being thrown into the mix. Meanwhile, Pink is…well, it’s not who we would’ve chosen, but it’s a daring choice, we’ll say that!

More as we hear about it, but hey, our interest is piqued.