David Lee Roth is retiring from music.
The US musician, best known for being the lead singer of the hard rock band Van Halen, announced that he will be “throwing in the shoes” and that his five coming performances at House of Blues Las Vegas will be his swan songs.
“I’m retiring. This is the first, and only, official announcement,” Roth, 66, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday.
Roth was tight-lipped as to why he was taking a step back from his prolific career, saying: “I’m not going to explain the statement. The explanation is in a safe.”
His announcement comes a year after Van Halen bandmate and guitarist Eddie Van Halen died of throat cancer.
Roth said that he had been thinking about “the departure of my beloved classmate recently" and said he was “encouraged and compelled to really come to grips with how short time is, and my time is probably even shorter.”
“I thought I might have been the first, frankly," he said. "And my doctors, my handlers, compelled me to really address that every time I go onstage, I endanger that future.”
Nonetheless, the singer said he was going to give it his all during his performances at House of Blues Las Vegas.
“I know that when I am in the audience, whether you come out with a ukulele or a marching band, all I ask you give me everything you’ve got to give,” he said. “That’s what I did for the last 50 years.”
Roth was one of Van Halen’s original members. The group released their debut self-titled album in 1978. As tensions between the band and Roth flared during their 1984 world tour, the singer left. The group then brought in Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist, releasing a number of vaunted works including their first No 1 album 5150.
Roth reprised his role as Van Halen’s lead singer in 2007, releasing the 2012 studio album A Different Kind of Truth, as well as the 2015 live album Tokyo Dome Live in Concert.
“I’ve given you all I’ve got to give,” Roth said. “It’s been an amazing, great run. No regrets, nothing to say about anybody. I’ll miss you all. Stay frosty.”
