David Lee Roth

Diamond Dave Dept: As punk, college-rock sincerity and yoga bloomed around him, David Lee Roth confessed that he "used to jog but the ice cubes kept falling out of my glass." As the '80s unfurled, he caught the zeitgeist and stated his conviction that money may not buy happiness, but "it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it.", according to Montreal Gazette. And VH gave every indication of Aging Disgracefully, from the singer on in and you want lines? Diamond Dave's got a million of 'em. Of all the bands of their era, Van Halen most embraced yahooing American indulgence - not necessarily drugs or alcohol, although they consumed their share, but the Live Large and Ugly impulse, the conspicuous display of Hollywood wealth, revelling in fab stardom, triumphal, without any pretence to working class or populist cred. There's something to be said for a singer who can articulate: "I am not this way because I'm in a band; I'm in a band because I'm this way." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.