Written by: Alex Green

Perhaps Andrew Marvell was correct when he suggested that self-preservation was nature’s first great law.

He probably wasn’t thinking in terms of rock and roll, but to apply a Marvellian lens to the life of a touring musician is to bring into full relief the toll it can take.

On a body.

On a psyche.

And on a life.

David Lee Roth, cleverly citing self-preservation in a phone call with the Las Vegas Review Journal, revealed he’s retiring.

“I am throwing in the shoes. I’m retiring,” the 67-year-old Roth said. “This is the first, and only, official announcement. You’ve got the news. Share it with the world.”

Roth has five Las Vegas shows planned at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, and once those five shows are done, Roth is as well. And he walks away, it’ll be with 50 years of the music business under his belt.

But he did explain the statement—sort of.

“I am encouraged and compelled to really come to grips with how short time is, and my time is probably even shorter,” he said.  “And my doctors, my handlers, compelled me to really address that every time I go onstage, I endanger that future.”

On the subject of mortality, Roth admitted that he’s had the late Eddie Van Halen on his mind lately.

Roth also revealed that he and Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen are not only in regular contact, the elder Van Halen will be playing drums with Roth when he says goodbye.” Roth said the longtime bandmates, “speak to each other constantly, two or three times a day. We laugh like pirates.”

“I’ve given you all I’ve got to give,” Roth explained. “It’s been an amazing, great run, no regrets, nothing to say about anybody.”