Outtakes from the article '14 Carat Diamond Dave':

Paul Gargano: You hadn’t written those yourself?
Diamond David Lee Roth: I wrote with John Lowery and Michael Hartman. I didn’t even tell anybody that they’re going to radio, otherwise they tighten up. If they think it’s a demo, they show up 20 minutes late like a good rock star. If an amp blows up there’s no real stress. We finished in like 48 hours, and the same goes for mixing. I think there’s something really to be gained by all that. All the records i grew up with, and all the ones that are still considered classics, were made in just a few days. How long did that first Zeppelin take, a day and a half? On and on from old Motown to your classic Black Sabbath. We knew the songs before we walked in the door. Working out a vocal melody isn’t that difficult for me...All three notes worth, I wrangle the hell out of them, though, and I can squeeze a damn fine story line in between! But I only have four story lines. Go out and live a little, get your heart broken in another language, get another stamp in the passport, change a tire in the Sudan instaed of Paris. When i come back, those notes somehow sound bigger!

Paul Gargano: Were you looking for a raw record? The opposite of the nine month productions that are common today?
Diamond David Lee Roth: Sometimes I think there’s a temptation to go in the studio and play the studio instead of the song. The song is over in 3:48, so, where did the eight months come in? Now we’ve gone past the music. forget the coda, I want to know what $2 million sounds like. Where does that bring us? I approached this in sort of a time line aspect, approximately 1968 to1976, simply record the band like you were standing in front of it, and nobody does that anymore. In today’s approach to digital recording, that’s considered retarded. But if you have haircuts like we do, that screams “halelujah.” That was a pretty lead with your face time period. I’m not imitating a certain kind of music, but the time period in which it was done. Other techniques, trying to sing along with the doubled vocal, which is very difficult, and simply not going back and fixing it. It gives you a rather drucken, careening feel. At times it sounds like old Rod Stewart, then it sounds like Mungo Jerry, then it sounds like Led Zeppelin, and on and on. And half of the fun of classic “new” stuff is that it sounds like people are singing in a place they probably shouldn’t be singing.

Paul Gargano: This album has that classic feel. Like you’re doing the old material again.
Diamond David Lee Roth: I have been accused, and I have been venerated, for writing all my songs about guns, guitars, bikinis and fast cars, and I thought to myself, “You know, I’ve never done that consciously.” In fact, as far as partying goes, i may have written one song, “Bottoms Up!” So this time, i ecided that i would write every single God damned song starting from there. it turns out it’s the most popular music I’ve done in years, it’s what everybody wants.

Paul Gargano: How’d you put this band together?
Diamond David Lee Roth: I started out with Michael Hartman, and we wrote a few songs together, at which point I met John Lowery. John being a little older, and more time on the water, I think now’s his time. No matter how well you drive, you’ve got to have distance under the tires. I thinks John’s outout outdistanced everybody. If i had known him long enough, we might have done a whole album together, but I had only known him a month and a half.

Paul Gargano: How did you guys meet?
Diamond David Lee Roth: He sent me a song. These guys search you out. You can’t call the guitar magazines to find them, this kind of talent comes with an obsessive drive, and I’m not sure which is more important. But the talent has to be coupled withan absolute obsession. And I don’t care why your doing it. For me, it’s probably the same as you- greed, lusts, revenge - like most of you reading this, you love me because I remind you of you, my shit’s forever!

Paul Gargano: A lot of people were very disenfranchised by the new Van Halen record, and John has the fire that a lot of people thought wasn’t on that record.
Diamond David Lee Roth: He’s got a signature sound. People love energy. This is where it stops being simple music and starts being all the great intanibles that you paid for this magazine for- the vibe, the attitude, the spirit. people want rip-ass riffs with a certain belligerent enthusiasm. This isn’t belly laugh fun, that the Spice Girls. Lowery raced ahead of everybody. Terry and I had a handful of songs, and I determined that we were going to do an album that serves under two Gods. One, you can put the head gear on and listen to it for musicality and lyrical substance- or the complete lack thereof... Which is substance, isn’t it? We all like (Dennis) Rodman just as much as (Michael) Jordan! One may have substance, and one may be a grub, but they compliment each other well. and, gentlemen, I believe we may have made the single greatest eight-track, barbecue tape of all time. With this kind of hard rock, it’s gotta be both.

Paul Gargano: You’ve worked with Terry before, how’d you hook up with Michael?
Diamond David Lee Roth: He just showed up and said, “Let’s do some stuff,” and I found a couple of songs off his solo gig. As opposed to leaving him behind and saying, “ You only had two songs and you didn’t complete enough passes,” this is where the “who the hell wants to get out of the pool and change the tape every 20 minutes” attitude comes in. Keep the songs in there. Lowery surged ahead, in a big kind of way. and Terry, as well, is coming from from blues roots closer to that BBC Zeppelin kind of thing, like that solo he plays at the end of “Black Sand” - it’s classic, it instantly fits right in on classic rock stations that aren’t playing any of today’s music. Everyone has there own personality. We’ll make the album, and we’ll see what people want to hear when we go on the road.