David Lee Roth:’ Working with Eddie Van Halen was better than any love affair’

David Lee Roth says working with Eddie Van Halen was “better than any love affair”.

Although the pair often clashed during their time together in Van Halen, Roth revealed how much he misses his late bandmate, who died in 2020.

Speaking on ‘The Roth Show’, he said: “My dear departed Ed. Boy, I miss him. I had a ball with Ed. Walt Disney once said, ‘You know what? My love affair with Mickey Mouse was better than any love affair with a woman I ever had.’ I’ve gotta tell ya: playing with Ed, writing songs with Ed, presenting those songs with Ed was better than any love affair I ever had.

“And some of those songs, I think, might last forever – or until the last syllable of time, like Shakespeare said. They became anthems. Where are they playing ‘Jump’ right now?”

Roth – who last played with Van Halen in 2015 – also gave an insight into creating ‘Jump’.

He said: “I remember when he played [‘Jump’] on the keyboard downstairs. I said, ‘No.’ Well, we reflect the times, and the times at that time was guitars, guitars, guitars; and ‘Jump’ was one of those hybrids.”

Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Eddie recorded guitar parts for a planned Chris Cornell collaboration.

One of the late Soundgarden frontman’s former collaborators Pete Thorn – who toured with Cornell and played guitar on some songs from his 2009 album ‘Scream’ – claimed the two rockers came close to working together on a track.

Appearing on ‘The Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White Show’ podcast, he said: “They were buddies… Eddie always wanted to do something with Chris, musically.

“He loved his voice and he used to be like, ‘Man, I love him. We were always talking about doing something together.’”

During the ‘Scream’ sessions, Thorn helped produce versions of ‘Long Gone’ and the title track, and it was at this point Cornell thought about getting Van Halen to join them.

He added: “[Cornell and I were] in a parking lot listening to them in my car, I remember, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Hey what do you think if we got Eddie to work on this?’ ”

Cornwell tragically took his own life aged 52 in May 2017.