Fair Warning Meets DLR

sixstring · 06.08.06, 09:59 AM

I've been meaning to post this for almost two weeks now but been so frickin' busy lately I couldn't get to it until now:

The rest of the guys in Fair Warning got the chance to meet The Diamond One in person a couple weeks ago (DAMN, I wish I coulda been there, but I was definitely represented). The guys took our copies of the faux magazine covers I did for all of us and Dave signed them. It's pretty kewl to know DLR knows who I am...CA-RAZY, MAN!

Anyhoo, here's the story and some GREAT pics as told by Jason (our DLR) himself...enjoy...

:

The Day I Met David Lee Roth

First, some background.

This is me:

This is my close pal Jim:

We've been friends and on again/off again bandmates since 1986.

This is our mutual friend Matty:

I met Matty at Jim's wedding. Upon discovering that we were all huge Van Halen fans, we sort of dared each other into starting a Van Halen tribute show. We called it Fair Warning. Jim became Alex Van Halen, Matty took on the role of bassist Michael Anthony. I had the enormous shoes of David Lee Roth to fill. You can see more here and here. Since 1999 we've managed to play a few dozen shows, despite various weddings, births, interim guest band-mates, relocations, job pressures, family emergencies, and the like.

sixstring · 06.08.06, 10:02 AM

Here's me and Jim in action:

On Thursday, May 25 - the day after my birthday - Jim called to say he had some interesting news. His wife (Amy) had a co-worker who used to work for WTVF in Nashville. She got a heads up that David Lee Roth was going to be at the station on "Talk of the Town" promoting "Strumming with the Devil," a new CD of bluegrass versions of Van Halen songs - on which DLR hisself sang on two of the tracks. Would I fly to Nashville on the off chance that we could finagle a spot backstage? Hells yeah.

So last Monday evening I flew out to scenic Nash-Vegas, and I brought my trusty Fair Warning scrapbook (courtesy of Yvonne):

When we got to the studio we were informed by the receptionist that DLR had gotten there about 2 minutes before we did. And she made him sign in at the reception desk! (The funny thing about the receptionist was that she seemed positively breathless that Ben Jones, AKA "Cooter" from the Dukes of Hazzard TV series was also there. I do not believe that she asked Mr. Jones to sign in.)

Jim and I signed in as well. Jim put "Fair Warning" in the company/organization column next to our names.

We wound around the studio and went backstage on the "Talk of the Town" set. Diamond Dave was standing right there in front of us, taking pictures with a couple of the station's newsbabes and signing autographs. When they were done he looked at me and I asked him "how about one more?" and he said sure! I was wearing a "Dave TV" (the logo from his "Just a Gigalo" video) shirt, and he said "hey, I know that logo!"

sixstring · 06.08.06, 10:05 AM

Fair Warning's guitar player is not only a brilliant musician but also our resident artist who can do just about anything with photoshop. One of his masterpieces was a set of faux music magazine covers representing each of us:

I showed mine to Dave and told him: this guy is your biggest fan.

Then I showed him the Fair Warning scrapbook. His first question was: Do you guys make any money doing this? I said not much, but people still go crazy over the music (which is true - our audiences occasionally border on hysteric). I asked if he'd sign my magazine cover and he noted that I'd brought a new Sharpie - and said that attention to detail was a good thing (it was actually Jim's Sharpie - which I stole from Jim's kitchen and DLR subsequently stole from me).

We chatted for a few minutes and he said that our Eddie Van Halen looked healthier than the real Eddie Van Halen.

Comparison Matrix

Ours

Theirs

We were standing right by a Doppler display, and someone asked Dave if he wanted to be a weatherman. He said: "the forecast is always the same with me: high tonight, low tomorrow!"

sixstring · 06.08.06, 10:06 AM

I showed him how Jim's drum set was mocked up to look almost exactly like Alex Van Halen's for the 1981 "WDFA" tour supporting the album "Fair Warning."

Comparison Matrix

Jim

Alex

I was pointing out the similarities and then I said: "oh, you probably remember. You were there."

Amy (Jim's wife) also told Dave that when we had seen him play at Stubb's BBQ in Austin he had pointed right at her and said "you're too young to be at my show!" to which DLR looked down at her pregnant belly and replied "clearly, I was mistaken."

Dave looked at me and said: "better than meeting Jesus, right? Nobody ever started a war in my name!"

sixstring · 06.08.06, 10:07 AM

Then we went and sat offstage next to some high school hair models who were booked to be on between Dave and Cooter ("Between Dave and Cooter" is the name of my next album, so help me!). We watched Dave's interview and then took off.

The bottom line on David Lee Roth: he was funny, incredibly gracious, and projected enthusiasm but at the same time had kind of a no BS aura. Totally the kind of guy you would want fronting your band. A Dude among dudes. He deserves every ounce of success he gets - and I'm not just saying that because he signed an autograph. I've been following his career just about as long as I can remember and all I can say is he's the real deal. Here we are proudly displaying our booty:

Next Jim and I went in search of a beer while we killed the hour or so before I had to get to the airport. We came upon a mighty choice that we all must make:

After that I was in a musical mood so I stopped and showed some clown how to play "Purple Haze."

White Lightning · 06.08.06, 10:17 AM

Dave looked at me and said: "better than meeting Jesus, right? Nobody ever started a war in my name!"[/QUOTE]

Obviously, the Diamond one has never been on this site during a Sam vs. Dave thread. Great story-I am seriously jealous.