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Published Monday, January 02, 2006 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

DAVID LEE ROTH EXCLUSIVE

I had "Diamond" Dave on the phone last week in anticipation of his morning radio debut (he starts at 6 a.m. Jan. 3 on several CBS Radio affiliates, including WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston). Anyhow. Dave had lots on his mind, and I didn't have room for all of it in print for today's story that ran on page 3 of the Herald, so here are some other quotable quotes from our phone chat last week.

Me and David Lee Roth, the interview, Dec. 29, 2005...

Are you ready?
DLR: "It's much like a play on the old golf joke. When I should I start learning golf? Answer: Always 10 years ago. I don't think you can get ready for a job like this. It's not even a job. You either are like this or you aren't. Howard Stern spent the last 20 years basically in a small little room with no windows. I've spent the last 30 years leading a life of crime and international intrigue! At least that's what I write on my resume!"

Did you look at your weeklong stint on WZLX-FM 100.7 last March as a formal tryout?
DLR: "There's no way to tryout. There's no way to audition. You either have this within you or you don't. Sort of like the triple half-gainer off the high dive. And no, I don't have that in me!"

DLR: "As you know, I'm an EMT."
Wait, I didn't ask you another question yet.

Did you learn anything from the week on ZLX?
DLR: "Oh, I didn't learn anything. I simply confirmed everything I knew to be true. Only this time it all happened in public...I'm a single voice that can combine and singlehandedly outrage both the extreme liberal left, of which I'm a card-carrying member, and the NASCAR nation. And yes, I am one of the great unwashed, according to Faulkner."

What should we expect from your show?
DLR: "First off, don't even think about it as radio. Think of it as the first of the first of that day's late-night talk shows. You think of it as morning radio. I think of it as afterhours....(something about Buddhists)...Whether or not you're staying up or waking up, the truest question is: Are you comfortable at 4 in the morning? For someone like myself, Keith Richards, or a four-star general, 4 in the morning is a very familiar hour to us. I don't think I've actually been to sleep since 1987!"

Is "Hot For Teacher" now ironic or prophetic, considering the more frequent allegations of affairs between female teachers and boy students?
DLR: "Students are more accelerated than ever....the whole game has sped up...that's what's walking around in the skull of a common kid today...and teachers, because of the lousy way we treat them, and the lousier way we pay them, are younger and...unconditioned, inexperienced, through no fault of their own. What kind of job is that going to attract?"

Yes, I know that was an incomplete answer, but he was all over the place, so try not to take those thoughts too far out of context, especially since a couple of minutes later, he started on another tangent...
DLR:"It's my duty to explain to little Paris, what's it all about, Alfie? Because if you show a 6-year-old a couple of lesbians, you've got a lot of explaining to do. Same if you show them a picture of soldiers. Or a picture of me!"

But what about your show?
DLR: "Another thing that separates me from almost unanimously the rest of my colleagues in radio, is I'm not a comedian. I'm just like you. I'm a cynic. And you're never going to get tired of hearing me speak my mind."

You spent part of your childhood in Boston (early 1960s). Do you plan to bring the show here ever?
DLR: "It's in my contract that I'm not giving up my life as a danger-loving adventurer! Every fourth week we travel anywhere. My first stop is Miami. Who's doing this tour?! You can figure we're going to the danger capitals of the world."

He went on to say that most DJs get uncofmfortable outside of the booth, whereas he is comfortable anywhere and everywhere. He said he suggested broadcasting from a hotel room. "They said sure, in Vegas. Why wait for Vegas?"

DLR: "Two things are happening that work against radio. The future is closer to Christiane Amanpour, who can tell you the temperature of the Tigris River within two minutes of broadcast. The technology is that advanced. Yet radio still relies on the same old tired little room. The same thing was killing the television sitcom...that's why generally the youth have abandoned radio. Because it's utterly predictable."