David Lee Roth Wanted To Do Eat 'Em And Smile Reunion

Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth reportedly wanted to take part in the reunion of his "Eat 'Em And Smile" solo band earlier this year but was unable to attend.

The reunion of guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Gregg Bissonette and keyboardist Brett Tuggle took place during this year's NAMM convention in Anaheim, Ca back in January where they were joined for the special performance by singer Jeff Scott Soto (Journey, Yngwie Malmsteen, Sons of Apollo).

During a recent interview Soto revealed that Roth wanted to be part of the jam but was across the country at the time and because of that, the group decided not to play the signature hit song from the "Eat 'Em And Smile" album, "Yankee Rose."

Sotot told eonmusic.co.uk, "The original idea was to do 'Shy Boy' and 'Yankee Rose'. Initially they did reach out for Dave, and asked him if he wanted to do it, but he was in New York during that week, and he said he would have loved to have done it.

"From that, the guys, mainly Steve [Vai], they worried that if they ever wanted to put this thing together and actually make it work, whether it's a jam or a reunion or whatever, by doing it with me and doing two DLR songs, he might say; "Yeah, you know, you've kind of already done it, you don't need me to do it anymore", kind of thing.

"So, it was by design that we removed 'Yankee Rose', and we only kept 'Shy Boy' because I made the point that 'Shy Boy's a Billy Sheehan vehicle. David Lee Roth, way after the fact; it's a Talas song, Mr. Big [have played it], it's been covered by virtually every band Billy Sheehan's been associated with, besides Sons of Apollo.

"So I brought in the argument that, it's not a Dave song, and it shouldn't be treated as a Dave song; it should be treated as a Billy Sheehan song. But those guys were behind a version of that song, and that's what convinced the guys to keep that in the set."

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