“You do it one of two ways: either spectacle or personality.”

“If you have spectacle, that’s great— that’s like the circus, a spectacle. But you’ve got to change that spectacle every year, people get bored quick. This is the ’80s. I grew up on a heavy diet of television, as a kid and as a big kid. And it’s like there’s no dead space on television or radio, everything turns real quick. Every 10 minutes you’ve gotta have a commercial. And that's how we write our songs, and that's how we live our lives.”

—David Lee Roth, said in a Detroit hotel room, in 1980.

“Dave is a, quote unquote, star type of person. I’m a musician. That’s the difference. And he went off to be a star. And I wanted to continue making music, you know?

“And the best way to be a star is to be in the movies, right? So that’s what he’s pursuing.”

—Edward Van Halen, said in his backyard, by the pool, in late November, 1985.

Funny how things change, isn’t it?

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