Fact Or Fiction: David Lee Roth Left Van Halen On April Fools' Day

With April Fools' Day now freshly in the rearview mirror, I am reminded of just how depressing this once-fun holiday has become.

Corporations all over social media hijacked a "grassroots" holiday with lame and completely predictable prank announcements.

I was all prepared to write about how social media ruined the tradition that was April Fools' Day, until I remembered something else about the holiday.

It is widely accepted that Van Halen, one of the greatest hard rock bands of their era, parted ways with their original lead singer, David Lee Roth, on April 1, 1985.

READ: The 10 Best Van Halen Tunes In Honor Of Eddie's Birthday

The prevailing theory was that Roth, ever the prankster, did this as a last playful jab at the band's fans before exiting stage left.

But, is it true?

It's hard to say when, exactly, the original iteration of Van Halen featuring Roth on lead vocals came to an end, but I will be doing my best to dispel the longstanding myth that the quartet from Pasadena officially called it quits on April 1.

Background

By 1985, Van Halen was the biggest band in the world.

Fresh off their latest album, the wildly successful 1984, the group had just completed a grueling world tour.

As the members of the band got some much-needed rest, rumors began to swirl about Van Halen's future.

It was no secret that the creative tension between guitarist Eddie Van Halen and singer David Lee Roth was starting to bubble up, but when Roth released a solo record of cover tunes, Crazy From The Heat, it only added gasoline to the fire.

Roth went on multiple late night talk shows and made quite a few interview appearances to dispel any rumors that the band had broken up, but it did little to quell the rampant speculation.

READ: These Are The Greatest Debut Albums In Rock History

Then, on September 22, 1985, Van Halen was seen performing on stage at Farm Aid with a man who was very much not David Lee Roth: Sammy Hagar.

What happened between Roth's reassuring words and Van Hagar's soft debut at Farm Aid is up for interpretation, but there are a few key pieces of evidence that can help us fill in some blanks.

Noel Monk's Own Words

Noel Monk was Van Halen's manager for the majority of the band's original run.

For the first year, Monk served as the band's touring manager before taking over personal managing duties in 1979.

He negotiated record contracts for them, introduced the boys to merchandising, and is probably partially responsible for the four members' bank accounts being measured at eight and nine figures instead of seven.

Either way, Monk wrote a book called Running With The Devil, in which he chronicled the "wild times, loud rock, and down and dirty truth" behind the band.

Monk reveals in the last chapter of the book that the April Fools' myth is just that: a myth.

"Over the years, it has been rumored that David [Lee Roth] left Van Halen on April 1, 1985 – a supposed nod to his skewed sense of humor (you know, April Fools' Day)," Noel writes.

"But that story is somewhat apocryphal. The truth is, as with most such breakups, it happened over a period of months and after much discussion and acrimony between the principals."

This matches up with everything Monk wrote about over the several hundred pages in his book; this breakup was at least seven years in the making, as Roth and Eddie specifically were about as compatible as chlorine and eyeballs.

However, Monk also wrote about the day the band fired him as their manager, which happened in late February 1985, roughly a month and a half before the infamous April Fools' Day split.

While I trust Monk's judgment as someone who was as close to the band as anyone, I'm not sure if we can count on him as a reliable narrator in this regard.

Monk sadly passed away in 2022, taking whatever additional information he had on this subject to his grave.

Magazine Clues

A couple of Rolling Stone Magazine articles can give us some more insight into when and how the breakup occurred.

Back in 1985, Rolling Stone represented the pinnacle of pop culture print media, and a July 4 issue of that year mentioned the band being on a hiatus.

While I couldn't find the original piece, an Ultimate Classic Rock article was able to pull the quote from Rolling Stone.

 "Van Halen is on permanent hold. Eddie, who’s rumored to be scouting around for a new lead singer, is writing songs with Patty Smyth and planning to collaborate with Pete Townsend. As for David Lee Roth, he intends to pursue an acting career full-time and is developing his own movie."

Another Rolling Stone article (found via Loudwire) from August 1985 all but confirms the breakup, quoting Eddie as saying, "The band as you know it is over. Dave left to become a movie star."

So, it looks like the breakup occurred sometime between early July and mid-August, if the Rolling Stone is to be believed.

But that's just when the public found out about it. It doesn't necessarily mean it hadn't already happened, leaving that April 1, 1985, date still on the table.

American Video Hall Of Fame Award 1985

I believe the single strongest piece of evidence that Van Halen was still intact beyond April Fools' Day of 1985 stems from the American Video Hall of Fame Awards of that same year.

Take a look at this video of Rod Stewart accepting his award and fast-forward to the 30-second mark, when Stewart makes a quip about Roth.

Take a look at who is sitting next to Diamond Dave, yucking it up and even hi-fiving the singer.

None other than Edward Van Halen himself.

After doing some digging, I was able to determine this awards show took place on April 4, 1985.

This is generally agreed to be the last time Eddie and Roth were seen in public together, and given how acrimonious their split was, I highly doubt the two would be seen together – in good spirits, no less – just three days after a breakup that was filled with tears and bitter feelings.

There is plenty more anecdotal evidence to suggest that this April Fools' Day rumor was nothing more than fiction, including future David Lee Roth bassist Billy Sheehan detailing a June 1985 visit from both Roth and Eddie on separate occasions in which neither confirmed they had broken up yet.

But I believe these are the most concrete pieces of evidence that point to the break-up occurring after April 1985.

I'm not sure where the April Fools' Day myth originated from, but in the days of zero internet access, it was a lot harder to debunk schoolyard tales that had gotten out of hand.

Regardless, Roth and Van Halen would both go on to have successful careers away from each other, though neither ever captured the magic of their heyday as a collective unit.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some old-school Van Halen to listen to.