David Lee Roth, the original lead singer of Van Halen, has announced his retirement in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“I am throwing in the shoes. I’m retiring,” Roth told the newspaper in a phone call. “This is the first, and only, official announcement … You’ve got the news. Share it with the world.”
CNN has reached out to Roth’s representatives for comment.
The flamboyant front man was known as “Diamond Dave” during the band’s 1970s and ’80s heyday, when the foursome had hits like “Dance the Night Away” and “Jump.”
Roth’s announcement comes just shy of a year after Eddie Van Halen, the band’s lead guitarist and one of its namesakes, died of cancer. The singer referenced Van Halen’s death in the call with the Las Vegas newspaper, saying he had been thinking about “the departure of my beloved classmate.”
