10 Most Interesting David Lee Roth Videos

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Our “10 Most Interesting David Lee Roth Videos” article presents some of the most iconic videos that good old Diamond Dave has released throughout his career. His presence on the video screen—or, at the time, the television screen—helped fuel his departure from Van Halen. We all remember Dave TV from the mid-1980s. David Lee Roth was part P.T. Barnum, a little bit of Tom Jones, and, of course, Mr. Rock and Roll. You either loved Dave or liked him a little. Not too many people just disliked David Lee Roth, unless, I guess, your name is Sammy Hagar. But that’s a whole other story.

David Lee Roth released his first independent music in 1985 with the Crazy from the Heat EP. Two big videos were released from that record: “California Girls” and “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody.” The EP’s success and those videos helped launch his solo career, with his departure from Van Halen later that year.

David Lee Roth’s first full-length solo album, Eat ‘Em and Smile, was released in 1986. The album showcased an incredible rock and roll band behind Mr. Roth, featuring bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Gregg Bissonette, and the amazing Steve Vai, who was not only flashy and brilliant on guitar but also held his own pretty well in the videos, standing next to Mr. David Lee Roth. The album was a huge success. Two years later, in 1988, his next solo release, Skyscraper, was issued with the same core recording band still on board.

In 1991, David Lee Roth released the album A Little Ain’t Enough. There were some changes in the lineup for that record, as Matt Bissonette replaced Billy Sheehan on bass and Jason Becker replaced Steve Vai on guitar. As the rock landscape changed in the early 1990s, David Lee Roth continued with his own hard-rock style on his fourth full-length solo album, Your Filthy Little Mouth, released in 1994 and produced by Nile Rodgers. This album featured a substantially different group of musicians from the original David Lee Roth band.

The DLR Band album was released in 1998. This was one of David Lee Roth’s strongest solo albums and is probably his most underrated. Multiple guitarists were featured on the record, including John Lowery, later known as John 5, Terry Kilgore, and Mike Hartman. Bob Marlette and Tom Lilly played bass, while Ray Luzier sat behind the drum kit. Roth’s most recent full-length studio album remains Diamond Dave, issued in 2003. That album was mostly cover songs, though it included a few originals among its 14 tracks. Roth has continued releasing standalone recordings since then, and in 2025 Rhino issued The Warner Recordings 1985-1994, collecting and remastering his first five solo releases.

Our “10 Most Interesting David Lee Roth Videos” article presents 10 of our favorite David Lee Roth videos that Diamond Dave has released throughout his amazing career.

No Van Halen videos are included; it’s just his solo stuff.

Editor’s Note: When we first began writing this list, it was intended to be a “10 Best David Lee Roth Videos” article. However, as we dove deeper into our research and started to discover some really strange stuff, we thought that might not be the best title for this article. It kind of morphed into something else, which we’re still trying to figure out…

# 10 – Stand Up

We open up our “10 Most Interesting David Lee Roth Videos” list with one that can be a little cringey, but that’s kind of what we liked about David Lee Roth. The opening shows great promise with a couple of hitchhikers we would never pass up. However, it soon transitions onto a very cheaply designed set that seems to resemble a sort of 1980s “Dancing with the Stars” video. I don’t know about this one, but we just had to show it to you because I don’t think it received a lot of airplay.

# 9 – The Trouble with Cuban Coffee Is a Week Later, I’m Drowsy Again…

Okay, don’t ask. I have no idea what this is about. I don’t know anything about this video, and I’m not the only one. All I know is that David Lee Roth posted it to his video channel in June 2024. For some reason, I could not stop watching it, which scares me very much. Good luck!

# 8 – One Piece Thermo-Molded Country Plastic Chair

For all the flamboyant, over-the-top, bigger-than-life videos that David Lee Roth has released, fueled by all these insane, fun-loving party characters, we have never seen a video shot like this one. For the first time, what really comes across is just a regular guy who loves his dog. The video was dedicated to everyone affected by and recovering from Hurricane Sandy, and that’s sad. The music is soothing, the lyrics compelling, and the relationship between man and his best friend shines brightly. I really like this video; I think it’s one of the best things he’s ever done. We may have questions about David Lee Roth, but this is the one video that may have answered some of them.

# 7 – Just Like Paradise

If I had the life, money, and women that David Lee Roth had, I’m not sure if I would be spending my time climbing mountains. Even without having anything, I don’t think I’d be living my life climbing mountains. I don’t know why people do that; I would rather be on the ground, close to a 7-Eleven. Still, this is a fun and very entertaining video.

# 6 – Tell the Truth

Landing in the number six spot on our “10 Most Interesting David Lee Roth Videos” list is the very cool, swinging “Tell the Truth.” The song was released on the A Little Ain’t Enough album in 1991. There is a bit of a film noir twist happening here. It’s probably a genre of film that very much influenced David Lee Roth’s upbringing, but what the heck do I know?

# 5 – Goin’ Crazy!

At the halfway point on our “10 Most Interesting David Lee Roth Videos” list is another classic from the first David Lee Roth album, Eat ‘Em and Smile. This song was composed by David Lee Roth and Steve Vai. This band was so good, and it’s exhilarating to watch them all rock out on stage. There must be some stories these guys could tell about what life was like on the road for them.

# 4 – That’s Life

Not many people would want to take on a song that Frank Sinatra made his own. Well, not many people are David Lee Roth. This video opens in black and white with a little David Lee Roth speech and then transitions into a montage of his greatest hits, featuring clips from all the videos he had appeared in up to that time, both as a solo artist and with Van Halen. It is considerably entertaining and provides a nice look at what he had accomplished up to that point.

# 3 – Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody

When I first started to write about this video, my hands and face were kind of frozen for about 30 minutes, not knowing how to start. If you wanted to define the David Lee Roth character that he was trying to showcase and portray when he was leaving Van Halen, well, it’s all right here in this video. Is this acting, or is this really him? Only those who knew him personally could really answer that question. I’m going to assume that this is just all show business, but then I remember listening to him on the radio when he replaced Howard Stern for a brief period of time and pretty much was the same guy that I’m seeing in this video.

Sometimes the character that you play in show business becomes who you are in real life, or maybe the one who you are in real life just comes out very easily in show business. I don’t know; this man confuses the heck out of me. I mean, I enjoy watching this, but I just can’t figure it out, and maybe that’s not what I’m supposed to do. Maybe it’s just okay to press play and have fun. I mean, that was who David Lee Roth was—press play and have fun. Or maybe not even have to press play—just have fun.

# 2 – Yankee Rose

“Give me a bottle of anything and a glazed donut to go.” And with the cheesy smile that ends that extended introduction, we present our second favorite David Lee Roth video of all time: “Yankee Rose.” Oh, to go back to the days of MTV in the mid-’80s and those extended openings; it was just perfect for David Lee Roth. Once again, quirky characters, strange weird stuff, and up-close video shots had become his trademark.

And then there’s the concert footage of this incredible band just blowing everybody’s minds and challenging Van Halen. It was brilliant and fabulous; we only wish these guys had released more than just two albums.

# 1 – California Girls

We close out our “10 Most Interesting David Lee Roth Videos” list with David Lee Roth’s fun version of the classic Beach Boys song “California Girls.” Everybody loved this video—how could you not? It was filled with beautiful girls and a bunch of quirky characters that you kind of felt sorry for, but maybe a lot of us related to. And David Lee Roth was the guy trying to put it all together, making you feel for some of those characters and wanting to help them out. The video was released in 1985 and was directed by Pete Angelus and David Lee Roth himself. This is the one that really got his solo career rolling.