David Lee Roth celebrates his 65th birthday today. The first Van Halen album “Van Halen” came out in 1978. David Lee Roth says it was in response to rock getting too safe, especially the song “Runnin’ with the Devil”. It referred to the current trend in rock:
”It was kind of smoothing out and it was becoming, in a certain respect, correct — the whole idea of the guys in Journey not wanting to be pictured smoking a cigarette, or what have you. And in direct response, I came out screaming, ‘Nobody rules these streets at night but me and I’m runnin’ with the devil and I’m on fire’ and just upset the whole birthday party. The kids loved it. The parents flipped.”
