David Lee Roth‘s claim that he helped design the artwork on Eddie Van Halen‘s “Frankensten” guitar is being disputed by Chris Gill, co-author of Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen, and an EVH guitar expert.
Gill says Roth’s recollection of helping design the guitar is “a complete revisionist fabrication” that contains “three key factual errors.”
The first is that the guitar did not appear until February 1977, not in ‘75 or ‘76 as Roth claimed – and originally had an unfinished, rather than white, body that was later photographed in May of that year with an all-black colorway.
“The white ‘61 Fender Strat was taken apart very soon afterwards, with its neck, serial number plate, and vibrato tailpiece/bridge showing up in Feb ’77 on the unfinished Frankenstein body.”
He adds that the stripes were created by applying masking tape and spraying white paint on to the black-finished Frankenstein body.
And, in regards to Roth saying he used three different types of tape on the white body, including 3M blue tape, that product was not invented until 1988, three years after Roth left the band.
“Ed used torn strips of gaffer tape when applying the red coat – a piece of that gaffer tape still remains on the guitar.”
Roth commented on the design of the guitar after being questioned about one of his recent paintings, “Big Wave,” which is similar to the guitar’s artwork.
REUTERS PHOTO
