Daryl Hall Says He Turned Down Van Halen Offer to Replace David Lee Roth
Daryl Hall, of the legendary pop rock duo Hall and Oates, has confirmed that he was once asked to potentially replace David Lee Roth in Van Halen after the singer's mid-'80s departure from the group.
At the time, Hall and Oates had just released their 12th full length album, Big Bam Boom, which was greeted with continued success on the back of the smash pop hit "Out of Touch." The duo, who released their first record in 1972, were evolving with the times and their sound had become more experimental by bringing modern technology (synthesizers) and recording techniques to the fold.
Van Halen had also dabbled in this area, most noticeably on the 1984 hit "Jump" and its iconic opening synth part. After they had selected Sammy Hagar as Roth's replacement, this sound came to more prominently define the group as well.
But before landing Hagar, guitarist Eddie Van Halen evidently had Hall on a list of suitable successors to "Diamond Dave."
"Actually, yes," Hall told Q104.3 when asked if it was true that Eddie had once approached him and gauged his interest on fronting Van Halen.
"I knew those guys really well. We actually shared some people — crew, and things like that," Hall continued, "And Eddie came to a show with Valerie [Bertinelli, his wife at the time]. This goes back, you know? And David had just left the band. And Eddie said, 'Do you want to join Van Halen, man?' He was half joking, but I think he was serious. I really do believe he was serious. And I took it seriously. I went, 'Meh, I think not. I think I've got my own shit going on.'"
The pop rock singer and songwriters also confirmed that Hall and Oates' "Kiss On My List," the third single off the duo's 1980 album Voices had a major impact on shaping one of Van Halen's biggest hit songs — "Jump."
"That is correct," Hall said of his song's influence on the track. "That is what [Eddie] always told me. That inspired 'Jump.'"
In 1985, the same year Roth and Van Halen split, Hagar was welcomed to the band, though as bassist Michael Anthony recalled last year, the group's label home (Warner Bros.) had hopes of changing the band's name in conjunction with the lineup change. Eddie and his drummer brother Alex strongly protested this idea, however.