• Faith: Judaism
• Career: Musician
• Birthday:  October 10, 1954

David Lee Roth was born on Oct. 10, 1954, in Bloomington, Indiana. He is the son of Nathan Roth, an ophthalmologist, and Sibyl Roth, a teacher. The family later moved to Pasadena, California.

In Pasadena, Roth met brothers Alex and Eddie Van Halen. Along with bassist Michael Anthony, they formed the rock band Van Halen, and Roth was singing with the group by 1974. The band released its debut album, “Van Halen,” in 1978, followed by “Van Halen II,” “Women and Children First,” “Fair Warning,” “Diver Down,” and “1984,” which marked the rise to its biggest hit, “Jump.” Roth sang on all six.

The band’s biggest hit came with “Jump,” from “1984.” It was Van Halen’s only No. 1 single, and its video won Best Stage Performance in a Video at the first MTV Video Music Awards, held on Sept. 14, 1984. The song was also nominated for a Grammy Award the following year. In 1983, Van Halen was paid $1.5 million to headline Heavy Metal Day at the US Festival in California, a fee reported to be a record for a single performance, underscoring the band’s success before Roth’s departure.

In 1985, Roth left Van Halen and went solo. He released the EP “Crazy from the Heat” that year and the album “Eat ’Em and Smile” in 1986. His solo hits included covers of “California Girls” and “Just a Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody.” In 1997, he published a memoir, also titled “Crazy from the Heat.” He later worked as a licensed emergency medical technician in New York and hosted a radio show that ended after low ratings.

Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. Roth rejoined the band later that year and toured with it. In 2012, he sang on the group’s reunion album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” and Van Halen completed its final run of shows in 2015. After Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020, the band disbanded, closing that chapter of Roth’s career.

Roth returned to touring as a solo act in 2020, when he played a Las Vegas residency that the pandemic cut short and opened for Kiss’s farewell tour. In early 2021, he announced he was retiring after a farewell Las Vegas residency in 2022, which was later canceled. In May 2025, he returned to the stage at the M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland, and toured that summer, joking onstage that he had reached “the end of my first retirement.” A 30-date solo tour, billed as “Don’t Love Me, Rent Me,” began in April 2026 and mixed Van Halen songs with his solo material; all but one of the remaining dates were canceled in July.

David Lee Roth’s Religious Beliefs

Roth grew up in a Jewish family and has long identified as Jewish.

In his 1997 memoir, “Crazy from the Heat,” and in a 2003 Washington Post interview, Roth discussed his Jewish identity. The Post’s David Segal wrote that Roth credited much of his style and energy to anger over antisemitism and a wish to counter Jewish stereotypes. Roth told Segal that heroes for Jewish kids are “very few and far between.” These remarks further underscore how Roth has linked his career and self-image to his Jewish background.