David Lee Roth: Getting Down to Your Basic Roots

If you’re planning to vacation in Vancouver, Canada, this year, David Lee Roth has a few tips.

Eager to recapture the bawdy sound of his early albums with Van Halen, hard rock’s most mischievous sex symbol (and self-promoter) is in Vancouver recording a new album with hot-shot producer Bob Rock. But it’s not the album that’s causing a stir--it’s Roth’s hotel accommodations.

“I think you could say this place is a combination of New York’s 42nd Street and the gorilla exhibit at the L.A. Zoo,” said Roth, calling from a phone on the fourth floor of the Nelson Place Hotel in downtown Vancouver. “The only view I have out my window is of a hotel room next door that reminds me of the place in ‘Taxi Driver’ where De Niro kept saying, ‘Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me ?’

“It’s a perfect place to make a rock ‘n’ roll record. The whole neighborhood has a kind of Yukon Gold Rush feel to it. I’ve been to nine different strip joints, all within walking distance of the hotel. We’ve got a welfare office around the corner. Porno stores. Korean delis. Bootleg T-shirt shops. And there’s a strip joint in the basement called Champagne Charlie’s, though it has a lot more to do with Charlie than it does champagne.”

Roth admits that on his first Vancouver trip he stayed in a plush, rock-royalty spot. “It was a typical 12-star place with monograms in the ashtrays and people who called you sir. But it was all wrong. So we decided to find the place with the most character--and the sleaziest lobby.”

Roth says his band has taken over the entire fourth floor of the Nelson Place, which boasts room rates even the scruffiest young rockers could afford. “We’re paying $15 a night, with one towel each, but no life insurance,” he said. “When I first arrived I expected to see Tom Waits working the desk.”

Initially, Roth kept the hotel’s identity a secret. But since a local rock station revealed the hotel’s name, it’s become a popular pit-stop for Roth fans who crowd the lobby, eager to meet the singer. “We’ve had a ton of kids here lately,” he said with a laugh. “But that’s the way it goes--you buy the land, you get the Indians.”

Roth expects to spend another month in Vancouver, finishing up the album. He says it’s a departure from his previous solo efforts, which have cast him more as a hipster crooner than the outrageous hard-rock warrior he made famous with Van Halen.

“The idea behind staying here is that your environment has an impact on your music. It all stacks up in your subconscious. So we’re going for real roots rock. The record’s going to be completely original songs. It’ll probably sound a lot like--well--the first Van Halen album.”

Roth refused to divulge more details. “Hey, my music is best understood by small children and animals. No one’s gonna build a monument for me. I just make it up as I go along.”