photo by Jon Wiederhorn
Van Halen singer David Lee Roth says there’s absolutely no truth to the widely reported story that he went into anaphylactic shock because of a peanut allergy on May 23 and had to be resuscitated by police in Brantford, Canada.
“I was in Canada only from July first through the fourth for a performance at the Quebec City Summer Festival,” says Roth. “I had no encounters or incidents with the police. The only thing I’m allergic to is criticism.”
Here’s what actually happened. Police stopped a man in a speeding car and discovered he was, indeed, suffering from anaphylactic shock due to a peanut allergy. And, apparently, the guy, did check into the hospital under the name David Lee Roth, reported the Canada Chronicle Herald. But the real David Lee Roth was playing a show with Van Halen at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fallacious rumors were further fueled when local newspapers reported that Roth partied with two Brantford General Hospital nurses at a nearby bar later that night after he recovered. More apparent misinformation came from people at the bar who saw some grizzled looking guy there dressed to the nines. Apparently, they asked him if he was David Lee Roth and he responded in the affirmative, then performed a convincing version of Van Halen’s “The Ice Cream Man” with the band at the bar.
Police have been unable to obtain any further information about that man’s identity and the Barney Fifes who pulled the original guy over couldn’t even confirm they took down his name. So, the mystery continues. On an unrelated note, we partied with Elvis last night — or maybe they were Elves… We were pretty drunk.
