David Lee Roth returned to the stage this week with the all-star cover band Royal Machines for a one-off live performance of Van Halen‘s ‘Panama’.
The show was a corporate event for Home Depot sales managers that took place at the Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas earlier this week.
“Are we having a good time so far?” asked Roth as he led the group through a lively cover of ‘Panama’ including his signature ad-libs.
Roth was not the only rock icon to grace the stage that night. Throughout their set, Royal Machine were also joined by Billy Idol, Linda Perry and Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels.
The singer announced his retirement back in 2021. “I am throwing in the shoes. I’m retiring. This is the first, and only, official announcement… You’ve got the news. Share it with the world,” he said at the time.
The news came almost a year after the death of legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who passed away from a stroke on October 6, 2020. Roth noted that he’d recently been thinking about his late bandmate, and was “encouraged and compelled to really come to grips with how short time is, and my time is probably even shorter”.
The announcement was followed by a farewell Las Vegas residency that was cancelled shortly after due to the omicron variant of COVID.
Recently, Roth shared a solo version of the 1980 Van Halen hit ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’. It arrived just a few months after another unreleased track, ‘Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway’, making fans a bit skeptical of the singer’s retirement.
