David Lee Roth is asking for the public’s help in identifying a phone stalker that’s been harassing the Van Halen singer in recent months.
“Help! I have a stalker. A very real one,” Roth writes in his latest blog entry. “75 stalker phone calls in the last 4 months. All of them at 5:30-6:00 in the morning. All 917 and 301 area codes. Every now and then at 2 in the afternoon. Never on the weekend.
“The phone calls show up on my old phone but they don’t show up on the phone bill,” he continues. “Somebody knows a little bit about tech. They even know how to remove the number out of my phone when they want to. This is not the first time I’ve bought the land and gotten some of the unhappy Indians. There is a list of unhappy ex-colleagues, as there always is in show biz, but this stalker is particularly obsessed. They’re no longer prank calls.
“Having been through the process with the private detectives, lawyers, FBI and ex-FBI, I can speak with some authority. These stalker calls come under the heading of ‘Domestic Terrorism.’”
Roth goes on to reveal a bit of his past history with stalkers, which he says dates back to Van Halen’s rise to prominence with the success of their self-titled debut album. The singer recounts the effects the experiences have had on him personally, including being followed while recording in Miami, Florida and a kidnap attempt on his father at gunpoint.
This time, Roth is reaching out to the public to help identify the caller who, he feels, has likely bragged to someone in their circle about his or her efforts to disturb his private life.
“I haven’t pursued it beyond all the normal channels. What can I do?,” he writes. “But I certainly invite anyone who speaks tech to weigh in here because it’s pretty rare that just one person does this much obsessive conduct and nobody else knows about it.
"Whoever is doing this works somewhere, they eat lunch somewhere, they sleep somewhere and probably with someone. You better be careful. I’m a stranger and look what they did to me. You’re family, you’re familiar. He’ll turn on you with the exact same teeth and the exact same rationalizations they may have used to come after me.
“9 times out of 10 I’m told you get a shot of tequila or espresso in the belly of whoever is dialing that phone they’ll tell you, ‘I don’t know. I’ve always hated the guy’ or ‘I don’t know he went somewhere I wanted to visit and I didn’t go so I thought I’d f--- him up.’ Usually that’s all this is but there’s somebody out there who knows who’s doing this.
"Give me a call…”
Roth and Van Halen have been on a break following the end of a 2015 North American tour in support of “Tokyo Dome Live In Concert.”
The rocker recently wrapped up season 3 of his online series The Roth Show, and is writing updates via his blog at davidleeroth.com
See also:
David Lee Roth talks real-life survival on The Roth Show
David Lee Roth takes on coffee and photography on The Roth Show
Sammy Hagar apologizes to Van Halen
David Lee Roth kayaks around New York on The Roth Show
Search Van Halen at hennemusic
