PAUL STANLEY Praises DAVID LEE ROTH's Return To Live Stage: 'I Loved It'

KISS‘s Paul Stanley has praised David Lee Roth‘s return to the live stage, saying he “loved” the “whole thing”.

The legendary VAN HALEN frontman played his first full concert in more than five years Saturday night (May 3) at the 2025 edition of the M3 Rock Festival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. His 75-minute set consisted of classics by VAN HALEN, in which he was accompanied by a band that included guitarist Al Estrada and four backing vocalists.

The following day, Stanley took to his X account to write: “I watched Diamond Dave‘s return at M3 Festival and LOVED IT! Looks Great. Great staging. Great band. Great vibe. The whole thing was cool. Back-up posse too. Check it all out on YouTube. Welcome Back Dave!! @DavidLeeRoth”.

The 70-year-old Roth opened the M3 concert with “Panama” and went on to play “You Really Got Me”, “Dance The Night Away”, “Runnin’ With The Devil”, “Jamie’s Cryin'”, “Hot For Teacher” and other VAN HALEN classics before closing with “Jump”.

At one point during the show, Roth joked onstage that his M3 performance marked “the end of my first retirement” — a reference to his announcement in late 2021 that he was calling it quits. “How many retirements did Rocky have? Nine?” Roth added.

Prior to M3, Roth‘s most recent performance was a private corporate gig for Home Depot in 2023.

David performed as the opening act for the February/March 2020 North American leg of KISS‘s farewell tour, but did not make any appearances on the rescheduled KISS shows which kicked off in August 2021 in Mansfield, Massachusetts. KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons explained Roth‘s absence from the trek by telling Rolling Stone at the time: “[Roth] took being a frontman way beyond anything. And then, I don’t know what happened to him … something. And you get modern-day Dave. I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, you know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.”

Apparently irked at Gene‘s comments, Dave took to Instagram to share an image of a young boy wearing shades and extending the middle finger to the camera along with the words “Roth to Simmons:” Dave posted the image 18 times.

Simmons later clarified his original statement, telling US Weekly that his words were misconstrued.

“I am so sorry and ashamed, actually, that I hurt David‘s feelings,” Gene said. “I’m the guy, actually, that saw [VAN HALEN] at a club [in the 1970s], signed them to my production company, flew them to New York, produced their first 24-track 15-song demo and championed the band. And, actually, we took David out as our opening act on the [KISS ‘End Of The Road’] tour. And in the course of an interview… You hear me talking — I just sort of stream of consciousness… I don’t mean to hurt people’s feelings, and every once in a while, diarrhea of the mouth comes out.”

He continued: “I read that quote, and somehow the way they put it together… I think I said something like, ‘Nobody touched David in his prime — not Robert Plant, not Jagger, not anybody… He was the king.’ And then somehow there was a segue to Elvis bloated on the ground and fat and naked and I don’t wanna see that. I wasn’t talking about David, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is I hurt David‘s feelings, and that’s more important than the intent. So I sincerely apologize for that. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. It reminds me of the guy that gets out of a truck and says, ‘Hey, I’m sorry, buddy. I didn’t mean to run you over.’ Well, what the fuck’s the difference? You’ve been run over.”

Asked if he thought the reason Roth felt so slighted by his comments was the fact that he respected Gene and valued his opinion, Simmons responded: “I don’t know. Nah. I don’t think anybody gives two shits about what I think, and that’s the way it should be — treat everybody sort of on an equal plane. This is gonna get me in trouble too — even the Pope poops every day. You know, this kind of the humanity of it all. I’m not better than you; you’re not better than me. And feelings — that includes the Pope, who’s a good guy and everything — feelings are human. And anybody can hurt your feelings. I mean, you can be the king of anything, and a kid can come over and say, ‘Eh, you stink,’ in front of everybody else, and it can hurt your feeelings.

“So, for that I’m really sorry about. I never meant to hurt his feelings. But in the way the words came out, yeah, I could see where that was the impression. Not my intention.”

In a January 2020 interview with Eric Blair of “The Blairing Out With Eric Blair Show”, Stanley was asked what the best part was of having Roth opening for KISS. Stanley said: “Well, Dave‘s got so many great songs. All the VAN HALEN catalog is terrific, and that’s what he’s doing. So, people get to hear all those great songs, and it was something that really appealed to us.”

Simmons has repeatedly taken credit for “discovering” VAN HALEN and flying the band to New York to record a 15-song demo at Electric Lady Studios, with Gene at the production helm. But he ended up not working with the group after his KISS bandmates and manager, Bill Aucoin, expressed little interest in his demos. “I gave the demo back to the band, told them I had a tour to go on and afterward I would try to get them a record deal, but until then, I tore up our contract and set them free,” he said. “It didn’t take them long to get on Warner Bros.“

Earlier this week, Roth announced nearly two dozen summer 2025 solo tour dates. The 21-date trek is scheduled to launch on July 22 in Paso Robles, California and conclude on September 14 in Napa.

Roth originally left VAN HALEN to pursue a solo career following the success of the band’s album “1984”, but he returned for a stint in 1996 and then took over as VAN HALEN‘s frontman again from 2007 until 2020, although the band had not toured since 2015.

In recent months, Roth has been releasing solo versions of several VAN HALEN classics, including “Jump”, “Unchained”, “Everybody Wants Some!!”, “You Really Got Me”, “Dance The Night Away”, “Panama” and “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”. The tracks were laid down on May 3, 2022 during a session at Henson Recording Studio in Hollywood, California. Joining Roth in the studio were Al Estrada on guitar, Ryan Wheeler on bass and Francis Valentino on drums. A total of 14 songs were recorded in two hours. The music and the vocals were tracked live with “no samples” and without the pitch-correction technology Auto-Tune.

In January 2022, Roth canceled the remaining farewell shows he was set to play in Las Vegas after he vowed to retire from performing live.

In a statement, event organizers said the cancelations were made “due to unforeseen circumstances related to COVID and out of an abundance of caution for those working and attending the shows.”