David Lee Roth Reveals Their Nickname To Eddie

On the newest episode of The Roth Show, David Lee Roth reveals the nickname the rest of Van Halen’s band members gave for Eddie Van Halen.

The singer starts the show with a tale of how he bought a couple of air weapons in Japan during his tour there in 1979, and then used them the following year while on the road and staying at a motel in a somewhat desolate part of the Florida Everglades. The singer kicks off the show with a tale of how he bought a couple of air weapons in Japan during his tour there in 1979, and then used them the following year while on the road and staying at a motel in a somewhat desolate part of the Florida Everglades. After performing at the Sportatorium in Miami, where Roth’s grandmother, then in her 90s, was in attendance (who also left halfway through the show), Van Halen “adjourned to the Holiday Inn” with their guns, as Roth recounts. He had sent his guard to a “shopping spree” a day before for an after-party to be conducted inside the hotel.

As Roth’s security guard at the time also went by the name Ed, the band felt the need to give each man a distinct moniker to differentiate them both.

“We didn’t call Eddie Van Halen ‘Eddie,’ we called him ‘Vard,’” Roth explained. “That’s because his mother used the Dutch expression” of the Dutch-born guitarist’s name. “The way she said it was Dutch — Edvard! Edvard! And we would call him Vard. My security guy’s name was Ed, and we called him ‘Big’ Ed.”

You can listen to David Lee Roth’s discussion below.