David Lee Roth

Through a sea of spandex jumpsuits, bleached hair, smoke machines and never-ending guitar solos, Van Halen singer Dave Lee Roth became the prototype hard rock front man of the 1980s. He strutted, he leaped, he pouted and he shrieked uncontrollably as the band went on to score the huge platinum-selling albums Van Halen II (1979), Fair Warning (1981), Diver Down (1982) and the US Number 1 single Jump. Roth left the band in 1985 after the successful solo EP Crazy From The Heart and hit Number 3 in the US with the single California Girls, before recruiting legendary guitarist Stevie Vai to back him up on debut album Eat Em' And Smile (1986). Led by the hit single Just Like Paradise, follow-up Skyscraper (1988) brought more big success, but as new generation of snarling, sweaty grunge acts blew away the hair metal acts, liking Roth's music became unfashionable by the 1990s. He briefly returned to Van Halen in 1996 and hosted his own show on CBS Radio before officially reuniting with the band in 2007.