Van Halen's proudly Jewish former frontman, is retiring from music

• Author: GABE FRIEDMAN/JTA
• Published date: 04 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Jewish rock star, best known for fronting Van Halen during the influential band's heyday in the 1970s and '80s, said Friday that he is retiring from music.

"I am throwing in the shoes. I'm retiring," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "This is the first, and only, official announcement."

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Roth, 66, grew up with Jewish parents and reportedly first learned to sing while preparing for his bar mitzvah. His grew up in Indiana and later southern California, where he performed with other bands before joining Van Halen in 1974. As a part of the world famous group, also anchored by its late virtuosic guitar player Eddie Van Halen, Roth became one of rock music's most famous showmen. He first left the band in 1985 — he would leave and rejoin it multiple other times — and embarked on a less touted solo career, releasing seven albums on his own.

In his autobiography "Crazy From the Heat," and in a rollicking interview with The Washington Post during a stretch of his solo run in 2003, Roth expounded on his Jewish...