Idolator

The on-again/off-again Van Halen-reunion fiasco has gotten even more depressing: Last week, Eddie went into rehab, and David Lee Roth claimed he had been shut out of tonight's Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony. The L.A. Times has an update of the behind-the-scenes brouhaha, and for those of you who thought this story had already reached its nadir, we have two words for you: "Paul Schaffer."

The Roth camp says that the only offer they had received before Friday was an invitation to perform "You Really Got Me" with Velvet Revolver. Roth balked in part because that song, off Van Halen's first album, was originally recorded by the Kinks and is not a "true" Van Halen song.

Roth wanted to do his trademark tune, "Jump," but that was a curveball for Velvet Revolver, apparently, with rehearsal time limitations. On Friday, according to sources close to the show, event producer Joel Gallen offered Roth a chance to do "Jump" with Paul Schaffer and some players of Roth's picking but, for Roth, that came too late, apparently, to allow travel and needed rehearsal time.

Hall officials, privately, were surprised and wondered if Roth really wanted to perform at all. They also said if he had traveled east to New York to work with the producers on site, everything would have worked out.

What would be worse: An overstuffed "Jump" with Schaffer grinning and preening like a madman, or a "Jump" in which Scott Weiland tries to make "Wow-ow! Hey, you! Who said that? Baby, how you been?" sound seedy and menacing?

Rock Hall of Fame denies it snubbed Van Halen's Roth [LA Times]