Lenny Kravitz Honors Family in 'Looking Back on Love' - Premiere

Lenny Kravitz Honors Family in 'Looking Back on Love' - PremiereRocker gets introspective in new documentary $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'RxeG10ODqU0gsvaVWBC-xkIZQMreA08P', {'autoplay': true }); });

Lenny Kravitz's 2011 album Black and White America was the rocker's most personal, introspective album to date. The new documentary Looking Back on Love, out today, follows the recording process of Black and White America in the Bahamas and features extensive interviews with the singer-songwriter about his family and personal life.

Photos: Musicians Who Defined Nineties Style – Lenny Kravitz

"For me, it's about my life. It's about what I grew up in, what I know, what I feel comfortable in, the juxtaposition between the two," he says of the album's title in this exclusive clip. "It's also where we are today." Kravitz also reflects on the parallels between him and President Barack Obama. "This is my experience, and this is where America is right now, on the brink of, 'Is this happening? Is this not happening?'" he says. "This is really what's happening right now." Adding onto this, Kravitz sifts through memories of his parents, Sy Kravitz and The Jeffersons actress Roxie Roker. "They went through a lot to be together."

Looking Back on Love is available on iTunes.

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Lenny Kravitz Honors Family in 'Looking Back on Love' - Premiere

Lenny Kravitz Honors Family in 'Looking Back on Love' - PremiereRocker gets introspective in new documentary $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'RxeG10ODqU0gsvaVWBC-xkIZQMreA08P', {'autoplay': true }); });

Lenny Kravitz's 2011 album Black and White America was the rocker's most personal, introspective album to date. The new documentary Looking Back on Love, out today, follows the recording process of Black and White America in the Bahamas and features extensive interviews with the singer-songwriter about his family and personal life.

Photos: Musicians Who Defined Nineties Style – Lenny Kravitz

"For me, it's about my life. It's about what I grew up in, what I know, what I feel comfortable in, the juxtaposition between the two," he says of the album's title in this exclusive clip. "It's also where we are today." Kravitz also reflects on the parallels between him and President Barack Obama. "This is my experience, and this is where America is right now, on the brink of, 'Is this happening? Is this not happening?'" he says. "This is really what's happening right now." Adding onto this, Kravitz sifts through memories of his parents, Sy Kravitz and The Jeffersons actress Roxie Roker. "They went through a lot to be together."

Looking Back on Love is available on iTunes.

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'Heartbeat' by Kopecky Family Band - Free MP3

Artist: Kopecky Family Band
Song: "Heartbeat"
Album: Kids Raising Kids

"'Heartbeat' is a fun and lighthearted love song that was born on the out of tune piano in my living room. I hope it makes you smile," Kelsey Kopecky tells Rolling Stone.

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Aaliyah's Family Not Involved With New Drake-Led Album Project

Aaliyah performs in Mountain View, California.

Aaliyah's family say they're not involved with – or supportive of – a new posthumous album that Drake is working on, The Guardian reports. "There is no official album being released and supported by the Haughton family," said Rashad Haughton, Aaliyah's brother.

Drake on Sunday posted the new song "Enough Said" on his blog. The collaboration features a previously unreleased vocal track from Aaliyah and a rap verse from Drake, over a spare beat produced by frequent Drake collaborator Noah "40" Shebib. Aaliyah's family was unimpressed.

"Do you want an AALIYAH album?" they asked Monday on a Facebook page for the singer, who died in a plane crash in August 2001. "If so, who should executive produce it or be featured on it? The Haughton Family would love to hear what her FANS have to say?"

Aaliyah was best known for her work with Timbaland and Missy Elliott, who wrote and produced most of her 1996 album One in a Million. Drake recently contacted Timbaland after the producer last week told New York hip-hop station Power 105 that it "would just not be right" if he and Elliott weren't part of the project. "The proper way for him to do that would be for me, him and Missy to be all on the record," said Timbaland, who is now reportedly producing a pair of songs for the album, with Shebib handling the rest.

It appears the Haughton family's lack of support is mostly symbolic for now: Aaliyah's uncle and manager, Barry Hankerson, likely owns the rights to her unreleased recordings. His Blackground Records released "Enough Said" with Drake's label, October's Very Own.

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Aaliyah's Family Not Involved With New Drake-Led Album Project

Aaliyah performs in Mountain View, California.

Aaliyah's family say they're not involved with – or supportive of – a new posthumous album that Drake is working on, The Guardian reports. "There is no official album being released and supported by the Haughton family," said Rashad Haughton, Aaliyah's brother.

Drake on Sunday posted the new song "Enough Said" on his blog. The collaboration features a previously unreleased vocal track from Aaliyah and a rap verse from Drake, over a spare beat produced by frequent Drake collaborator Noah "40" Shebib. Aaliyah's family was unimpressed.

"Do you want an AALIYAH album?" they asked Monday on a Facebook page for the singer, who died in a plane crash in August 2001. "If so, who should executive produce it or be featured on it? The Haughton Family would love to hear what her FANS have to say?"

Aaliyah was best known for her work with Timbaland and Missy Elliott, who wrote and produced most of her 1996 album One in a Million. Drake recently contacted Timbaland after the producer last week told New York hip-hop station Power 105 that it "would just not be right" if he and Elliott weren't part of the project. "The proper way for him to do that would be for me, him and Missy to be all on the record," said Timbaland, who is now reportedly producing a pair of songs for the album, with Shebib handling the rest.

It appears the Haughton family's lack of support is mostly symbolic for now: Aaliyah's uncle and manager, Barry Hankerson, likely owns the rights to her unreleased recordings. His Blackground Records released "Enough Said" with Drake's label, October's Very Own.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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KISS and 'Family Guy' Announce Licensing Deal

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Shooter Jennings Returns To Country With 'Family Man'

Shooter Jennings performs in New Orleans.

Shooter Jennings’ last album was the ambitious, critically acclaimed Black Ribbons, a bleak look at a futuristic world that found the son of country legend Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter teaming with horror-meister Stephen King.

"I meant to establish something my own that was different from my dad and the whole country thing," Jennings tells Rolling Stone.

Having successfully achieved that goal, Jennings is back with a new album, Family Man, that firmly embraces his dad’s heritage and "the whole country thing."

"I actually didn't know this record was going to be so country," he admits. "[But] after Black Ribbons, I kind of stripped it down to my roots as much as I possibly could. And I kind of went after something that was a little different. And it ended up being really rootsy kind of country sound, but it was something that I felt really comfortable doing. I’m really proud of this record."

The collection was inspired by Jennings' own life as a family man, being a father and husband (Jennings is married to actress Drea de Matteo of The Sopranos), but it also took him very much back to his own dad.

"A record like this can only naturally bring me back to him. It's like he's around a lot more when I'm doing a record like this," he says. "Taking on really the record as a whole by myself, producing it myself, writing everything, definitely causes me to think about him a lot more."

And as he’s gotten older, Jennings finds himself empathizing quite a bit with his own dad. "Having kids and understanding myself, and understanding life, love and all the battles that go with that definitely has made me think about him," he says. "It's weird because my dad was such an awesome dad [and] I have a boy now, whose real name is Waylon. And I really wish that they had gotten to know him, but at the same time, it's like, it's been 10 years since my dad has been gone."

Like other famous progeny in the musical world, Jennings has struggled to find his own identity and break away from the expectations of others. Between the artistic success of Black Ribbons and gaining more self confidence as he’s gotten older, Jennings doesn’t really care anymore what others think.

"I'm always influenced by my dad, you understand? [But] Black Ribbons is like the Jacob Dylan dance record or whatever," he says, laughing. "That freed me up to care less if what I was going to do next was similar to what he was doing. [And] the older I've gotten, the less I've cared. And the less I've cared, the better what I'm doing has gotten. With this record, I definitely feel that I did something that was really true to who I am. And I definitely don't feel pressure right now when it comes to my dad, and I don't feel pressure when it comes to anything. I kind of feel liberated. I'm proud of that."

Working on the new country album also allowed Jennings to be more involved in his dad’s legacy. "I'm immersed with a lot of things with my dad," he says. One of those is a reported bio-pic, which Jennings says is coming along behind the scenes. "I have found a producer and a writer that I really like. And so we're kind of in steps of trying to at least outline the script," he says.

Jennings has a very specific idea of the time period he wants to cover. "Trying to get his whole life in a movie doesn't really interest me. I'd rather it focus on really the heart of his life, which was that Nashville battle, and how he won that," he says. "That's kind of the important part of the story, so for me, I definitely don't want to take it places like Ray and Walk the Line and stuff, where it's just like him picking cotton all the way to the end in two hours."

No one has been cast yet, but there have been names bandied about. One possibility that Jennings likes is actor Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), who Jennings says "would probably make a pretty good choice."

Don’t expect to see Jennings in the movie. Asked if he’ll have a part, he laughs and says, "I hope not. I'd like to be in a lot of the background stuff, the music and stuff like that. But I have no interest in actually being in it."

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Shooter Jennings Returns To Country With 'Family Man'

Shooter Jennings performs in New Orleans.

Shooter Jennings’ last album was the ambitious, critically acclaimed Black Ribbons, a bleak look at a futuristic world that found the son of country legend Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter teaming with horror-meister Stephen King.

"I meant to establish something my own that was different from my dad and the whole country thing," Jennings tells Rolling Stone.

Having successfully achieved that goal, Jennings is back with a new album, Family Man, that firmly embraces his dad’s heritage and "the whole country thing."

"I actually didn't know this record was going to be so country," he admits. "[But] after Black Ribbons, I kind of stripped it down to my roots as much as I possibly could. And I kind of went after something that was a little different. And it ended up being really rootsy kind of country sound, but it was something that I felt really comfortable doing. I’m really proud of this record."

The collection was inspired by Jennings' own life as a family man, being a father and husband (Jennings is married to actress Drea de Matteo of The Sopranos), but it also took him very much back to his own dad.

"A record like this can only naturally bring me back to him. It's like he's around a lot more when I'm doing a record like this," he says. "Taking on really the record as a whole by myself, producing it myself, writing everything, definitely causes me to think about him a lot more."

And as he’s gotten older, Jennings finds himself empathizing quite a bit with his own dad. "Having kids and understanding myself, and understanding life, love and all the battles that go with that definitely has made me think about him," he says. "It's weird because my dad was such an awesome dad [and] I have a boy now, whose real name is Waylon. And I really wish that they had gotten to know him, but at the same time, it's like, it's been 10 years since my dad has been gone."

Like other famous progeny in the musical world, Jennings has struggled to find his own identity and break away from the expectations of others. Between the artistic success of Black Ribbons and gaining more self confidence as he’s gotten older, Jennings doesn’t really care anymore what others think.

"I'm always influenced by my dad, you understand? [But] Black Ribbons is like the Jacob Dylan dance record or whatever," he says, laughing. "That freed me up to care less if what I was going to do next was similar to what he was doing. [And] the older I've gotten, the less I've cared. And the less I've cared, the better what I'm doing has gotten. With this record, I definitely feel that I did something that was really true to who I am. And I definitely don't feel pressure right now when it comes to my dad, and I don't feel pressure when it comes to anything. I kind of feel liberated. I'm proud of that."

Working on the new country album also allowed Jennings to be more involved in his dad’s legacy. "I'm immersed with a lot of things with my dad," he says. One of those is a reported bio-pic, which Jennings says is coming along behind the scenes. "I have found a producer and a writer that I really like. And so we're kind of in steps of trying to at least outline the script," he says.

Jennings has a very specific idea of the time period he wants to cover. "Trying to get his whole life in a movie doesn't really interest me. I'd rather it focus on really the heart of his life, which was that Nashville battle, and how he won that," he says. "That's kind of the important part of the story, so for me, I definitely don't want to take it places like Ray and Walk the Line and stuff, where it's just like him picking cotton all the way to the end in two hours."

No one has been cast yet, but there have been names bandied about. One possibility that Jennings likes is actor Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), who Jennings says "would probably make a pretty good choice."

Don’t expect to see Jennings in the movie. Asked if he’ll have a part, he laughs and says, "I hope not. I'd like to be in a lot of the background stuff, the music and stuff like that. But I have no interest in actually being in it."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Johnny Cash's Family Kicks Off Blowout Celebration of Country Icon's 80th

Johnny Cash records in the studio.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

On February 26th – what would have been Johnny Cash's 80th birthday – his siblings, children and grandchildren will gather at his boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas, to celebrate the upcoming restoration of the crumbling 1930s structure. Then they will head to the town's community center to sing and share stories about the late star. "He should've lived to 80," says daughter Rosanne Cash. "It's hard. But it's so uplifting to celebrate it this way, rather than going to a dark place about how sad it is he isn't still around."

The Dyess events will kick off a busy year for the Cash estate. This summer, a separate museum will open in downtown Nashville with the most comprehensive collection of Cash artifacts ever. On April 3rd, two lost gospel albums Cash cut in the Seventies and Eighties will be released as Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth. A few months later, Sony will put out a huge box set of everything Cash released on Sun and Columbia Records in the first three decades of his recording career, along with unreleased music. There might even be enough late-period material left in the vaults for another volume of Rick Rubin's American Recordings series, which ended in 2010. Says son John Carter Cash, "I do believe there's enough to warrant a release he would be proud of."

The Nashville museum is being organized by Bill Miller, who befriended Cash in the Seventies. Miller, who owned a historical-documents business, helped fuel Cash's hobby of collecting signed presidential papers, while Cash supplied Miller with priceless country-music history. "There were literally thousands of pieces," Miller says of the collection. "It got to a point where I was scared to leave my house." Up to a thousand items will be on display, including Cash's prized custom Gibson acoustic, a Grammy trophy, gold and platinum records, and handwritten lyrics to "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line."

Johnny Cash's boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas.

The Cash family, meanwhile, is focusing on the Dyess restoration. Arkansas State University, which recently purchased the home, plans to use old photographs and interviews with Cash's living siblings to restore the home to its original form. The university is also creating a museum nearby that will cover Cash's modest upbringing through his early 1950s Air Force stint, with items like his senior-prom booklet and letters he sent while stationed in Germany to first wife Vivian Liberto, who died in 2005. "My sisters and I went through the last of my mom's belongings and found all this stuff – it was breathtaking," says Rosanne, who will play a benefit in Arkansas with Willie Nelson this fall. "The last time I was at the house, I was thinking about how many times my dad must have walked that road as a little boy. You don't really take in the full poignancy of it until your parents are gone."

This story is from the March 1st, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

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Johnny Cash's Family Kicks Off Blowout Celebration of Country Icon's 80th

Johnny Cash records in the studio.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

On February 26th – what would have been Johnny Cash's 80th birthday – his siblings, children and grandchildren will gather at his boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas, to celebrate the upcoming restoration of the crumbling 1930s structure. Then they will head to the town's community center to sing and share stories about the late star. "He should've lived to 80," says daughter Rosanne Cash. "It's hard. But it's so uplifting to celebrate it this way, rather than going to a dark place about how sad it is he isn't still around."

The Dyess events will kick off a busy year for the Cash estate. This summer, a separate museum will open in downtown Nashville with the most comprehensive collection of Cash artifacts ever. On April 3rd, two lost gospel albums Cash cut in the Seventies and Eighties will be released as Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth. A few months later, Sony will put out a huge box set of everything Cash released on Sun and Columbia Records in the first three decades of his recording career, along with unreleased music. There might even be enough late-period material left in the vaults for another volume of Rick Rubin's American Recordings series, which ended in 2010. Says son John Carter Cash, "I do believe there's enough to warrant a release he would be proud of."

The Nashville museum is being organized by Bill Miller, who befriended Cash in the Seventies. Miller, who owned a historical-documents business, helped fuel Cash's hobby of collecting signed presidential papers, while Cash supplied Miller with priceless country-music history. "There were literally thousands of pieces," Miller says of the collection. "It got to a point where I was scared to leave my house." Up to a thousand items will be on display, including Cash's prized custom Gibson acoustic, a Grammy trophy, gold and platinum records, and handwritten lyrics to "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line."

Johnny Cash's boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas.

The Cash family, meanwhile, is focusing on the Dyess restoration. Arkansas State University, which recently purchased the home, plans to use old photographs and interviews with Cash's living siblings to restore the home to its original form. The university is also creating a museum nearby that will cover Cash's modest upbringing through his early 1950s Air Force stint, with items like his senior-prom booklet and letters he sent while stationed in Germany to first wife Vivian Liberto, who died in 2005. "My sisters and I went through the last of my mom's belongings and found all this stuff – it was breathtaking," says Rosanne, who will play a benefit in Arkansas with Willie Nelson this fall. "The last time I was at the house, I was thinking about how many times my dad must have walked that road as a little boy. You don't really take in the full poignancy of it until your parents are gone."

This story is from the March 1st, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

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Friends and Family Gather in Newark for Whitney Houston's Funeral

The New Hope Baptist Church surrounded by memorials to Whitney Houston.

Whitney Houston was laid to rest today in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, a week after her death at the age of 48.

The funeral was held at the New Hope Baptist Church, where Houston had made her start singing as a child. The service, which lasted more than four hours, drew a crowd of famous names, from gospel greats and R&B icons to Hollywood actors. Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick introduced an all-star group of speakers and performers that included Houston’s Bodyguard co-star Kevin Costner, Stevie Wonder, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Tyler Perry and Alicia Keys. Aretha Franklin had been scheduled to perform, but had to withdraw due to illness.

In a service that balanced heartbroken mourning with a palpable sense of joy in gospel music, many of the guests spoke of Houston’s faith and her roots in the church.

Tyler Perry was visibly emotional and breaking into tears as he spoke to the crowd. "She had a grace that kept on carrying her all the way through her life. It was the same grace that carried her home," he said.

Kevin Costner, who described himself as Houston’s "pretend bodyguard," spoke of his and Houston’s shared upbringing in the Baptist Church as well as the "unexplainable burden that comes with fame."

"It was the burden that made her great, and the part that caused her to stumble in the end," Costner said. "And now you’re gone, leaving us with memories of a little girl who stepped bravely in front of this church, in front of people who loved her…. You stepped into the white hot light of the world’s stage. You set the bar so high that professional singers, your own colleagues, they don’t want to sing that little country song. Now the only ones who sing your song are little girls like you, who dream of being you one day."

Clive Davis, the music mogul who served as Houston’s mentor and earliest champion in the music business, described his reaction at hearing a teenaged Houston perform for the first time in 1983.

"You wait for a voice like that for a lifetime," he said. "You wait for a face like that, a smile like that, a presence like that for a lifetime. And when one person embodies it all, it takes your breath away."

Davis revealed that Houston had visited him in his hotel the week before she died and played for him tracks from her forthcoming movie, Sparkle.

"She looked at me and quietly said, ‘I want you to know I’m getting in shape. I’m swimming two hours a day. I’m committed to getting my high notes back, no cigarettes. Clive, I’ll be ready by August.’ Well Whitney, I’m gonna hold you to it. Everyone in heaven, including god, is waiting, and I just know you’re gonna raise the roof like no one else has done before."

 In addition to further speeches from Houston’s manager and sister-in-law, Kim Houston, and her real bodyguard, the service was full of music, from the gospel choir that started the service off, to powerful performances from members of the Winans family, Rev. Kim Burrell, and R. Kelly.

"I wanted to stop and give out praise to god for just allowing me to be in life at the same time as Whitney," Stevie Wonder said, before admitting "in my fantasy world, I had a little crush on Whitney." He performed his song "Ribbon in the Sky" with the words reworked to honor Houston.

Alicia Keys was crying as she sat down at the piano, wiping away her tears. She recalled how Whitney nurtured so many younger artists. "She just made us feel strong and capable and loved," Keys said, before launching into "Send Me an Angel."

As the service drew to its close and the pallbearers gathered around the gleaming golden casket, the opening a capella notes from Houston’s recording of "I Will Always Love You" filled the hall. 

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Friends and Family Gather in Newark for Whitney Houston's Funeral

The New Hope Baptist Church surrounded by memorials to Whitney Houston.

Whitney Houston was laid to rest today in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, a week after her death at the age of 48.

The funeral was held at the New Hope Baptist Church, where Houston had made her start singing as a child. The service, which lasted more than four hours, drew a crowd of famous names, from gospel greats and R&B icons to Hollywood actors. Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick introduced an all-star group of speakers and performers that included Houston’s Bodyguard co-star Kevin Costner, Stevie Wonder, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Tyler Perry and Alicia Keys. Aretha Franklin had been scheduled to perform, but had to withdraw due to illness.

In a service that balanced heartbroken mourning with a palpable sense of joy in gospel music, many of the guests spoke of Houston’s faith and her roots in the church.

Tyler Perry was visibly emotional and breaking into tears as he spoke to the crowd. "She had a grace that kept on carrying her all the way through her life. It was the same grace that carried her home," he said.

Kevin Costner, who described himself as Houston’s "pretend bodyguard," spoke of his and Houston’s shared upbringing in the Baptist Church as well as the "unexplainable burden that comes with fame."

"It was the burden that made her great, and the part that caused her to stumble in the end," Costner said. "And now you’re gone, leaving us with memories of a little girl who stepped bravely in front of this church, in front of people who loved her…. You stepped into the white hot light of the world’s stage. You set the bar so high that professional singers, your own colleagues, they don’t want to sing that little country song. Now the only ones who sing your song are little girls like you, who dream of being you one day."

Clive Davis, the music mogul who served as Houston’s mentor and earliest champion in the music business, described his reaction at hearing a teenaged Houston perform for the first time in 1983.

"You wait for a voice like that for a lifetime," he said. "You wait for a face like that, a smile like that, a presence like that for a lifetime. And when one person embodies it all, it takes your breath away."

Davis revealed that Houston had visited him in his hotel the week before she died and played for him tracks from her forthcoming movie, Sparkle.

"She looked at me and quietly said, ‘I want you to know I’m getting in shape. I’m swimming two hours a day. I’m committed to getting my high notes back, no cigarettes. Clive, I’ll be ready by August.’ Well Whitney, I’m gonna hold you to it. Everyone in heaven, including god, is waiting, and I just know you’re gonna raise the roof like no one else has done before."

 In addition to further speeches from Houston’s manager and sister-in-law, Kim Houston, and her real bodyguard, the service was full of music, from the gospel choir that started the service off, to powerful performances from members of the Winans family, Rev. Kim Burrell, and R. Kelly.

"I wanted to stop and give out praise to god for just allowing me to be in life at the same time as Whitney," Stevie Wonder said, before admitting "in my fantasy world, I had a little crush on Whitney." He performed his song "Ribbon in the Sky" with the words reworked to honor Houston.

Alicia Keys was crying as she sat down at the piano, wiping away her tears. She recalled how Whitney nurtured so many younger artists. "She just made us feel strong and capable and loved," Keys said, before launching into "Send Me an Angel."

As the service drew to its close and the pallbearers gathered around the gleaming golden casket, the opening a capella notes from Houston’s recording of "I Will Always Love You" filled the hall. 

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Van Halen Rocks the L.A. Forum for Thousands of 'Friends and Family'

Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen, Wolfgang Van Halen and David Lee Roth of Van Halen perform at their dress rehearsal for family and friends at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

There were still kinks to be worked out last night at what David Lee Roth called "the final dress rehearsal" for Van Halen's upcoming North American tour. Onstage at the Forum in Los Angeles, Roth happily admitted, "I forgot the fucking words!" halfway through "China Town," one of several songs the legendary hard-rock outfit played from their brand-new studio album, A Different Kind of Truth. ("Get to the chorus," the singer urged his bandmates. "I know those words.") But with just over a week before the tour kicks off next Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky, Van Halen seemed concerned with making a bigger-picture point last night: They were proving they're ready to entertain arenas packed with hardcore fans.
Billed as a "Friends and Family" event, the 70-minute performance followed two earlier invite-only gigs, one in January at New York's tiny Cafe Wha? and the other last week at L.A.'s Henson Studios. But this show was the reunited Van Halen's first inside a venue as big as those they'll be playing over the next four months, and they definitely took advantage of the Forum's roomy dimensions – think confetti cannons, loads of high-def video and an enormous checkered flag like the one Roth waves in the clip for "Tattoo." Clad in a succession of sparkly jackets and what appeared to be a pair of pleather yoga pants, the frontman shimmied across the stage in full Diamond Dave mode; during "Everybody Wants Some!!" he even revived his old samurai-sword act. And though Alex and Wolfgang Van Halen declined to take solos last night, Eddie Van Halen offered up a typically virtuosic mini-concerto that reminded you of all the astonishing things he can still do on the guitar.
So what'd they play? Hits, of course: "You Really Got Me," "Runnin' with the Devil," "Panama," "Ice Cream Man." They all sounded great, especially "Dance the Night Away," with pitch-perfect vocal harmonies from Eddie and Wolfgang, and "Hot for Teacher," which Roth introduced by tossing handfuls of Hanukkah gelt into the crowd. (Speaking of the crowd, last night's included Duff McKagan and Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, not to mention Tone Loc and the blonde surfer dude from TMZ.) Even the new stuff worked, though not as well as "Jump," which closed the show on a note of mock-heroic grandiosity that is, was and evidently always will be Van Halen's signature stance. Get your tickets now, folks.

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