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Former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth has released a new blues song, Forgiveness. In what's become standard practice for Diamond Dave, the song was released via his social media channels without fanfare or explanation, leaving fans to ponder its origins and meaning.
Forgiveness originally surfaced back in February, when Roth released Lavender Forgiveness, singing Forgiveness's lyrics over the original audio from Taylor Swift's Lavender Haze, the opening track from her 2023 album Midnights. The new version loses the Swift audio, which has been replaced by acoustic guitar. It's unclear whether the song is asking for forgiveness or offering it, or is autobiographical or not, but the lyrics aren't exactly Ice Cream Man.
I took a long trip South on that whiskey train
I took Jesus Christ's name in vain
I blew a fortune on cocaine
And I caused my whole family heartbreak and shame
And when I was on the verge of going insane I found forgiveness
Forgiveness fall down like rain on a sun-scorched land
Forgiveness forced in like air to a drowning man
Forgiveness like home from a journey of a thousand miles
Forgiveness like milk and honey to a starving child
This isn't the first time Roth has blessed fans with a new song at Christmas. Last year he released Talking Christmas Blues, which found him reading lines over an acoustic guitar and harmonica.
In other Roth-related news, more than four hours of live footage has appeared on YouTube this month, all remastered from bootleg VHS tape. The footage comes from three performances: a Van Halen show at Estadio Obras Sanitarias in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the Hide Your Sheep tour in February 1983 (a date filmed for local TV) and two Canadian Roth shows - one filmed at the Montreal Forum on the Eat 'Em & Smile tour in 1986, and one shot two years later at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on the Skyscraper tour.
