Roth sounded really good on his solo albums. That last solo album he put out before her reunited with Van Halen was bluesier, and it suited his voice much better. With Van Halen he was trying to do that screeching stuff he did as a youngster, and it just wasn’t working. The cover he did of Savoy Brown’s I’m Tired compliments his aged voice better than his new Van Halen work. Of course, people that I’ve talked to that saw Van Halen in their prime, said he sounded bad then. The bootleg concerts I’ve heard/seen vary. His voice was closer to the albums, I know that. I think his voice has lost a lot of its huskiness and roughness. His voice actually kind of smoothed with age. He can’t do those screeches that he was famous for.

Of course, I saw Billy Joel last December, and aside from the fact that his voice deepened from a tenor to more of a baritone, I think he’s a stronger live vocalist than he was in his “prime”. He put on a damn good show, and didn’t sound like a man in his late 60s. I suspect he probably learned techniques to better protect his voice, as some of his 80s performances you could hear him struggling at times. Plus Billy always sounded different from song to song. You May Be Right, Piano Man, New York State of Mind, Uptown Girl, and Say Goodbye To Hollywood all sound like different vocalists.