David Lee Roth almost ruined a marriage by giving out an old phone number to women.
Van Halen
Author Nancy French, 45, has revealed that not long after her marriage to David French when she was 20, she became suspicious of the number of calls from mysterious women her lawyer husband had been receiving until Roth's agent helped to clear things up.
They soon discovered that French's phone number was Van Halen star Roth's old number but he had been handing it out to women whom he wanted to let down easy.
Writing in The Washington Post, Nancy recalled: "Finally, a man called. 'Sorry, he's at work,' I said. 'All work should go through me,' he spat. I wasn't sure how law firms allocated cases, but apparently David was doing it wrong."
When Nancy referred to herself as David's wife, Roth's agent lowered his voice and asked: "Are you ... pregnant? Expecting a little David Lee? A kid will really hurt our comeback."
The writer finally put two and two together and she discovered that her husband wasn't living a double life after all.
Instead, the Van Halen rocker had changed his number before the couple moved to Manhattan but still gave it out sometimes.
However, Roth forgot to mention to friends and colleagues he had changed his number as Nancy and her husband would receive calls from a number of Roth's acquaintances.
Nancy added: "When rumours of [Van Halen] getting back together started flying, our phone rang with congratulations and invitations to exclusive parties. At one point, we even fielded a call from Roth's dad."
Despite the suspicions she had of her husband, the pair can now laugh about the odd situation and continue to see the brighter side of it.
She continued: "Over the years I've learned that our desire for others does not mean we are an inconvenience or a problem to be solved. As beautifully described in the immortal words of Van Halen's hit song, 'You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real.'"
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