Original Van Halen [ tickets ] frontman David Lee Roth [ tickets ] is hitting the road for a spring/summer tour, and will drop a new album in the midst of the run.

Titled "Diamond Dave," Roth's first new album in five years is due out July 8, and marks his inaugural release for Magna Carta Records.

The covers-heavy set features Roth's renditions of the Doors' "Soul Kitchen," the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," the Hombres' "Let It All Hang Out," and three Savoy Brown cuts: "You Got the Blues, Not Me," "Made Up My Mind" and "Stay While the Night Is Young."

Also included is the Steve Miller Band's "Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma," a music video for which will be released soon, according to a label spokesperson.

Guests on the album include saxophonist Edgar Winter and guitarist Niles Rodgers, both of whom appear on Roth's revamped version of the 1969 John Brim track "Ice Cream Man," which Roth first covered on Van Halen's 1978 self-titled debut.

Over the years, Roth has had a penchant for cover songs; during his six-album tenure with Van Halen, the group recorded a total of eight covers (five of which appear on 1982's "Diver Down"), and all four tracks on his 1985 solo debut, "Crazy from the Heat," are covers.

Roth's live show has, in recent years, also been heavy on covers; nearly every song in the singer's set has been culled from his Van Halen days. To that end, Roth's current band--which backed him on his 2002 co-headlining tour with fellow ex-Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar--features guitarist Brian Young, whose previous gig had him impersonating guitarist Eddie Van Halen in a popular VH-tribute outfit known as the Atomic Punks.

Longtime drummer Ray Luzier and former White Lion bassist James Lomenzo round out Roth's lineup.

Roth's most-recent album is 1998's "DRL Band," a collection of 14 originals.

Last year, Roth made the news not only for his outing with Hagar, but also for filing a lawsuit against his former Van Halen bandmates, whom he claims owe him thousands in royalties. Fans, in postings on various Internet sites, have widely adopted the viewpoint that the suit has extinguished any hope for a Van Halen-Roth reunion.

Van Halen, meanwhile, remains in a state of seeming retirement. According to a popular Van Halen fan website dubbed the Van Halen News Desk, it has, as of Monday (3/31), been 1,610 days since the band's last live performance, and scarcely a peep has come out of the camp since then.

Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony has dealt with the boredom by unofficially joining Hagar's touring lineup; Anthony played at a number of last summer's Hagar-Roth concerts--though he did not perform with Roth at any of the shows--and is also expected to play at a number of Hagar's upcoming dates.

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