David Lee Roth says country music is a natural fit for him

It should come as no surprise that David Lee Roth is featured on the new Van Halen bluegrass tribute album called Strummin' With The Devil, which comes out on Tuesday, June 6th, -- well, according to Roth, anyway. The original Van Halen frontman has been out of the band for more than 20 years now, but that didn't stop him from telling us that he had a huge influence on some of today's biggest country stars: "The Chesneys and the Paisleys and the Tobys of country are now the exact right age that they're the stars of popular culture and they grew up on Van Halen music. The Van Halen myth is now 25 years gone, and there's something in American legend that says after 25 years you get your own T-shirt. You get your own postage stamp. Everything's okay."

Roth also told us that country and rock have been linked for a long time, and that acoustic instruments have been vitally important to rock music: "There is a great amount of rock in the country sound. Country was back when rock really kicked in. In early Rod Stewart, you know, all those early . . . 'Maggie May', 'Every Picture Tells A Story,' and on and on and on. These were great albums. Every single one of 'em had a mandolin and a dobro and a steel guitar in it. Without all of those exact instruments you have no Rolling Stones."

"Diamond Dave" will perform on Tuesday on NBC on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.