Fire marshall pulls plug on last night's Eat 'Em and Smile band reunion

If you were a hard-rock fan back in 1986 you were no doubt aware that David Lee Roth, who had formally quit Van Halen the year before, put together a pretty impressive band for his album Eat 'Em and Smile.

The lineup included guitar hero Steve Vai, bass god Billy Sheehan, and drum master Gregg Bissonette. You may remember them from such songs as "Yankee Rose", the hit video/single that opened the album:

Well, last night at Hollywood's Lucky Strike Live Vai, Sheehan, and Bissonette were scheduled to perform at an Ultimate Jam Night to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the band's formation. Admission was free, so the place was packed.

A little too packed, unfortunately.

"Well well well," tweeted Sheehan just before midnight last night. "The fire department shut down the whole show before we got on stage. And did we ever have a surprise for you! Such is life."

Apparently, the surprise would have been an onstage appearance by Diamond Dave himself, who was pictured hanging out with his old bandmates backstage:

After the gig Roth came out, apologized for the cancellation, and signed a couple autographs, explaining what went wrong and suggesting that they try it again some time--maybe at the Hollywood Palladium.

Doubt that one would be free, though.