(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

David Lee Roth said the bands of the ’80s “hair” era were just trying to imitate Van Halen.

In a candid new interview with 96.3 KKLZ, Roth accused bands of “gimmickry and trade crap” in their attempts to be like Van Halen.

“Hair bands were the imitations of Van Halen,” Roth said. “Yeah, it is true, and spandex was what they came up with as something visual. I started off in leather, with the same haircut that Bono and [Bruce] Springsteen and the guys in Metallica had. A famous haircut – if I had that same haircut today, it’d have its own Instagram!”

Read the full story on Ultimate Classic Rock.