People

By Guy D. Garcia

Kids sometimes hold their noses and try to count to 100. But this was the big time. "We were holding our breath until we sold the first million," confesses David Lee Roth, who released his first solo album, Crazy from the Heat, in the dead of last winter. Record buyers warmed to California Girls, one of the album's singles; another, Just a Gigolo/ I Ain't Got Nobody, is still on the charts. Roth's rock roll has music gossips asking whether the flamboyant singer will ever return to Van Halen, the group where he started. His response: "I asked (Van Halen), 'How long do you think it will take to make the next record?' 'Better give it about a year,' they said. I said, 'A year? I've never done anything for a year.' " Unlike his old band, Roth lives for the road -- and the moment. Even if that should mean doing it solo. "I got to do what I got to do," he says. "If they don't want to go for the big ride, it's not the end of my career." As for Van Halen, word is they are shopping for a new lead singer.