If you asked David Lee Roth about his split from Van Halen in 1985, he might have told you that it was an easy one, filled with the promise of hard cash, fast girls and Yankee Roses. But the decision to leave the comforts of bandom behind for a solo gig is not always that cut-and-dried — just ask former Squeeze frontman Glenn Tilbrook.

"I was very happy to be in Squeeze for the period of time I was," Tilbrook said of his quarter-century-long relationship with the group. "I really enjoyed the challenge of the band and the challenge of keeping the band together. That alone was something that was hard work for quite a lot of the time."

Hard work indeed, considering that over the course of Squeeze's long history, the number of musicians weaving in and out of the band's lineup rivals that of Spinal Tap, with the role of the spontaneously combustible drummer having been played by keyboardists Jools Holland, Paul Carrack (twice) and Andy Metcalfe, just to name a few.

So in 1999, a dozen albums after Squeeze stormed onto the pop scene with "Take Me I'm Yours," Tilbrook and longtime friend/songwriting partner Chris Difford decided that the pressures of keeping the band together had become too great, and they dissolved it for good.

"I never felt like I wanted Squeeze to break up," Tilbrook explained. "When [it turns out that] not everyone is happy ... it had to break up." Now, for the first time in his career, Tilbrook is flying solo, no longer a member of his Britpop posse and the seemingly inseparable Difford & Tilbrook team.

"I'm very happy artistically with what [Squeeze] did," the singer said. "But I have to put myself into a position where the main thing for me is that I have to be happy with the records I make myself and then hope there are enough other people I can reach that like them."

Plowing full speed ahead into life after Squeeze, he recorded his first solo album, The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook. Already out in the U.K., the album is scheduled to be released in the States on August 28, preceded by a North American tour kicking off Friday (July 20).

While Tilbrook left most, if not all, of Squeeze's lyrical responsibilities to Difford, with Incomplete he found himself laboring over his own lengthy limericks and catchy choruses, an overwhelming task he soon learned to enjoy.

"Initially, when I was writing ... I had a body of songs already that I was happy with," he said, "and the more I went down that road, the more comfortable I felt about writing lyrics myself. [I eventually] got to a stage where my lyrics were something I could be proud of. It took a while to get there with me."

In addition to enlisting the help of singer/songwriters Aimee Mann and Ron Sexsmith for Incomplete, Tilbrook admitted he found himself guided by Difford's lyrical and musical style throughout the writing and recording process.

"I do think that there is a large amount of influence from Chris," he said, "because I've worked with him for 25 years and that can't help but rub off."

The first single from Incomplete, "Parallel World," is scheduled to hit U.S. airwaves next month, and there are already plans to release a second single, "This Is Where You Ain't," later this summer.

Glenn Tilbrook's North American tour dates, according to his publicist:

  • 7/20 Denver, CO @ Soiled Dove
  • 7/22 Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues (w/ Warren Zevon)
  • 7/23 West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour
  • 7/24 San Francisco, CA @ Slim's
  • 7/26 Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave Bar
  • 7/27 Sauget, IL @ Pop's
  • 7/28 Chicago, IL @ Park West (w/ Marshall Crenshaw)
  • 7/29 Ferndale, MI @ Magic Bag
  • 7/30 Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah
  • 7/31 Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace
  • 8/2 Arlington, VA @ The Iota
  • 8/3 Baltimore, MD @ Fletcher's
  • 8/4 Philadelphia, PA @ Tin Angel
  • 8/6 Philadelphia, PA @ Tin Angel
  • 8/8 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
  • 8/9 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
  • 8/11 Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance
  • 8/13 Amagansett, NY @ Stephen Talkhouse
  • 8/14 Cambridge, MA @ House of Blues
  • 8/15 Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall