Sammy Hagar is not waiting for his former bandmates to pay homage to the late Eddie Van Halen. The singer has revealed that he will embark on a Van Halen-centric tour next summer, featuring Joe Satriani and The Circle and Loverboy.
The tour, dubbed The Best of All Worlds, will showcase songs from Hagar's tenure with Van Halen, as well as his solo hits and his collaborations with Satriani in Chickenfoot. He will be joined by his longtime friend and bassist Michael Anthony, who was also part of Van Halen, and drummer Jason Bonham, who plays with Hagar in The Circle. The lineup will also include Australian keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte, who has worked with Satriani on his latest album.
Satriani was reportedly in talks with Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth, the original members of Van Halen, about a possible tribute tour for Eddie, who died in October 2020 after a long battle with cancer. However, the plan never materialized, and Satriani decided to join Hagar instead.
The tour will make a stop at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas next August 22nd, and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston on August 23rd. The opening act will be Loverboy.
Hagar said he was inspired to do the tour after seeing the positive response to the new Van Halen collection, The Collection II, which features remastered versions of some of the band's classic songs. He said he and Anthony felt the urge to play those songs live again, and to honor Eddie's legacy.
"It's crazy to think that it'll be 20 years since Mikey and I played these songs with Van Halen on the 2004 Best of Both Worlds tour," Hagar said in a statement. "With Joe on board, we can take a deeper dive into those years. We're going to touch on some hits from my entire career but seeing fans old and new really embrace the new Van Halen collection set off something in Mikey and I. We were at my Birthday Bash in Cabo for my 76th and looked at each other and high fived, like 'let's do it.' We pulled out a couple of them and it was an instant lovefest with the fans from our first riffs. The music we created is going to outlive us all. They deserve to be heard so it's time we go out and serve the fans that music, while we still can."
[Source: Classic Hits Today]