SAMMY HAGAR On ‘The Best Of All Worlds’ Tour: ‘I Definitely Wanna Do It Again’

Sammy Hagar has released a video message thanking fans for their support on the recently completed “The Best Of All Worlds” tour.For the trek, Hagar and his bandmates in THE CIRCLE — bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Jason Bonham — were joined by guitarist Joe Satriani and multi-instrumentalist Rai Thistlethwayte.Bonham was forced to leave “The Best Of All Worlds” tour due to an unspecified family issue. The drummer was replaced at the last four shows of the tour by Kenny Aronoff, who had previously played with Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony and guitarist Joe Satriani in CHICKENFOOT.In his message, which can be seen below, Hagar said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Hey now, everyone. It’s been a week since I got home. I figured I’d give you a little summary, a little message about how great the tour was for me and the band.”I can’t express enough how impressed I was with the turnout and the vibe that everyone was laying down, singing the songs at the top of your lungs — every song. We thought we were playing deep tracks, and it turns out that you know those too. It was just one of the greatest experiences. So many of the shows sold out so quick, we could have did a bunch of multiples but I wanted to do as many cities as possible and I wanted not to overdo it. I wanted to see how my voice would hold up after all these years playing a two-hour-and-20-minute set, 24 songs. And physically, my body. And I can tell you right now, my voice held up fine. I was happy every night. And my body held up fine. I feel better than ever right now. I got in shape.”Japan coming up. Get the birthday bash, Cabo and Vegas, under my belt and start making plans for next year.”Hagar continued: “I owe a lot to Joe Satriani, Rai Thistlethwayte, Jason Bonham, Michael Anthony, of course, and Kenny Aronoff for jumping in there and pulling it off. But really, without that band, ‘The Best Of All Worlds’ band, it wouldn’t have been possible. I don’t know any other guys that could have pulled it together, did it on that level and had as much fun with each other. It wasn’t like hired guns, professional people said, ‘Oh, they can do it, so I’ll hire that guy.’ No, we were friends out there, man, having the time of our lives. Every night we’d go, ‘Oh, that had to be the best show of the tour so far.’ Next night, ‘Oh, maybe that one was.’ What was your favorite show?”I can tell you right now, I definitely wanna do it again and knowing how much I can do, it’s gonna be less of a mystery and just as much of a party.”I wanna thank everybody for coming out,” Sammy added. “It was really, really special. I haven’t felt that good about a show I’ve done for the fans in a long time. And you know I feel good about every show. But this show, 24 songs. We played 14 VAN HALEN songs that haven’t been played for a long time. And Mike and I really felt we’re the only ones who wanna carry that Van Hagar flag around. So y’all obviously wanna hear it ’cause you were there. We did it. I’m happy. I hope you are too. Thank you.””The Best Of All Worlds” setlist consisted largely of VAN HALEN material, including the opening track “Good Enough”, from 1986’s “5150” album, as well as two songs from 1991’s “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”, “Poundcake” and “Runaround”, and a pair of David Lee Roth-era VAN HALEN classics, “Panama” and “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”, as well as a section of “Jump”. The rest of the set included Satriani’s “Satch Boogie”, the rousing rock-swing guitar instrumental that put him on the map in 1987 and helped propel his second album, “Surfing With The Alien”, to platinum status. and several of Hagar’s solo classics, such as “There’s Only One Way To Rock”, “Eagles Fly”, “Heavy Metal” and “I Can’t Drive 55”.Produced by Live Nation, the 28-date “The Best Of All Worlds” tour concluded on August 31 in St. Louis, Missouri.Aronoff replaced Chad Smith in CHICKENFOOT’s touring lineup from 2011 to 2012. Smith was forced to step away from CHICKENFOOT’s touring activities due to his commitments with the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS.CHICKENFOOT recorded two albums between 2009 and 2011 and toured across America but never performed any VAN HALEN material. More recently, Hagar and Anthony have played some of the VAN HALEN catalog with guitarist Vic Johnson and Bonham in SAMMY HAGAR AND THE CIRCLE.[embedded content]