Sammy Hagar said he’ll be playing Van Halen’s 1988 album OU812 in its entirety during his upcoming Las Vegas residency.
Hagar revealed the news to Ultimate Classic Rock’s Matt Wardlaw.
“The idea is to start doing things like playing a whole album,” Hagar said. “Like, we’re going to play the Montrose record for the first half of the show. Things like that. We’re going to play the OU812 record in its entirety. When friends come, we’ll just make it into that same thing I do in Cabo. If Tommy Lee walks in, he jumps on the drums, and we play a couple of Mötley Crüe songs. Led Zeppelin songs, whatever he wants to play. It’s the way I’ve always done it in Cabo, and that’s what I plan on doing there. Because it’s a small venue and it just feels personal.”
Sammy Hagar and Friends will perform in Las Vegas’s Strat Theater October 29th & 30th and again on November 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th. The shows will feature Hagar and his Circle bandmates Michael Anthony, guitarist Vic Johnson, drummer Jason Bonham along with other surprise special guests.
One guest who would easily make the biggest surprise guest of them all is David Lee Roth. Hagar says Roth has an open invitation.
“He’s invited anytime, anyplace, anywhere I go,” said Hagar. “I would play the old Van Halen stuff. Me and Mike [Anthony] – I’d sing background and let [Roth] do his thing. It’d be awesome.”
All six of Hagar’s Las Vegs shows have already sold out but Hagar plans to add more dates.
“The size of the venue, it’s only 800 people,” said Hagar. “It’s like the Cabo Wabo. For me, that’s when we’re packed [at] the Cabo Wabo [for] the Birthday Bash – we squeeze about 800 people in there. We probably won’t be as packed in Vegas, because they won’t let you make a sardine can out of the place, I’m sure! They’ve got some fire department laws or something. But it’s going to be packed at 800. I wish it was about 1,500 or 2,000. Because it’s just a shame – we just keep putting shows on sale and they just go, bam! bam! The idea is to continue this next year, like a month on and a month off. Go out on tour a little bit, come back and do a month. That’s the plan. The room is booked through the end of the year unless a show gets canceled here or there, and then we’d come in and do it again. I’ll do as many as I can.”
For more info on additional dates and tickets go to tickets.thestrat.com/sammyhagar or Hagar’s official website redrocker.com.
To read Wardlaw’s entire interview with Hagar, go to Ultimate Classic Rock‘s official website HERE.
Listen To Van Halen’s “Cabo Wabo” From OU812