As the Best Of All Worlds summer tour nears, Sammy Hagar says he and his bandmates have rehearsed over 30 songs so far with 90 percent of them coming from the Van Halen catalog.
Hagar, who spoke with Ultimate Classic Rock just days away from the tour opener, is pulling out all the stops for Van Halen fans and that goes beyond the setlist.
“We’ve got a big production,” said Hagar. “I spent a fortune on a production that we built for this thing. The way the lights and everything are, it’s going to be a lot of automation, so things happen at a certain time to bring the magic. I usually don’t do that. I’ve been partying on stage since I left Van Halen. I haven’t had any structure, I haven’t had a set list, hardly at all. Mike and I just go out and we just fuckin’ party and the audience parties with us. That’s wonderful. We’re still going to do that, but we’re going to have to do a few things consistently, because I spent a lot of money to make magic happen. You’ve got to make sure that lightning strikes at the right time.”
If you’ve been watching the rehearsal videos Hagar has been posting, you’ve no doubt noticed a fifth member joining Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Jason Bonham. That would be multi-instrumentalist Rai Thistlethwayte, who’s been a part of Satriani’s touring band for several years. He’s also been the lead singer and primary songwriter for the Australian pop-rock band Thirsty Merc for over 20 years.
“He’s playing the parts and singing the background vocals,” Hagar told UCR. “His voice sounds so good with Mike’s and mine. It sounds so much like the record, the vocals, more than anything. It’s above and beyond what I expected. I thought it was going to be good and we all had high expectations, but it’s chemistry, you know?”
The tour kicks off this Saturday (July 13th) in West Palm Beach, Florida.