If you haven’t seen Sammy Hagar‘s Best of All Worlds tour, you may want to make your way to Las Vegas quickly – because his current five-show residency is probably your last chance.
The tour, which kicked off in 2024, finds Hagar joined by longtime bandmates Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani. The shows are a celebration of his decade-long run as Van Halen‘s lead singer, with the majority of the set list dedicated to songs from the four studio albums the band released during that time.
But after two years, Hagar’s ready to move on. “I’m kinda done with being the Van Halen guy,” he told SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk earlier this week. “I mean, I’ll always keep some of it in my show. But originally, the Best of All Worlds tour with Joe Satriani, was supposed to only be once and that was in 2024. But it was so damn successful that we got the [Las Vegas] residency, which is what I really wanted.”
He went on to explain that unlike a tour in which he only gets one shot at each city – and therefore needs to focus on his most popular songs – the residency allows him to explore songs from throughout his 50-year career. Hagar’s hoping to bring more of that spirit to his future shows.
“I’ve got so much Montrose, those are great songs and fun stuff, I’ve got fans that have been following me since then. You know, the red album [1977’s Sammy Hagar], the red rocker era, pre-Van Halen, the Geffen years. …I want to do so many things, I don’t want to just go out there and just do Van Halen. But Mike and I are kind of obligated. I like it, but I feel like I owe my old fans more than that.”
There’s also one more big project Hagar wants to cross of his bucket list. “I wanna do my science fiction show. I don’t know how many shows I’ve got left in my life. I wrote this space opera when I left Montrose in 1975. Every album I ever did had a space song on it. ‘Silver Lights,’ ‘Someone Out There,’ ‘Space Station #5,’ ‘Space Age Sacrifice.’ ‘Crack in the World” was the one that really predicted what’s going on in 2025. I don’t know where that came from. In Van Halen, ‘Love Walks In.’
“These are part of my rock opera, and I want to do it, I really do. And not like a play, no, just go out and put a production together, play small rooms and just play the whole thing from the first song which is ‘Hot Rock’ to the last song which is ‘Silver Lights.’ It’s a concept, and it’d be like ‘Figure it out, figure out what I’m saying.'”
Read More: The Sci-Fi Concept Album Sammy Hagar Was Forced to Abandon
Just don’t expect any of these things to happen very quickly, as Hagar plans to get off the road after this year’s edition of his annual birthday bash. “I’m taking a break, and a long one,” he told Trunk.
“I’m gonna figure out what I’m gonna do next year. No tour next year, as of this point. It’s certainly not going to be a Best of All Worlds type tour. I’ll figure out what I want to do. I’m gonna be 80 years old next year. … I never even thought that was possible. I’ve only got so many miles left on my f–ing tires, and I don’t want to have a blowout out there on the freeway.”
Sammy Hagar Solo and Band Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Whether on his own or with Van Halen, Montrose, Chickenfoot or HSAS, he rarely takes his foot off the pedal.
Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
