JUST IN: Sammy Hagar ‘keeping alive’ music of Van Halen in summer Best of All Worlds tour..See more

With guitar wizard Joe Satriani, drummer Jason Bonham and Van Halen founding member Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar says this touring band plays Van Halen’s music “as good as it could possibly be.”

BRISTOW, Virginia – “Never say never, right?” says Sammy Hagar, who’s beaming a huge grin as guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani plays the opening notes to “Panama,” a song released 40 years ago by Van Halen, when it was fronted by David Lee Roth.

In the post-Roth years, some Van Halen diehards thought they might never again hear that song from the band’s multiplatinum album “1984” in a live setting.

But it’s ringing out loudly on Hagar’s The Best of All Worlds Tour this summer.

The tour’s name plays off the title of the song “Best of Both Worlds,” on Van Halen’s “5150” album from 1986 when Hagar fronted the band. It’s also the title of a 2004 Van Halen greatest hits collection with songs from the Hagar and Roth eras.

On tour through August in the U.S., the band – Hagar and Satriani, bassist Michael Anthony, an original member of Van Halen, and drummer Jason Bonham – is playing songs from Van Halen’s extensive catalog including some from Roth’s days.

Hagar and Anthony, who’s also recorded and performed with Hagar in the bands Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar & the Circle, have said they tried to kickstart a Van Halen reunion over the past two decades. But personality clashes and the death of guitarist Eddie Van Halen in October 2020 prevented the regrouping.

Now, the timing felt right to bring some songs back to the stage.

“Mike (Anthony) and I just said, ‘Let’s put a setlist together and let’s put a dream band together that would be more like Van Halen would be and let’s go out and play mostly Van Halen (songs),” Hagar told USA TODAY earlier this month.

Also on the road is Rai Thistlethwayte, an Australian multi-instrumentalist from Satriani’s band. Thistlehwayte plays guitar, keyboards and sings backing vocals, too.

“He sings great. So we’ve got a live band that plays just like the record,” said Hagar, who notes that often recorded keyboard tracks were used for song such as “Right Now,” which restricts bands’ spontaneity.

“All the band members grew up on these songs. Jason Bonham … he knows them inside out,” Hagar said. “Joe (Satriani), he worshiped Eddie. He’s just going, ‘Oh man, I get to play this song.’ So, the enthusiasm that we’re playing these songs with, quite honestly, it’s just as good as it could possibly be.”