Sammy Hagar’s, “The Best of All Worlds Tour” brings the sounds of vintage Van Halen to Ruoff Music Center
By: Kevin Vickery
Before even discussing the show, I feel like I need to give a little bit of the back story on the history of Van Halen for readers who may not understand the full history and evolution of the band.
The Van Halen Brothers, Eddie and Alex immigrated to Pasadena, CA from the Netherlands in 1962 with their parents where they grew up trained in classical piano because of their Father’s influence as he was a classically trained musician. As they further grew into their own style of music they gravitated towards rock and roll, eventually landing Eddie on guitar and Alex on drums. As they developed their own style and went through a couple different name and line-up changes, they eventually formed the original version of Van Halen which in addition to the brothers, included bassist, Michael Anthony and singer/front-man, David Lee Roth. That was the line up from 1974 through 1985 that recorded and released the first six Van Halen records including their most successful, “1984” which featured the singles, “Jump” and “Panama” which were both chart toppers.
That’s when all my friends and I got on board. The 13 year old version of me got my first guitar, some bandanas, ripped jeans, started growing my hair long, put Van Halen posters all over the walls of my room, and then we all started trying to be Van Halen, much like our parents generation did with The Beatles.
Then the band took a different turn.
David Lee Roth left the group to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Sammy Hagar who already had a successful solo career and had been the front man for the band Montrose.
A lot of bands don’t survive a change of front man but Van Halen did, going on to record four more chart topping albums including “5150”, the band’s first number one album on the Billboard charts. The album featured singles, “Why Can’t This Be Love”, “Dreams”, and, “Love Walk In” which were all high charting hits and in heavy rotation on rock radio and MTV.
After about a ten year stint in Van Halen, Hagar left and was replaced by Extreme vocalist, Gary Cherone. The band then released “Van Halen III”, which most fans agree was the worst album they ever delivered. While I agree with that sentiment, ironically, I blew off my own college graduation ceremony to see them live on that tour at Starwood Amphitheater in Nashville, TN. Even though it was a weird record, the live show was still great, I had 2nd row seats and I got to meet Eddie Van Halen backstage so I’m calling it a win.
After that, the band briefly reunited with Sammy Hagar, released a greatest hits album called, “The Best of Both Worlds” and toured with him in 2004 before eventually parting ways again. At that time bassist, Michael Anthony joined forces with Hagar to create a couple of super groups called, The Circle and Chickenfoot which featured heavy hitters like guitarist, Joe Satriani and drummer, Jason Bonham.
Meanwhile, Van Halen reunited with David Lee Roth, recorded a couple new tunes for another greatest hits package called, “A Different Kind of Truth” and then toured with him in 2006-2007 along with Eddie’s son from his former marriage to actress, Valerie Bertinelli, Wolfgang Van Halen on bass. I went to that show when they came through Indianapolis and while it was cool to hear a lot of the tunes from their earlier albums, and to see Roth back on stage with Van Halen, he just didn’t have the pipes to pull it off like he once did. Roth was always more of a showman – a song & dance man if you will, and his vocal abilities were never his strong suit. Don’t get me wrong, my favorite Van Halen tunes are from the Roth era but Sammy Hagar is a far better vocalist, a more talented musician, and what kept the band alive in the 90s and early 2000s.
Fast forward another few years and there were rumors of a Van Halen reunion to include the Van Halen brothers, Michael Anthony on bass and Sammy Hagar as vocalist. That never happened and unfortunately Eddie Van Halen died of throat cancer in 2020.
Then the rumors started swirling about a Van Halen tribute tour. What the fans (like me) were hoping for was a line up that included: Alex Van Halen on drums, Michael Anthony on bass, Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen on guitar and Sammy Hagar on vocals with maybe David Lee Roth joining for some of the old songs that he could still get through.
While that might be the best version of Van Halen we fans could hope for, there was far too much ego, attitude and rock & roll politics for that to come together. Alex Van Halen has retired from music and won’t return Sammy’s calls. Wolfgang is having success with his own band Mammoth WVH and wants no part of the drama. What we are left with is original bassist, Michael Anthony and vocalist Sammy Hagar’s desire to give the band’s fans a live show full of classic Van Halen music.
With that in mind, they enlisted their former bandmate and guitar god, Joe Satriani and drummer, Jason Bonham, son of the legendary Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham to form the super group that would embark upon this summer’s, “Best of All Worlds” tour to tribute the music of Van Halen.
A few shows into the tour, Jason Bonham had to depart due to personal issues and was replaced by none other than legendary Indiana native, Kenny Aronoff who is arguably the best session drummer of the last few decades.
They also added Rai Thistlethwayte from Satriani’s band on keys, backing vocals, and rhythm guitar who is another all around fantastic musician.
Their show at Ruoff Music Center was absolutely great and full of Van Halen classics. The super-group delivered versions of Roth era Van Halen classics like, “Panama” and “Ain’t talking ‘bout Love” featuring bassist Michael Anthony on lead vocals.
The band also wowed the crowd with Hagar era hits like, “Summer Nights”, “Runaround” and “Best of Both Worlds” which Hagar at 76 years old still sings like a man half his age.
They included a few of his classics like, “There’s Only One Way to Rock”, “I Can’t Drive 55” and “Eagles Fly” and even squeezed in Joey Satriani’s, “Satch Boogie” which I’ve loved ever since I first discovered his, “Surfing With the Alien” album back during my days as a DJ at Ball State’s WCRD.
I ran into an old friend and classmate, AJ Bell of Mechanicsburg and got his thoughts on the show. He said, “I’ve seen Sammy many times throughout the years – Solo, with Van Halen and Chickenfoot – He was incredible as usual! 76 yrs old and can still sing and play as well as ever. Still a master of working a crowd and keeping the energy high. I want to be him when I grow up.” He added, “All in all, one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a long time”.
The opening act for the tour is Loverboy whose mostly original line-up sounded as strong as they did back in the 80’s. Frontman, Mike Reno still sounds strong and is hitting all the high notes on their classics like, “Lovin’ Every Minute of it”, “Turn Me Loose”, and “Working For the Weekend”.
Renee True, another friend and classmate that I saw there and spoke with added, “It was a great show – great to see both bands still rockin’ after all these years”.
The show was derailed a bit when storms moved in and caused a 30 minute-ish intermission. Hagar didn’t want to leave the stage and thought he could hang out and talk to the crowd during that time but after a few minutes was ushered off by his handlers. After the storm passed it was game on and the band returned to rock the faces off of the enthusiastic crowd.
However, the storms returned again at the end of the show and the band was forced to call it quits for the night, leaving the last song, “Cabo Wabo” unplayed. It didn’t bother me though – Some of the best shows I’ve ever seen and some of the craziest Indiana Summertime storms I’ve survived have been at that little piece of Hamilton County that I will always call Deer Creek.
For more information about Sammy Hagar including tour dates you can find him on all social media outlets or visit his official website at redrocker.com
Loverboy can also be found on all social media platforms or at their official website at Loverboyband.com
To keep up with events at Ruoff Music Center go to ruoffmusiccenter.net
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