The title of Sammy Hagar’s Better of All Worlds tour comes with quite a lot of expectations.
This summer time, he is been delivering on that promise and even placing in a bit of additional firepower, because of particular visitor Rick Springfield, who opened the primary half of the Purple Rocker’s tour dates.
The result’s an evening that is been loaded to the brim with huge chart hits and rock radio favorites which might be assured to ship every fan residence with greater than only a few songs so as to add to their playlists.
However then there’s been the surprising moments too, each on the stage and away from the amps, as we realized after we received a while backstage at Blossom Music Heart within the Cleveland/Akron space with the Purple Rocker and his band.
The spectacular collective now contains his longtime Van Halen bandmate, Michael Anthony, guitar legend Joe Satriani, drummer Kenny Aronoff and their latest recruit, keyboardist and vocalist Nathan Mercado, aka “Spider Cherry.”
Here is a number of of our favourite moments from the longer dialog that we’ll share with you quickly at UCR.
How Michael Anthony Celebrated His Birthday
The legendary bassist turned 72 on June 20, the day that he, Hagar and the Better of All Worlds band carried out at Blossom. His birthday got here at a time when phrase was circulating that brown M&M’s, lengthy a well-known a part of Van Halen lore, is perhaps going away. Fortunately, we have now realized that is not the case. Nonetheless, that did not cease the 2 from having some entertaining dialog concerning the second.
“If they might have saved the entire ones they threw out, they might in all probability go for an additional 12 months,” Hagar joked.
“There was some nation dude — I neglect who it was — for a part of his rider, he requested the entire brown M&M’s leftover from ours,” Anthony countered.
“Completely, that is what I did again within the day,” Hagar quipped, with a hearty snort. “I stated, ‘Go away the brown ones, I am going to take ’em once I get there.”
Sure, There Was Cake as Nicely
Throughout that night’s live performance at Blossom, Springfield helped shock Anthony with a birthday cake that arrived on stage as Satriani was wrapping up a excessive octane model of his personal “Satch Boogie” with the band.
Created by native bakery The White Flower Cake Shoppe, the festive dessert had been embellished in tremendous style for the legendary bass participant. “Comfortable Birthday, Mikey” was on the face of the cake, which additionally featured the acquainted cranium and chili peppers, a nod to his line of Mad Anthony’s sizzling sauces.
How They Went Again to the ‘Outdated Days’ In Extra Methods Than One
Hagar, Anthony and the band arrived at Blossom in a throwback style that went far past the Van Halen-heavy set listing for that night.
Usually, they journey to the gigs on Hagar’s personal airplane, however final weekend, they did it in another way. “There was a difficulty with the airplane, so we could not take that,” Anthony shared. “We popped in a van and drove right here from Michigan. It was about [a three-hour] highway journey. We stopped off on the truck cease and picked up just a little snack. It is just like the outdated days!”
Hagar and Springfield Lastly Performed ‘I’ve Finished All the pieces for You’ Collectively
Sadly, it did not occur on the Blossom present, But it surely was fairly the festive second. Whereas the 2 have executed it collectively earlier than (since Hagar wrote the track initially), followers questioned in the event that they’d jam it on a nightly foundation through the summer time run — and so they hadn’t.
That modified as you will see because of the under video from Smash Machine!, captured throughout Springfield’s set on the Xfinity Heart in Mansfield, Mass. this previous Wednesday (June 24).
As the ’80s heartthrob was shredding a bouquet of roses throughout his guitar (one among his signature strikes, as longtime followers will know), Hagar got here strolling out and introduced him with a toast, celebrating the top of their present dates collectively. He then grabbed a microphone and joined in on the vocals.
Springfield has fond recollections of his early days attending to know Hagar, who was more than happy with the large success Rick had along with his 1981 model of “I’ve Finished All the pieces for You.”
“The primary time I noticed him after that, a few years had handed, he stated, ‘Yeah, the track put my daughters by means of faculty!’ However you recognize, that is his angle,” Springfield instructed UCR previous to the tour’s launch. “He is all the time been a very good man and all the time been good for a chat. Now we’ve got a rum firm collectively and it is sort of enjoyable. He is an excellent grasp.”
Watch Rick Springfield and Sammy Hagar Carry out ‘I’ve Finished All the pieces for You’
The Present Tour Actually is the ‘Better of All Worlds’
It is greater than only a tour title — as Hagar instructed UCR throughout Saturday afternoon’s dialog, he is having a ball enjoying music with Anthony, Satriani, Aronoff and Mercado.
“It is cool placing collectively a band like this after you are grown up,” he shares. “While you’re youngsters beginning out, you place collectively a band. You attempt to develop up collectively and also you all develop out this fashion and you find yourself breaking apart. You find yourself hating one another. It is inevitable. However as soon as you have already executed that 10 occasions [Hagar chuckles] you get collectively as adults like this.”
“You say, this is our function — we wish to go on the market and serve the Van Halen music pretty much as good as it will possibly presumably be served right now,” he continues. “That was Mike and I’s imaginative and prescient after we put this factor collectively. We’d like a Joe Satriani, we want Kenny Aronoff — we want guys which might be that good. It is a lot enjoyable, since you’re not sitting right here going, Nicely, what’s he pondering?”
The 2026 installment of the Better of All Worlds run introduced Hagar and the band again to the touring path after a few rounds in Las Vegas in 2025 and earlier this 12 months. The present U.S. dates wrap up this week
They will subsequently deliver the present over to the U.Ok. for the primary time for 5 live shows beginning July 6. September will deliver yet one more spherical of gigs in Vegas to wrap up what he says has been a really enjoyable 12 months.
“For a man my age, it is the dream,” he confirms. “I by no means dreamed it could possibly be like this. You already know, we’ve got the identical enthusiasm as Van Halen had once I joined the band. [It’s the] identical enthusiasm, I swear. I do not see something completely different, besides simply completely different members. We love one another, we love what we’re doing, and we do not do it sufficient to get bored with it.”
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Gallery Credit score: Matthew Wilkening
