Sammy Hagar kicked off his Best of All Worlds tour Saturday night at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was joined by bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani , drummer Jason Bonham, and multi-instrumentalist Rai Thistlethwayte for an evening jammed with Van Halen classics and a smattering of solo songs and tunes by Montrose, Chickenfoot, and Satriani. The show was heavy on songs from Hagar’s tenure in Van Halen including “Poundcake,” “Right Now,” “Runaround,” “Why Can’t This Be Love,” and “When It’s Love.
” But he did dip back into the David Lee Roth era by breaking out “Jump” and “Panama” for the first time since Van Halen’s ill-fated 2004 reunion tour. And Anthony took over lead vocals for “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love,” which has been a staple of Sammy Hagar and the Circle shows since 2022. “Jump” was played near the end of the night in a medley with Montrose’s “Space Station #5” and Chickenfoot’s “Oh Yeah.
” In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock earlier this month, Hagar explained why he no longer minds playing songs from the Roth incarnation of Van Halen. “Well, when I joined Van Halen, I was trying to make a statement,” he said. “Hey, listen, this is a new band, we wrote new material — and to get rid of that comparison thing, I didn’t want to.
.. look, it wasn’t just me.
This was Ed, Al, Mike, this was a unanimous vote. Nobody wanted to continue on with the old.