Rock legend Sammy Hagar, known for his tenure as the lead singer of Van Halen, recently revealed which band was his favorite to play in over the years — and the answer might surprise you.
“Chickenfoot is one of my favorite bands on the planet that I’ve ever been in,” the 77-year-old musician told Ultimate Classic Rock in a recent interview.
He made the admission after mentioning that the group that played with him on his new live album Sammy Hagar & The Best of All Worlds Band – The Residency — bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani, drummer Kenny Aronoff and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte — were like “Chickenfoot 3.0.”
He also noted to the fans, “I just want to tell everybody, we’re going to put more songs in the set. You know, I’ve got about 500 songs to choose from, so we might pull a little more Chickenfoot and a little more Montrose. We kind of skipped those [during the 2025 residency]. They came in and out once or twice during the [run], but I think that’s a real important era.”
The live album in question was recorded during the band’s Las Vegas residency earlier this year, and contains a whopping 18 tracks that highlight five of the most important musicians when it comes to Van Halen’s overall legacy. The record, which releases on October 10, seems to be a proud product for the iconic group — but originally, Hagar wanted to sabotage its release because he was against doing a live album.
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“I said, ‘No – who wants to hear a live album?’” he told Sirius XM in a recent chat where he revealed he allowed the producer to work on a few tracks in hopes it wouldn’t go well. “Chris Lord-Alge mixed a few for me – and I picked the ones that I thought were gonna be the most difficult, like ‘Humans Being,’ and ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘5150.’ You know, big epic pieces like that.”
But when Lord-Alge produced results, Hagar quickly had a change of heart about doing a live record. “I said, ‘The people that didn’t get to go to this thing are gonna go, “I feel like I’m there.” He really captured the audience, or the audience captured the show.,’” he explained on the radio show of the recording that spanned two nights of performances.
In fact, the frontman’s attitude about the whole thing changed so much after he heard what Lord-Alge did that it even made him want to do more live shows. “It’s the best live album I’ve heard in 100 years. This band blows my mind,” he explained during the interview. “And that’s why I said, ‘I’m gonna do another residency.’ When I heard this I said, ‘This band, man – this is a real band.’”
Hagar has plans to return to Las Vegas next year to reprise his The Best of All Worlds residency. He and the aforementioned band members will play Dolby Live at Park MGM for 11 performances from March 11 through March 21 and again from September 18 through September 26. Tickets are on sale now.
