Sammy Hagar might be the guy who wrote “There’s Only One Way to Rock,” but when it comes to the two most popular periods of Van Halen’s career, he’s now happy to evangelize music from the David Lee Roth years. Understandably, that might be surprising news for some people.
Famously, the Red Rocker wasn’t thrilled about having to sing material from Roth’s era and only a selected few tracks made it into the average set list each tour while he was in Van Halen. Which made his 2002 co-headlining tour with Diamond Dave a great idea on paper. Dubbed “Song for Song, the Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll,” the trek truly gave fans the best of both worlds., with each singer bringing the best of their catalog to the stage.
Backstage on the road however, relations were tense between the two camps, leaving Hagar with regret that the outing wasn’t as harmonious as he’d hoped it would be.
READ MORE: When Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth Launched a Joint Tour
But in a happier development, things have seemed fairly cordial between the two in recent months. When DLR responded (in his own unique way) to Hagar’s newest single, “Encore, Thank You Goodnight,” the frontman took those comments as an “olive branch,” going so far as to say that he believed he could be friends with Roth.
All of this comes at a time when Hagar has been increasing the amount of songs from the Roth era he draws on in his own set list. It’s a smart move that in part, helps acknowledge Michael Anthony’s own piece of the legacy from those years and the bassist and vocalist takes the lead vocal on many of the featured tracks. During the inaugural Best of All Worlds residency in Las Vegas earlier this year, the Red Rocker sang “Panama” each night,” while Anthony blitzed through powerful takes of “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love,” “Somebody Get Me a Doctor” and “Runnin’ With the Devil.”
So what does he appreciate now about “Runnin’ With the Devil” and songs from Roth’s time in the band in general? “Well, it’s like ‘Rock Candy‘ to me, it just has it,” he tells UCR in a new interview. “You know, anybody can play it. It’s one of those cover songs. If I’m going to do a cover song, I like to do [things like] a Led Zeppelin song, or a Rolling Stones song that’s iconic, ‘Honky Tonk Women,’ or Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock and Roll,’ or ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ [for example]. You kick those songs off anywhere, anytime, anyplace, [with] any amount of people, any place in the world, and everybody is happy.”
“‘Panama’ is my favorite. You know, that’s the one I want to sing,” he laughs. “I don’t let Mikey sing ‘Panama,’ because I like singing it. It’s a really fun song to play and sing. It’s badass. We add those songs to the set because we’re doing a lot of Van Halen stuff. Unlike the other guys that didn’t want to play my era, or can’t play my era. I like playing those songs, and I can play and sing those songs, and I think everyone appreciates them.”
He sees the evolution of his longtime comrade as a singer as well, which is something he loves to showcase. “I like to get Mikey to sing lead, because he sings freaking great. People always just hear his background vocals, [but] he’s becoming a really good lead vocalist. Early on, he wasn’t, because he was always used to singing background,” Hagar explains. When you sing background, you have to sing very sterile. You have to sing the note and you can’t put any inflection on it or nothing. That’s the lead singer’s job. So the harmony guy has to sing very straight and very on key, and just nail the note and then hold the note [with] very little movement.”
“So when he was seeing lead, it was [initially] a little stiff like that,” he continues. “But not anymore. In the last couple years, man, Mike’s come around. I’m listening to him sing ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love’ and in my opinion, it sounds as good as it sounded for [the past] 20 years with him singing [it instead].”
Watch Sammy Hagar Unbox His New Live Album
Sammy’s New Live Album and 2026 Concert Plans
Fans can hear that evolution within Sammy Hagar & The Best of All Worlds Band – The Residency, his new live album (out Oct. 10) that was captured during the Vegas residency. The 18-song set features Hagar, Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani, drummer Kenny Aronoff and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte. “Chickenfoot 3.0,” he jokes during the conversation. But the band collectively is no joke and took those in attendance on a heavily Van Halen-weighted journey through his entire career.
But the singer isn’t done yet. As good as the collection is, he’s already looking forward to expanding the set list further when they reconvene in March for the next installment of the residency, which will also have dates in September. “I just want to tell everybody, we’re going to put more songs in the set,” he confirms. “You know, I’ve got about 500 songs to choose from, so we might pull a little more Chickenfoot and 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. Chickenfoot is one of my favorite bands on the planet that I’ve ever been in.
Listen to Sammy Hagar’s Performance of ‘Best of Both Worlds’ in Las Vegas
The Best Song From Every Van Halen Album
They released a dozen albums over their career. These are the songs for your playlist.
Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
