Today, October 13th, we're celebrating Sammy Hagar's birthday. The Red Rocker turned 73 and has spent his life playing in some of the most legendary rock bands around, and being the king of tequila.
Today we're celebrating the icon with a look back at his Van Halen days, since we're still mourning the loss of guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen. Today's "Setlist History Birthday Edition" takes us back to 1995 when the Hagar-fronted VH were on the Balance Tour in support of VH's 10th studio album. It would be the last tour for Hagar with VH until 2004.
25 years ago today they stopped at the Cal Expo Amphitheatre in Sacramento, California to play an epic 21-song set. While songs off Balance domineered the setlist, FIVE other VH albums were worked into the set including For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1984, 5150 and OU812.
The set fired off with "Right Now" and included three solo Hagar songs in the last half of the set: "I Can't Drive 55," "Eagles Fly" and "There's Only One Way to Rock." The setlist of course included the trio of epicness that makes a VH show unforgettable: bass solo, drum solo, and EVH guitar solo. They wrapped up the main set with "Dreams" before coming back to encore two of VH's biggest hits - "Poundcake" and "Panama."
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Check out the setlist here:
Upon the passing of Eddie, Hagar shared that him and his ex-bandmate had reconciled in private before his death. On October 8th, Hagar and Michael Anthony paid tribute to their friend with a performance of "Right Now."
“For Mike and I, it was just like getting hit by a freaking Mack truck. It kind of took the wind out of the sails. I just wanna say that I’m kind of devastated. A Van Halen song never felt so hard to sing and play in my life.What I felt playing especially a song like ‘Right Now’ that is so timeless, that I felt, ‘Wow, thank God for this.’ We’ll never play it with Eddie again, but thank God for this.” - Hagar
Watch the performance here:
