At 77, Sammy Hagar has quit touring after the constant travel began to ‘hurt’ and left him questioning how long he could continue performing.
The former Van Halen star covered the US, Canada, and Japan last year on his The Best Of All Worlds Tour but he won’t be venturing out again.
He explained he was wary of ‘p***ing off fans’ but wants to perform one-off concerts and remain in one place.
Sammy is about to launch a residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, running from April 30 to May 17.
‘I don’t think I want to go on tour anymore,’ the Hall of Famer shared. ‘I hate to say that because I don’t want to p** my fans off.
‘I’ll go out and do a one-off show and do things like that, but the residency is going to give me a good extension of my career. That’s what I’m hoping for.’
He continued to The Las Vegas Review-Journal that the appeal of the residency was that he didn’t have to travel, constantly packing and unpacking as well as flying.
‘You know, at my age, it hurts my shoulders to do all this,’ he said. ‘And I have to perform. I’m a performer, at the end of the day.
‘I keep telling my manager: “Don’t take any tours, let me do this residency”. If I like it enough, I’ll do another one. And if that’s successful I’ll do another one, and I can squeeze a few more years out of my career.’
Sammy was lead vocalist in Van Halen from 1985 until 1996, after gaining recognition for his hit solo song I Can’t Drive 55.
He exited the group on Father’s Day 1996, with conflicting details about whether he was fired by Eddie Van Halen or opted to step down.
Sammy told Rolling Stone that he left the group against his wishes, saying: ‘I was told that I quit by Eddie. The phone rings, and I’m laying there with my brand-new baby. He goes, “You know, you always just wanted to be a solo artist, so go ahead and be one. We’re going to get Dave back in the band.”
‘And when he said that, I flew up out of bed like I’d seen a ghost.’
By 2004, they had buried the hatchet and Sammy returned to tour with the band in one of the highest-grossing concert series of the year.
However, Eddie’s drinking throughout the tour reportedly grated on the singer and afterwards, he said he was ‘done with Van Halen’.
Sammy returned to solo music and has been touring and making music ever since — although that seems to be coming to an end now.
In the next few months, he has performances in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and a festival in California before his residency starts.
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