Sammy Hagar just announced dates for The Best of All Worlds Tour, where he’ll joined by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Joe Satriani to perform songs from the Van Halen catalog.
Satriani will be taking over the guitar parts made famous by the late Eddie Van Halen — and he realizes that’s no easy task.
“You can’t fill them. You can put them on, but you can’t fill them,” he tells Forbes about stepping into Eddie’s shoes. “But you’ve got to enjoy it. You have to respect the genius of the architecture of his guitar parts and how he built the songs and you’ve got to get in there and just enjoy what he was building cause he would weave in and out of his original composition every time he played it live and bring new amazing little nuggets to each little section.”
And while Satriani is certainly an accomplished guitar player in his own right, he notes, “It is really frightening because I don’t play like him and I’ve had to learn to anticipate all his quirky accents where he likes to push things and turn things upside down.”
“Just when you think they’re going to go left, they go right or up or down. So, it’s exciting,” he adds.
The Best of All Worlds Tour, featuring special guest Loverboy, kicks off July 13 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Tickets go on sale Friday, November 17, at 10 a.m. A complete list of dates can be found at redrocker.com.
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