Sammy Hagar has revised the itinerary for the upcoming U.K. leg of his “The Best Of All Worlds” tour, opting to scale down to smaller venues after ticket sales fell short of initial expectations for larger arenas. The updated schedule now prioritizes packed rooms and features a multi-night residency in London, where the band will be among the first acts to headline the British Airways ARC.
Speaking on the U.K.-based “TotalRock” program “The Neil Jones Rock Show“, the veteran frontman offered a straightforward explanation for the venue changes.
“Well, [it’s going to be] the best of all worlds. That’s what the whole thing is about,” Hagar explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I love the fact that we get to do three shows in London. I love the fact that we’ve moved it to a smaller venue so it’ll be full instead of playing some big giant place that holds 12 [thousand] but there’s only 6,000 people there. The ambiance of that is so much different, and that’s why we changed it. Guilty as charged — we didn’t sell it out.”
He noted that the change allows the band to replicate the residency format they recently enjoyed in Las Vegas, which gives them the flexibility to rotate through his massive back catalog.
“I thought, ‘Oh, we’ll sell that out, no problem.’ I’m an honest guy, so I’m telling you that the idea of doing more of a residency like what we’ve been doing in Las Vegas where I have 400-plus songs I’ve written in my life, and I’m not gonna go out and play 14 songs, have an opening act,” he continued. “No, you only get to play an hour and a half, and the show’s over, I’m going, ‘Uh, this is not sitting right with me.’ So, the idea of playing three nights, especially in London, where we can do five or six different songs each night, and I just think that that’s… For someone that can afford to buy three tickets, which I know it’s tough, but they’re gonna get a lot. They’re gonna go, ‘Wow, I can’t believe they played that,’ ’cause we play deep tracks. We play a little Montrose, a little ‘Rock Candy‘ or ‘Space Station #5‘ on a different night and whatever, play some of my solo stuff, ‘Heavy Metal‘, ‘[There’s Only] One Way to Rock‘, ‘Mas Tequila‘, of course, that has to be played.”
The upcoming July shows will mark Hagar‘s first proper U.K. tour since 1996. The push to return across the Atlantic was directly inspired by his guest appearance at an Ozzy Osbourne concert in Birmingham last summer.
“Well, the Ozzy [Osbourne] concert [at Villa Park] was what really provoked me to say, ‘I have to get back over there.’ When I walked out on stage, I was so nervous because I hadn’t been there in so long. I was saying, ‘Do these people remember me? Do they even know who I am?’ Sharon [Osbourne] and Ozzy personally asked me to be on that show, and I wouldn’t have turned it down for anything. But honestly, I was a little nervous about it. And when I went out there, I really felt a little bit under… It wasn’t like, ‘Sammy Hagar, yeah!’ It was, like, ‘Okay, let’s see what this guy’s still got.’ So, I told my manager the next day, I said, ‘I wanna go play the U.K. I have to,’ because there’s so many fans over there that probably grew up on my music, that are probably kind of too old to be going to concerts, and the younger people that really don’t know who I am. I can’t live with that. The music that I made with Van Halen, with Montrose, with Chickenfoot, my solo stuff, I think it’s too valuable to those that grew up on it to not go support it. So here I come,” he said.
The “The Best Of All Worlds” touring lineup features former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, and veteran drummer Kenny Aronoff. Hagar emphasized that the band is fully equipped to handle deep cuts from the Van Halen catalog.
“The idea of having Joe Satriani in the band is because he understands what Eddie Van Halen does. I don’t know if you saw an interview he did recently — I saw the interview, I’m going, ‘He fricking gets it. He gets it.’ And so we dive deep into Van Halen. And songs like ‘5150‘, the ‘Twister‘ soundtrack [song], ‘Humans Being‘, deep tracks like that, we go into that. Not just the hits, not just ‘Right Now‘, not just ‘Why Can’t This Be Love‘ and ‘Top Of The World‘ and those things. But we play those songs too. So the setlist is gonna be deep, and it’s gonna have a Chickenfoot song. Some nights we’ll play ‘Oh Yeah‘, some nights we’ll play ‘Sexy Little Thing‘, some nights we’ll play ‘Big Foot‘. So I really think that it’s gonna be hard to try to squeeze it all into one night anywhere, but we’re gonna play a pretty long set, like what we did in Vegas,” he concluded.
Sammy Hagar’s “The Best Of All Worlds” 2026 U.K. Tour Dates:
- July 6 – Wolverhampton, UK @ University Of Wolverhampton At The Civic Hall
- July 7 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo Manchester
- July 9 – London, UK @ British Airways ARC
- July 11 – London, UK @ British Airways ARC
- July 12 – London, UK @ British Airways ARC
Following initial announcement of downsizing, Promoters AEG explained the reasoning behind the change in a statement, linking the decision to Hagar’s recent live production experience in Las Vegas. “Inspired by the breakthrough success of his recent Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live, where advanced sound and immersive technology redefined the live experience, the July 2026 dates have been reconfigured to prioritise similar venues across the UK.”
Hagar himself also reflected on the shift and the intention behind the updated approach, saying: “After waiting 30 years to come back, we really wanted to get this right. Several factors pushed us toward revising this tour but after wrapping our Las Vegas residency last month at Dolby Live where the sound, the technology, and the more intimate size really lets us connect with the audiences, it was clear that we wanted to deliver an experience like that for our fans in England.”
“When I heard our promoter was opening a similar tech-forward venue in London that really sealed the deal for me. Three nights, a fresh set every night, and I get to stay in London, one of my favourite cities in the world, for a week. That’s the Best of All Worlds!”
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, who were initially set to support Hagar on the original UK arena dates, will embark on their own headline tour.
