Sammy Hagar has returned to the Van Halen fold after an eight-year break, and the veteran rock band will launch a U.S. tour in June, it said Friday.
The group’s Web site features the greeting “Eddie, Alex, Mike & Sammy Hit the Road” as well as a new photo of the foursome. The trek will play North American arenas beginning June 11 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C., and wrapping Aug. 19 at the Staples Center in its Los Angeles hometown.
Van Halen -- guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony -- has not toured since 1998 and is currently without a record deal after splitting from longtime home Warner Bros. in 2002.
The group is thought to be eyeing the release of a second greatest hits album with a handful of new Hagar-voiced songs but no information has yet been confirmed. Hagar left Van Halen on Fathers Day in 1996, claiming he was fired; his former bandmates countered that he quit.