SAMMY HAGAR Says JASON BONHAM's 'Medical Emergency With His Mother' Forced Him To Leave 'The Best Of All Worlds' Tour

In a new interview with Guy "Favazz" Favazza of the St. Louis, Missouri radio station KSHE 95, Sammy Hagar spoke about the fact that Jason Bonham was forced to leave Sammy's "The Best Of All Worlds" tour due to an unspecified family issue. The drummer was replaced at the last four shows of the tour by Kenny Aronoff, who had previously played with Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony and guitarist Joe Satriani in CHICKENFOOT.

Asked how he hooked up with Kenny, Hagar said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I've known Kenny for a long time. Kenny has been my backup drummer for about — not just me. You talk to Billy Gibbons, you talk to anybody, they're gonna tell you that he's their backup drummer because he's the only guy that you can hand a setlist of 24 songs and in 24 hours he can play 'em."

Sammy clarified that he didn't know ahead of time that Kenny was going to be stepping in for Jason. "Jason's [family emergency] was a sudden thing," he explained. "His mother had a stroke and went into a coma and it's serious. So [his] whole family went over there [to the United Kingdom]. And he held out for two or three days, and he says, 'I gotta go. I gotta go.' I said, 'You go. Go.' So we told Kenny. He had about 24-hour notice. And he came in the first night. He got there at six in the morning. We played that night in Cincinnati. And he did a 90-percent perfect show. I swear to you, I make more mistakes every night than he did. So that's big hats off to this guy."

According to Hagar, there is a chance that Aronoff will play more shows with with Hagar, Anthony and Satriani in the coming weeks.

"The [U.S.] tour is over now, but we're going to Japan," Sammy said. "And if Jason is still with his mom, he's gotta be there till she either comes through or… whatever. I shouldn't be talking about his personal business, but he's got a medical emergency with his mother. You don't ignore that. We got Kenny, thank God. And if we have to go to Japan with him, we'll go to Japan. I just love playing with him 'cause he's so enthusiastic. He's the most enthusiastic guy. 'Oh man, we're gonna kill it. Oh, don't worry about me.' He's, like, foaming at the mouth. He's crazy."

Aronoff replaced Chad Smith in CHICKENFOOT's touring lineup from 2011 to 2012. Smith was forced to step away from CHICKENFOOT's touring activities due to his commitments with the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS.

CHICKENFOOT recorded two albums between 2009 and 2011 and toured across America but never performed any VAN HALEN material. More recently, Hagar and Anthony have played some of the VAN HALEN catalog with guitarist Vic Johnson and Bonham in SAMMY HAGAR AND THE CIRCLE.

Back in 2012, Aronoff told Ultimate Classic Rock about his stint with CHICKENFOOT: "The cool thing about this band is that the level of musicianship is so high. Everybody’s been in so many bands that we're starting at such a high experienced level… There's a lot of stuff that you don't have to discuss. It's like if you took a bunch of NFL players and put them together, they're already starting with a lot of experience, so it's just a matter of making it gel… it gels so well, personality-wise and musically. And I think maybe that's what Chad was thinking when he picked me. He picked me personally — he kept telling them, 'This is the guy you should get to replace me while I'm out with the CHILI PEPPERS.' And it's worked — he's right. It was just the right combination of people."

For "The Best Of All Worlds" tour, Hagar and his bandmates in THE CIRCLE — Anthony and Bonham — were joined by Satriani and multi-instrumentalist Rai Thistlethwayte.

"The Best Of All Worlds" setlist consisted largely of VAN HALEN material, including the opening track "Good Enough", from 1986's "5150" album, as well as two songs from 1991's "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", "Poundcake" and "Runaround", and a pair of David Lee Roth-era VAN HALEN classics, "Panama" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", as well as a section of "Jump". The rest of the set included Satriani's "Satch Boogie", the rousing rock-swing guitar instrumental that put him on the map in 1987 and helped propel his second album, "Surfing With The Alien", to platinum status. and several of Hagar's solo classics, such as "There's Only One Way To Rock", "Eagles Fly", "Heavy Metal" and "I Can't Drive 55".

Produced by Live Nation, the 28-date "The Best Of All Worlds" tour concluded on August 31 in St. Louis, Missouri.