On August 2, Sammy Hagar covered a Beatles song during his stop in suburban Detroit on The Best of All Worlds Tour. He had a special reason for choosing that song — to pay tribute to Aerosmith and their recently announced retirement. The Red Rocker said during the show:
“We had some crazy news today. We got here this afternoon sometime and we’re all sitting around backstage and a friend of ours that works for Aerosmith came and said, ‘Yeah, Aerosmith called retirement today. They quit. They stopped. God bless ’em; it’s a horrible thing. What a great f*ckin’ loss.”
He then shared the story of how Steven Tyler and he became friends:
“We didn’t know who they were and they sold out Cobo Hall and I’m going, ‘Who the f*ck are these guys?’ So we did our show. We did an encore and we played ‘Helter Skelter’ for our encore and Aerosmith comes on and they open with ‘Helter Skelter.’ Steven [Tyler] and I have been friends ever since.”
Hagar Thinks Aerosmith Needed The Retirement
However, Hagar acknowledged that it was about time Aerosmith retired and shared his respect for Tyler’s courage to say ‘I can’t sing anymore.’ He said during the same show:
“Honest to God, my hat goes off to one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll singers of all time, Steven Tyler, for saying, ‘I can’t sing anymore. I quit.’ F*ck yes! Listen, that’s honorable. That’s f*ckin’ honorable. The day I can’t sing anymore I will f*ckin’ do the same thing, and that’s what a lot of other motherf*ckers should have done a long time ago. So let’s do one for them. Let’s do one for Aerosmith.”
The Retirement Decision
Aerosmith had already pushed back their ‘Peace Out’ farewell tour last September after just three shows because Tyler had a vocal injury. The tour was supposed to pick back up on September 20 in Pittsburgh until February. The band later canceled the tour and announced their retirement.
On August 2, the band posted on social media that Tyler’s voice hadn’t fully recovered, and they had to make the ‘heartbreaking’ choice to stop performing. The full statement read:
“It was 1970 when a spark of inspiration became Aerosmith. Thanks to you, our Blue Army, that spark caught flame and has been burning for over five decades. Some of you have been with us since the beginning and all of you are the reason we made rock ‘n’ roll history. It has been the honor of our lives to have our music become part of yours. In every club, on every massive tour and at moments grand and private you have given us a place in the soundtrack of your lives.”
The band addressed the state of Tyler’s health:
“We’ve always wanted to blow your mind when performing. As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other. He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear, that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible. We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision – as a band of brothers – to retire from the touring stage.”
The statement ended with a big thank you to the crew and the fans:
“We are grateful beyond words for everyone who was pumped to get on the road with us one last time. Grateful to our expert crew, our incredible team and the thousands of talented people who’ve made our historic runs possible. A final thank you to you – the best fans on planet Earth. Play our music loud, now and always. Dream On. You’ve made our dreams come true.”
You can see the performance down below.