JASON BONHAM Says He Won’t Be Rejoining SAMMY HAGA…

Jason Bonham says that he won’t be rejoining Sammy Hagar‘s band for any of the upcoming “The Best Of All Worlds” shows.

The veteran rock drummer, son of late LED ZEPPELIN legend John Bonham, recently took part in the U.S. leg of “The Best Of All Worlds”, which focused largely on celebrating the music of Hagar‘s former band VAN HALEN. Unfortunately, Bonham had to leave the tour with four shows remaining on the U.S. leg due to a family issue. The drummer was replaced at the last several dates of the trek by Kenny Aronoff, who had previously played with Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony and guitarist Joe Satriani in CHICKENFOOT.

On Friday (November 15),Jason shared an admat on Instagram for the upcoming November/December 2024 shows with his long-running project JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING, prompting one of his followers to ask him: “C’Mon Jason… Can we get some Los Angeles dates? Also will you be rejoining Best of All Worlds band?” Jason replied: “Sammy has decided to carry on with Kenny so Sadly no”.

Earlier this month, Jason addressed his absence from the last few shows of “The Best Of All Worlds” tour, sharing the following statement via social media: “I wanted to take a moment to explain my absence over the past few weeks. As many of you know, my mother has been facing some serious health issues, and it’s been an incredibly challenging time for our family. I’m grateful to share that she’s on the mend and has been discharged from the hospital! She’s now home and recovering, which brings me immense relief.

“It was truly difficult to step away from ‘The Best Of All Worlds’ tour with only four shows left. The energy, the connections, and the experiences were nothing short of incredible, but my priority had to be with my mother during her fight for life.

“I’m excited to announce that JBLZE [JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING] will be back on tour starting November 19th! I can’t wait to see all of you and share this journey together once more.

“Thank you for your understanding and love. See you soon!

“Much love, JB“.

In early September, Hagar told Guy “Favazz” Favazza of the St. Louis, Missouri radio station KSHE 95 about how he hooked up with Kenny: “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.”

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.

Jason Bonham spent nearly a decade touring as JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE before changing the band’s name to JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING. Bonham later explained that the switch was prompted by a request from the LED ZEPPELIN camp, who wanted to use the “Experience” name for a project involving the archive of ZEP live recordings.

JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE was formed in 2009 to pay tribute to Bonham‘s father, legendary LED ZEPPELIN drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980 at the age of 32.

Jason launched JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE two years after taking part in LED ZEPPELIN‘s one-off performance at London’s O2 Arena tribute concert for friend and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. The rare live set, which saw Jason behind the drums in place of his late father, was released in 2012 as “Celebration Day”.

Photo credit: Timothy Norris (courtesy of Valeska Thomas at Live Nation PR)