The III Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Van Halen, in support of their eleventh studio album, Van Halen III. It is the only concert tour to feature vocalist Gary Cherone.

Background

Despite positive critical reviews, the tour underperformed commercially by Van Halen standards, and capped the band's general decline after the early 1990s. It would be their last tour until 2004. In a change from Sammy Hagar-era tours, Gary Cherone – who had grown up a big fan of the band – was willing to include material from both previous Van Halen vocalists. Due to both differing vocal styles and personal animus between himself and David Lee Roth, Hagar had allowed only a few Roth-era classics into the set lists while he sang for Van Halen. Cherone's voice was deeper than Hagar's, making it more suited to Roth songs, yet he possessed enough vocal range to perform Hagar songs as well. Thus, of the 19 full songs performed on the tour, 10 were from the Roth era, and 4 from the Hagar era, the remaining 5 pertaining to III (since Roth rejoined Van Halen in 2007, no Hagar-era material ever graced the setlists again). "It may have looked odd on paper but it actually worked live," Cherone told KNAC. "I made a concerted effort to do the old Van Halen tunes that Sammy was not doing. I wanted to do the deep cuts… we did songs their fans had not heard in years." However, dissatisfaction with the new album and the band's troubles in 1996 (arguments over Hagar's sudden departure, followed by a brief reunion with Roth that also ended abruptly) led to the tour's low popularity. Grunge had changed the face of rock music, and Van Halen's fame – which had endured due to their heritage – took a big hit with Hagar's departure. A 15-date European tour planned for the end of May and June had to be cancelled after four shows only due to Alex Van Halen's injury. The band also cancelled all of their 4 September dates in Brazil and Puerto Rico. The April 20 show in Sydney, Australia was recorded live for an MTV special, Live from the 10 Spot. It aired on May 1, 1998.

Setlist

Encore 1 Encore 2

Tour dates

Box office score data

Personnel

Additional musician