The III Tour was a 1998 concert tour by hard rock bandVan Halen. It was the band's first and only tour with vocalist Gary Cherone, in support of the only album he recorded with the band, 1998's Van Halen III.
History
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, and last moment of stability for some time: the 2004 tour was surrounded by controversy, and was the band's last until 2007. It was Van Halen's last tour outside of North America until the 2012–2013 A Different Kind of Truth Tour, with dates in Europe, Australia/New Zealand and Japan. The Australian and New Zealand concerts were the first in their history and, despite poor sales in some regions, these concerts were very popular. The band brought all the equipment from their US arena tour with them, whereas many bands scale down for Oceanic tours. 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. "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 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. Alex Van Halen was reported as looking sick throughout the first leg of the tour, due to an arm injury. This led to most of the European dates being cancelled, as well as other later dates. The Puerto Rico date was cancelled first due to Hurricane Georges, then due to Gary Cherone having tonsillitis – luckily this was the last date of the tour. This was the first tour that did not feature an instrumental Michael Anthonybass solo, although he sang lead vocals on "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" nightly. On occasion, Eddie shared lead vocals for a song. 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.
