If you've been keeping track of goings-on in the Van Halen camp, you didn't need a crystal ball to predict that the band would tour North America this summer with Sammy Hagar on vocals.

Following weeks of thinly veiled rumors (see [article id="1485917"]"Van Halen To Tour This Summer -- So Who's Singing?"[/article]), the official announcement of the group's first tour in eight years came Friday (March 26), the same morning Hagar appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" to talk about the reunion. The tour will launch June 11 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and 28 shows are scheduled through August 19 in Los Angeles. Additional dates are expected.

On Stern's show, Hagar added that he has been working with the band for a couple of months on new material that will be included on a compilation disc due this summer. The track he seemed most excited about is appropriately titled "It's About Time."

In 1996, the band released its first official greatest-hits package, The Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1, which featured two new songs with original singer David Lee Roth, "Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "Me Wise Magic." It seemed like the recordings set the stage for a full reunion of the original lineup, but the band soon hired ex-Extreme singer Gary Cherone, who sang on and toured for 1998's Van Halen III.

Van Halen's summer tour dates, according to the band's official Web site: