Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony paid tribute to AEROSMITH after the legendary rockers announced they were retiring from the road.

During the encore portion of Hagar‘s concert on Friday (August 2) at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan, which is part of his “The Best Of All Worlds” tour, Sammy addressed the crowd, saying: “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. It’s a horrible thing. What a great f*cking loss,” he continued.

“I gotta tell ya, one of the times in 197[4], MONTROSE was playing Cobo [Arena in Detroit], and we were opening for AEROSMITH, and we didn’t know who they were, and they sold out Cobo [Arena], and I’m going, ‘Who the f*ck are these guys?’ So, we did our show, we did an encore, and we played [THE BEATLES‘] ‘Helter Skelter’ for our encore. And AEROSMITH comes on and they opened with ‘Helter Skelter’. Steven [Tyler, AEROSMITH singer] and I have been friends ever since.

“Long story short, we love those guys,” Hagar added. “We all grew up with those guys. You grew up with them, we grew up with them, Mike and I. They’ve been our competitors to VAN HALEN for f*cking 10 years. You know what I’m saying? ‘F*ck those guys.’ No, no, no, but we really do like them. It’s just that we’re mad at them.

“But anyway, what a shame. It’s a sad thing, but honest to God, my hat goes off to one of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time, Mister Steven Tyler, for saying, ‘I can’t sing anymore. I quit.’

“F*ck yes. Listen, that’s honorable,” Hagar said. “That’s f*cking honorable. The day I can’t sing anymore, I will f*cking do the same thing. And that’s what a lot of other motherf*ckers should have did a long time ago.

“So let’s do one. Let’s do one for them. Let’s do one for AEROSMITH.”