It’s been almost a decade since Sugar Ray has embarked on a full-blown tour – and lead vocalist and guitarist Mark McGrath can’t wait to hit the road.

As we chatted in his publicist’s office in Studio City earlier this month, the singer’s face lit up while explaining how the inaugural Summerland Tour, kicking off next week, culled together McGrath’s enduring band as well as Everclear, Gin Blossoms, Marcy Playground and another O.C. favorite, Lit. He started talking really fast and his hands fidgeted at his sides.

This guy is really excited.

Turns out that after much talk about staging a ’90s-based rock tour, McGrath and Everclear’s Art Alexakis were finally in a position to pull off a 33-date trek, arriving June 29 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

“The time never seemed right to do this tour,” the former Extra host says. After Alexakis moved to L.A. from his home in Portland, he contacted McGrath and the two concluded that now is the perfect time for a nostalgic tour – “but with a foot in the present, looking towards the future,” he adds.

“This tour is not reinventing the wheel. There’s not been a defining ’90s tour, and we said, ‘Let’s do it.’ It’s not a quick cash grab, let’s-pay-the-mortgage (thing). Some of these bands are still very vital and putting out new records, and hopefully that will be something we (Sugar Ray) do, too, in the future.

“The thinking was: Let’s play the big venues again. Let’s celebrate these great, iconic songs of the ’90s that people still love. You’re going to hear giant hit songs throughout the whole tour. And that was one prerequisite: you can’t come on Summerland unless you have a giant hit song – or a few giant songs.”

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