Foreigner

Foreigner is universally hailed as one of the most popular rock acts in the world, racking up scores of smash hits, multi-platinum albums, and sold out concert tours.

From "Cold As Ice" to "Hot Blooded," "Urgent" to "Jukebox Hero," "Waiting For A Girl Like You" to the chart topper "I Want To Know What Love is", Foreigner's thrilling mix of blustery blues and impeccably crafted pop continues to captivate generation after generation of music fans.

Today, over 70 million albums later, Foreigner is an ensemble of talented musicians each adding their individual credentials to the mix to make the band stronger and more powerful than ever.

The band:

Mick Jones
The architect behind Foreigner's extraordinary catalogue of smash hits, Mick has crafted some of rock music's most enduring songs and produced 10 multi-platinum albums. Grammy and Golden Globe nominated songwriter, performer and producer and winner of the prestigious Ivor Novello songwriter award in Britain in 1998, Mick first began playing guitar in his early teens. "I knew early on that I could never hold a regular job. I had to play guitar. I had to somehow make my way into music" he says.

After starting his own Blues/Rock band and opening for the Rolling Stones in pubs across South London, Mick's first big break came in 1964 when he moved to Paris and was hired to play with French singer Sylvie Vartan and later hired to work as musical director for French rock icon, Johnny Hallyday. Jones returned to his native England in the early 70's to reform the band Spooky Tooth with Gary Wright. After Spooky Tooth broke up, Mick moved to New York City and, in 1976, formed Foreigner with fellow Brits Ian Mc Donald and Dennis Elliott, and Americans Lou Gramm, Alan Greenwood and Ed Gagliardi.

"My initial musical vision for Foreigner was to combine Blues and R&B with British Rock and make it sound soulful and authentic. I'd grown up in England and had the English influence but I was also inspired by many elements of American music, from Mississippi Blues to Country and Western. Foreigner was the vehicle to get that musical blend across."

"I'm grateful to be surrounded by the talented musicians that make up Foreigner today. Now each night on stage brings Foreigner's music alive with energy and excitement. Thanks guys for making it all new again!"

Kelly Hansen
Answering an ad seeking a lead vocalist, Kelly joined Hurricane in 1985. Signed to Enigma/Capitol during the late eighties and early nineties, Hurricane recorded three critically acclaimed albums, racked up five Top 20 MTV videos and landed the top 35 single, "I'm On To You".

After Hurricane disbanded, Hansen worked in a group with Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille, toured as a vocal group arranger and backing vocalist with Liane Foly for her album, Caméléon and composed music for television.

As the new lead singer in Foreigner, Hansen explains, "the best part about being in this band is getting the chance to do something I feel I was meant to do. I feel extremely fortunate to be given this wonderful opportunity to play with such a substantial group of people, and it just keeps getting better. I think there are times in life where the right combination of people come together at the right time, through luck, timing or for some other unknown reason to create something magical. What happens onstage with this group of guys is something that is rare and palpable. It's like the old saying, "if I have to describe it, you wouldn't understand."

Tom Gimbel
A multi-instrumentalist, Tom plays rhythm guitar, keyboards, sax, and flute. It was the music of Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago that truly fired his interest in the sound of horns. Equally influenced by progressive rock bands, it was the groundbreaking work of big band trumpet player, Maynard Ferguson, that changed his life. "When I started playing sax I tried to sound like him, learning to nail the high notes," reveals Gimbel. "This was good training to play the solo on "Urgent" years later!"

After graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Tom began touring with Aerosmith playing keyboards and saxophone. With them, he did two world tours, numerous TV and film appearances including Woodstock 2, Wayne's World 2, Saturday Night Live and MTV unplugged.

"Foreigner just seems to keep getting better. These songs still resonate beautifully. Mick is really wailin' and Kelly is a phenomenal singer. Brian and Jeff Pilson are like a freight train. The sound is tough."

Jeff Pilson
Though best known for his work as an original member of seminal 80's rock band Dokken, Jeff has played bass and sung with a host of groups including rockers Dio and MSG, and his own bands War and Peace and Lynch/Pilson. Jeff also had a principal role, along with band mate Jason Bonham, in the 2001 Warner Brothers film Rock Star, alongside actors Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston.

Jeff sums up his experience with Foreigner: "It all feels so natural because I was a big fan of the band, and the music and style are a part of my blood. Foreigner, to me, was always the perfect combination of strong songs, great singing, intense heavy rock musicianship, with a touch of R&B added in. Plus the band has great chemistry. There's just no feeling in the world like going out and kicking butt every night. I feel like I've finally found my home!"

Michael Bluestein
Michael Bluestein began piano studies at age 9. Growing up he was exposed to a wide range of artists including Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Boston, Mozart, The Who, and jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. After studying at Berklee College of Music, Michael made his way out to Los Angeles where he has played with Boz Scaggs, Stevie Nicks, Enrique Iglesias, Anastacia, and with the house band on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Michael describes the experience of playing all the classic Foreigner songs as "truly surreal. I grew up hearing and loving all these songs, and never dreamed that I would have the chance to be in the band playing them! The energy on stage is amazing and I love looking out and seeing everyone singing along with every word".

While quite a few arena rock acts of the '70s found the transformation into the '80s quite difficult, several acts continued to flourish and enjoyed some of their biggest commercial success: Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, and especially Foreigner. Foreigner's leader from the beginning has been British guitarist Mick Jones, who first broke into the music biz as a "hired gun" of sorts, appearing on recordings by George Harrison and Peter Frampton, and as part of a later-day version of hard rockers Spooky Tooth. By the mid-'70s, Jones had relocated to New York City, where he was a brief member of the Leslie West Band and served as an A&R man for a record company. But it wasn't long before Jones felt the urge to be part of another rock outfit as he sought to put together a band that would be able to combine elements of rock, progressive, R&B, and pop into a single, cohesive style.

Jones soon assembled a group consisting of ex-King Crimson sax player Ian McDonald and ex-Ian Hunter drummer Dennis Elliot (both of whom were British), along with New York musicians Al Greenwood (keyboards), Ed Gagliardi (bass), and Lou Gramm (vocals), the latter of which was previously a member of an obscure '70s outfit called Black Sheep. Jones found immediate songwriting chemistry with Gramm (one of the first songs they wrote together was the eventual hit "Cold As Ice"), resulting in the newly formed band taking the name Foreigner and signing a recording contract with Atlantic Records. Foreigner's self-titled debut was issued in 1977 and became an immediate hit on the strength of the hit singles "Feels Like the First Time," "Long, Long Way From Home," and the aforementioned "Cold As Ice," as the album would eventually go platinum five times over.

Foreigner avoided the dreaded sophomore slump with an even stronger follow-up release, 1978's Double Vision, which spawned such further hit singles as "Hot Blooded" and its title track, and the album stayed in the Top Ten for a solid six months. As a result, the album's success established the sextet as an arena headliner and would go on to become Foreigner's best-selling album of their career (selling seven million copies in the U.S. alone by 2001). The group's third release overall, Head Games, followed in 1979 and marked the first of many subsequent lineup changes for the group, as Gagliardi was replaced by ex-Peter Frampton and Roxy Music bassist Rick Wills. While the album was another big seller and turned out to be their most straight-ahead musically, both Gramm and Jones felt that the album failed to break any new ground, something that they sought to correct on their next album.

The band's lineup was cut back to just a quartet consisting of Jones, Gramm, Elliot, and Wills as super-producer Mutt Lange (who was fresh off the success of AC/DC's classic Back in Black) was enlisted to oversee the proceedings. The ploy worked and the resulting 1981 release, 4, was another massive seller, spawning such further hit singles as "Urgent" (which featured a blazing sax solo from Motown vet Junior Walker), "Jukebox Hero," and the power ballad "Waiting for a Girl Like You." Although the latter tune was a massive hit, it confused some of the band's following as to whether Foreigner was a hard rock band or balladeers. In 1982, a stopgap best-of set, Records, was released and featured ten of band's biggest hit singles, remaining a steady seller to this day (becoming Foreigner's second album to achieve sales of seven million by 2001).

It took Foreigner three years to complete a follow-up to 4 with Agent Provocateur being issued in 1984. The band made the transition to the MTV video age without a hitch with the over-the-top, gospel-inflected ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is" (which featured the New Jersey Mass Choir) becoming one of the biggest MTV and radio hits that year. But despite the single's success, there was a noticeable dip in sales for Agent Provocateur when compared to their earlier albums due to the fact that the album wasn't as focused and strong overall as their previous recordings. After a mammoth nine-month tour wrapped up a year later, both Jones and Gramm focused on non-Foreigner projects during 1986. Jones produced Bad Company's Fame and Fortune and co-produced Van Halen's hit debut recording with Sammy Hagar, 5150, while Gramm worked on a solo debut. The release of both Gramm's solo album, Ready or Not, as well as Foreigner's sixth studio album overall, Inside Information, came in 1987. While both were successful and spawned Top Ten hits (Gramm with "Midnight Blue" and Foreigner with "Say You Will"), tension between Gramm and Jones came to a head regarding the singer's desire to focus on his solo career, which led to Gramm's split from Foreigner in 1989.

The same year as his split from Foreigner, Gramm issued his second solo album, Long Hard Look, which proved to be not as successful as its predecessor, while Jones produced Billy Joel's Storm Front and issued a star-studded self-titled solo debut. Jones, Elliot, and Wills tried to keep Foreigner afloat with a new singer, Johnny Edwards, issuing a largely ignored album in 1991, Unusual Heat, while Gramm faired no better with a new outfit, Shadow King, issuing a forgotten self-titled debut the same year. Seeing the error in their split, both Jones and Gramm listened to the advice of Atlantic Records and reunited for the recording of three all-new tracks to be included on a more extensive "hits" collection. Issued in 1992, the 17-track The Very Best...And Beyond was Foreigner's most commercially successful release in several years along with the band's first live release, Classic Hits Live, issued a year later.

The Gramm/Jones reunion soon turned permanent and new members Bruce Turgon (bass) and Jeff Jacobs (keyboards) were welcomed on board. The latest version of Foreigner issued an all-new studio recording in 1995, Mr. Moonlight, which failed to return the group to the top of the charts. Foreigner remained a popular concert attraction, but the band's future was thrust into doubt in 1997 when Gramm was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Luckily, the tumor was non-cancerous and was removed shortly thereafter. Gramm's recovery was slow and painful, but by 1999, the singer was well enough for Foreigner to team up with Journey for a summer tour. The early 21st century saw the release of several archival collections courtesy of the Rhino label: a pair of additional collections, Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology and Complete Greatest Hits, as well as reissues of the group's self-titled debut and 4, both of which included extra bonus tracks. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide