Juke Box Hero: Foreigner’s Lou Gramm looks forward

Foreigner continues to fill arenas and theaters, more than 40 years after the band’s last hit. From “Cold As Ice” to “Double Vision” to “Hot Blooded” and “Juke Box Hero,” classic rock radio keeps Foreigner’s heyday songs alive, and many fans who weren’t even born in the late 1970s to mid ‘80s rightfully know every word by heart.

Today’s Foreigner has the name, and the logo and the tunes, and the legal right to use them all, along with those original recordings (80 million sold) for marketing purposes. In a way, Foreigner – inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024 – has never gone away.

Except – there’s no other way to say it – Foreigner is a Foreigner tribute band. No one on that stage today played or sang on any of those beloved records.

This is all very clear to Lou Gramm, who did sing lead on everything, and co-wrote a majority of the songs as well. Gramm, who’s been in and out (mostly out) of Foreigner since 1990, is wrapping up a tour with his own band, including a Wednesday-night stop at St. Petersburg’s Palladium Theater. He will re-join the touring Foreigner for select events in the fall and into 2026.

Gramm, 75, still possesses a lion’s roar of a singing voice, as evidenced by his performance of “I Want to Know What Love Is” at the Hall of Fame induction. And he made a surprise appearance with Foreigner last March at the BayCare Sound.

What’s under the bridge, Gramm says in this Catalyst interview, is the bad blood between him and guitarist Mick Jones, Foreigner’s founder, Gramm’s co-writer and the owner of the name and the logo. Jones, who has Parkinson’s Disease, no longer performs with the band.

Life being too short and all, Gramm and Jones recently finished off “Fool if You Love Him,” a song they started to write together back in the day, for inclusion on an upcoming expanded reissue of the band’s multi-platinum Foreigner 4 album.

(Classic rock deep-fan alert: Lou Gramm Band bassist Tony Franklin was a member of the British supergroup The Firm, with Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers and Chris Slade.)

St. Pete Catalyst: Catch me up … this is a makeup gig, rescheduled from December. At that time you’d said you were going to retire from touring. Where are we?

Lou Gramm: I’m planning on winding down my touring experience, (because) I’ve been doing it for a long, long time. But this is also the 50^th anniversary of the band, and since unfortunately Mick is not in the position, health-wise, to help the band celebrate I offered my services as an original member to help the celebration be a little more of an experience.

Does that mean you’re going to do more dates with them?

I am going to do periodic dates with them, yes, possibly into next fall.

How does that gibe with your taking a break from touring?

Well, I had planned on finishing touring, period, at the end of this year that we’re in right now. But since it’s the 50^th anniversary of Foreigner, I’ve decided to extend touring to help celebrate the anniversary. That’s about as special of a reason as there is, really.

Your relationship with Mick has been  … troublesome at times. How it is now?

I haven’t talked to him in a number of years. I know he’s doing OK, but not to the point where he’ll be back performing with the band. I think those days are over for him. But he’s cognizant, and he’s just in the throes of Parkinson’s. I don’t think there’s any coming back from that – you just do the best you can.

The present touring band, of course, isn’t really Foreigner any more. Why is it important to you to be a part of what’s going on now?

Because it’s being booked as the Foreigner Farewell Tour. And no matter if it’s the original Foreigner, or the Foreigner that is now … they’re calling it the 50^th Anniversary Tour, but I believe it’s also more or less a farewell tour. And if it’s that, I want to be part of it, y’know?

I know the guys in the current band, and we all get along very well. We’ve actually done a number of shows together recently.

I know you were never a big fan of Kelly Hansen, who’s leaving the band at the end of the summer tour, after 20 years of singing your parts. Now that he’s gone, does that mean you will re-join them fulltime?

No, I don’t think so. I’ve been touring for about 54 years, and some of those years, when we had big albums, we were gone a year and a half and coming home two or three times to be with family for a few days. For the most part, the reality is I’ve had enough of touring. Especially with the airlines, the way it is now. You don’t know if you’re getting home or you’re staying in a hotel for two or three days till they can get you out at some point. I don’t have the patience for that.

So I’ve kind of got a time in mind where I’m going to ride off into the sunset.

Tell me about the Lou Gramm Band.

My band has my brother Ben on drums, Tony Franklin on bass, Jeff Jacobs, who played with Foreigner in the ‘90s, is on keyboards. Tom Gelman on sax and rhythm guitar, and on lead guitar … we’re not sure yet. We’re got someone lined up. We’re touring to promote a new album coming out early next year. So that’s exciting.

We’re also going to be doing this thing with Foreigner 4, with the current band, and the farewell tour next year. Which I won’t be doing all of it, but I’ll be coming in occasionally for dates and joining them onstage.

How is it decided which of those dates you’ll be doing?

We have a booking agency that sends out feelers, as to what’s available, and would they like Lou Gramm? And then they negotiate the price.

Was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame experience bittersweet for you?

It was very bittersweet. And when we got a chance to say something in the microphone, we were basically talking to Mick. And the guys who aren’t with us any more. But basically Mick, telling him how wonderful but bittersweet this was because he wasn’t there to experience it with us. And we hoped he was watching on television, that we love him, and congratulations.

Those were very heady days, back then. Is it as fun, singing “Feels Like the First Time,” now that you’re in your 70s?

Yes! It was fun back in the day too, but there were ups and downs for this band, and personal problems with the direction of the band. After “Waiting For a Girl Like You” and “I Want to Know What Love is,” it seemed like when we were garnering material for the next album, the first thing we worked on was ballads. And I was trying to tastefully say “Guys, this is all wrong. Remember, we’re a rock band? The ballads will come, but let’s concentrate on the most important part of who we are. And that is, great rock songs.”

But it didn’t happen that way. I was very disillusioned with where the band was going.

After you left, there were no more hits. Did you take some satisfaction in that?

No I didn’t, because that was not the way I envisioned the band’s name, and our reputation. It’s not that I thought Mick didn’t choose a good band to come out with after the original band ended, but it’s very tough to completely remake your band, come out with the same classic sound and great songs.

If it were me, and the records started bombing the minute I left, I’d say “Hey, I was a big part of that machine and what made it hum.”

You know what, I didn’t have to say that. Everybody else in the music business was saying it.

The last time you and I spoke, you had just been through a serious health scare. You said you were lucky to be alive. What’s your perspective on life these days?

I’m thankful for being alive, I’m thankful for my family who helped me get through some very tough years, and I’ve come to realize, after all this, that music is not the most important thing in the world. But I still enjoy being a part of it. And I can see the road going on without me after another year or so.

And I’ll be satisfied with that. I’ve had an incredible career.

Foreigner’s official press photo for 1977, the year the band dominated radio with “Feels Like the First Time” and “Cold as Ice.” Lou Gramm is at far left. Atlantic Records.