About Foreigner

By the mid-1970s, Mick Jones had more than a decade of experience as a journeyman guitarist in the music business, having logged time in France working with pop idol Johnny Hallyday, and in his native England with progressive groups Wonderwheel and Spooky Tooth. With fellow prog rocker Ian McDonald (of King Crimson), Jones began to assemble a band, for vocals tapping the singer in a little-known New York outfit called Black Sheep. That singer was Lou Gramm, and with a couple of additional recruits, the new group was christened Foreigner.

The combination clicked immediately. The band’s 1977 eponymous debut for Atlantic Records went quadruple platinum, powered by such fist-pumping anthems as “Feels Like The First Time.” Foreigner’s mix of hard rock vocals and guitars along with adventurous keyboard work was in perfect sync with what was on FM radio at the time, and their next four albums also soared into the Top 10. One of the things that kept the band on top into the 1980s—besides the catchy songwriting (largely Gramm/Jones)—was their willingness to experiment with production approaches like R&B sax work (that’s Motown great Junior Walker on “Urgent”), balladry, or a massed choir (“I Want To Know What Love Is”).

In the late 1980s, the band’s core members began to look beyond Foreigner for musical fulfillment: Gramm embarked on a solo career (which included a couple of Top 10 hits), and Jones moved further into production, helming hit albums by such artists as Van Halen and Billy Joel. But in 1992 the success of a hits compilation prompted a rapprochement of the pair, and Foreigner regrouped in earnest for new recordings and live gigs. The band’s revival was threatened in 1997 when Gramm was diagnosed with a brain tumor, but aggressive treatment and six months’ recuperation brought about full recovery. Today, Foreigner continues to play their distinctive brand of hot-blooded, high-energy rock ’n’ roll on the stage and in the studio where they recently completed work on their 3-disc set, Can’t Slow Down, which includes new material, remixes of their classic tracks, and a DVD featuring live performances of their greatest hits.