Guitarist, songwriter and founder Mick Jones of Foreigner says “it’s quite possible” that he and singer Lou Gramm as well as other original members of the best-selling classic rock band will get together again for some shows to commemorate its 40th anniversary in 2017. “We’ve actually been talking about it,” he recently told music journalist Mitch Lafon.
Jones is the sole remaining member still in the group whose self-titled ’77 debut album leapt into the Top 20 for a one-year run and sold more than four million copies in the U.S., riding on such hits as “Feels Like the First Time” (#4), “Cold as Ice” (#6) and “Long, Long Way from Home” (#20). The band took its name from the fact that half its members were British and half American.
Core founders Jones and Gramm – who left the band in 1990, rejoined in ’92 and quit again in 2003 – have had a tempestuous relationship. In recent years Gramm has said that the band Jones now leads as Foreigner is “false advertising. He’s put a new band together, and is calling it Foreigner. And that’s all well and good, but unless I’m singing, it’s not,” he insists.
Jones says of Gramm, “We were estranged after a while, but deep down I always had a great love for Lou, as a friend, as a coworker, as a musician, vocally, and as a lyricist too. Lou and I have communicated, and, of course, we got together when were beneficiaries of the Songwriters Hall Of Fame award [in 2013]. And since then, we’ve kept up sort of a loose communication, as I have actually also with [founding guitarist] Ian McDonald, [keyboard player] Al Greenwood, [drummer] Dennis Elliott and Rick Wills [who replaced original bassist Ed Gagliardi in 1979]. So, yeah, as I say, we’re in the early stages, but we’re trying to put something together to commemorate… it’s scary when I say… 40 years.”
Foreigner was the first group since the Beatles to have their first eight singles reach the Billboard Top 20, and has sold some 80 million records worldwide. The group’s biggest hit was the 1985 #1 single “I Want to Know What Love Is.” The current lineup has been holding competitions among school choirs at upcoming tour destinations in which the winners join Foreigner onstage to sing the chorus.
Jones remains guarded yet hopeful about a reunion. “I’m not at a point where I can say it’s definitely gonna happen, but we’re all working on trying to make it happen,” he reports. “So it’s kind of exciting. And hopefully it’ll be feasible and possible to pull it off next year.”
Foreigner 2016 tour dates
Apr 07 Colosseum at Caesar’s Windsor Windsor, Canada
Apr 08 Silver Creek Event Center New Buffalo, MI
Apr 09 Mystic Lake Casino Prior Lake, MI
Apr 10 Scheels Arena Fargo, ND
Apr 14 Great Lakes Ballroom @ Prairie Band Mayetta, KS
Apr 15 Great Lakes Ballroom @ Prairie Band Mayetta, KS
Apr 16 Kansas Star Arena Mulvane, KS
Apr 17 Expo Center of Taylor County Abilene, TX
Apr 21 ACL Live at Moody Theater Austin, TX
Apr 22 Paragon Casino Resort Marksville, LA
Apr 23 Hard Rock Live Biloxi, MS
Apr 28 Proctors Theatre Schenectady, NY
Apr 29 Casino Rama Rama, Canada
Apr 30 Casino Rama Rama, Canada
May 01 Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park Northfield, OH
May 05 Sands Bethlehem Event Center Bethlehem, PA
May 06 Calvin Theatre Northampton, MA
May 07 Borgata Casino Event Center Atlantic City, NJ
May 08 American Music Theatre Lancaster, PA
May 13 The Seneca Niagara Events Center Niagara Falls, NY
May 14 Mountaineer Casino Newell, WV
May 26 Choctaw Grand Theater Durant, OK
May 27 Downstream Casino Quapaw, OK
May 28 Horseshoe Casino’s Bluesville Robinsonville, MS
May 29 HerrinFesta Italiana Herrin, IL
Jun 07 London Palladium London, United Kingdom
Jun 10 Sweden Rock Festival Solvesborg, Sweden
Jun 12 Sports hall “Arena Armeec Sofia” Sofia, Bulgaria
Jun 14 Caesarea Amphitheater Tel Aviv, Israel
Jun 15 Caesarea Amphitheater Tel Aviv, Israel
Jun 17 Graspop Metal Meeting 2016 Dessel, Belgium
Jun 18 Hellfest Clisson, France
Jun 20 Théâtre des Folies Bergère Paris, France
Jul 01 Peppermill Concert Hall Wendover, NV
Jul 02 Silver Legacy Casino Reno, NV
Jul 14 Harrah’s Casino & Hotel Council Bluffs, IA
Jul 15 Delaware County Fair Manchester, IA
Jul 16 Franklin County Fair Hampton, IA
Jul 24 Fraze Pavilion Kettering, OH
Jul 26 Turning Stone Resort & Casino Event Center Verona, NY
Jul 27 Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom Hampton Beach, NH
Jul 29 The Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino Mashantucket, CT
Aug 04 Wacken Open Air Wacken, Germany
Aug 05 Schwetzingen Schwetzingen, Germany
Aug 06 Lieder AM See Nuremberg, Germany
Aug 08 Open Air am Tanzbrunnen Cologne, Germany
Aug 09 Zitadelle Mainz Mainz, Germany
Aug 10 Magic Night Zonfingen Zofingen, Switzerland
Aug 12 Lakeside Festival Erlach, Switzerland
Aug 27 Benton Franklin County Fair Kennewick, WA
Sep 23 The Great Frederick Fair Frederick, MD
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