Foreigner Tickets

About Foreigner

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.

During the Los Angeles riots in the spring of 1992, while one war was breaking out in the streets of America's largest city, another war was ending. Inside the confines of the Sunset Marquis hotel in downtown LA, singer Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones were sequestered due to a city curfew. They decided to use their time together putting a two year feud to rest and resurrecting their platinum act, Foreigner.
"I flew to Los Angeles, during the riots," says Gramm. "We got flown to John Wayne airport instead of LAX because they were shooting at the planes. Mick and I were holed up in the Sunset Marquis in LA, with armed security guards walking around on the roof. It was a little weird, to say the least."

Gramm, a soft-spoken, but hard rockin' vocalist from Rochester, NY and Jones, a British guitarist who has also established himself as a producer for the likes of Billy Joel, Van Halen, Bad Company and others, decided to bury the hatchet and revive one of the world's best loved rock'n'roll bands.

"When Lou and I met in Los Angeles that's what it was all about,” says Mick Jones. " We had to see if we could put the rough patch beyond us and talk things out. Which, fortunately, we did."

Today, Foreigner is back again, this time with a leaner line-up and slightly harder edge to its music. Six years after their LA peace talks, several tours, and the release of a greatest hits, live album and a new album of studio recordings entitled Mr. Moonlight, Foreigner is going stronger than ever, despite a life threatening illness that afflicted singer Lou Gramm a day before the band was leaving for its 1997 tour of Japan.

The American tour marks the return to public life of lead singer Lou Gramm, who has spent the last year recuperating in Upstate New York after the removal of a benign brain tumor. Lou was diagnosed in April 1997, with the tumor, just one day before the band was set to leave for a tour of Japan.

The tumor was removed by surgery, which was followed by a year of rehabilitation at his home and a concentrated period of radiation treatment at Boston's Brigham & Woman's Hospital, under the care of Dr. Peter Black earlier this year.

"My tumor was non-cancerous," says Lou, "but it was certainly life threatening. It was growing adjacent to my optic nerve in the base of my brain and it was blocking the signals my brain was sending out to my body. I was losing my memory, getting headaches and seeing with double vision. Fortunately, everything turned out OK, and I'm back to work with the band. I'm very grateful to the Lord, my wife and family, and all my friends, who got me through this difficult time."

Born and raised in England, Mick Jones began his musical career as the "24th guitar player" in a unit known as Nero and the Gladiators. He wrote songs and played sessions for French pop idol Johnny Halliday and recorded with such artists as George Harrison and Peter Frampton. Jones formed Wonderwheel with Gary Wright and they eventually reformed noted U.K. band, Spooky Tooth. In 1974, he moved to New York; Spooky Tooth broke up, and Jones went on to serve as A&R rep for a British record company. He assembled Foreigner in 1976.

Mick Jones had dreamed of forming his own unique synthesis of rock, progressive and R&B elements since his days touring as a support act for the Beatles, whose luminous energy literally moved the young Englishman to tears. He joined forces with ex-King Crimson hornsman Ian McDonald and a soulful vocalist named Lou Gramm, ace British drummer Dennis Elliot (formerly with If and Ian Hunter), and New Yorkers Al Greenwood (keyboards) and Ed Gagliardi (bass).

Lou Gramm was born and raised in Rochester, New York. He formed the group Black Sheep in 1971, initially handling both vocals and drums. Black Sheep released two albums in the mid-70's and these discs attracted the attention of Mick Jones who invited Gramm to try out for a new (as yet unnamed) band he was forming in 1976. Gramm became a founding member of the band that was eventually named Foreigner. The tape of Lou Gramm's very first audition served as a demo which helped the group make the connection to Atlantic Records