Lou Gramm has provided particulars on his determination to depart Foreigner.
It was 2003 when Gramm, the group’s founding vocalist who was then in his second go-round with the band, determined to stop for good. Throughout a dialog with SiriusXM’s Basic Rewind, he recalled the circumstances that led to his exit.
“Within the late ’90s, early 2000s, Mick [Jones] and I started writing. And we put some actually, actually good concepts collectively,” Gramm remembered (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I feel we had about seven songs full. And we had been hoping to complete with about three or 4 extra songs and put out a brand new Foreigner album.”
On the time, Foreigner hadn’t launched a brand new album in near a decade. Nonetheless, the band was actively touring, and whereas on the highway Gramm determined his run with the group was over.
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“We had been enjoying one thing referred to as ‘Evening of the Proms’ [in October 2002],” the singer recalled. “It was executed in Brussels, Belgium, they usually had an enormous indoor tennis area the place there might be 4 video games of tennis happening without delay. It held 80,000 individuals. And after that collection of exhibits, I left the band…. I simply had sufficient.”
The explanation, Gramm defined, got here right down to his fractured relationship with Jones.
“[Mick is] the founding father of the band, he is the chief of the band, however he wasn’t essentially doing the job the best way he used to do it, and he was suppressing lots of my creativity,” Gramm famous. “‘Simply sing your elements, Lou.’ And after contributing to simply about each hit track that the band had launched in 20-some years, to be lowered to only a non-creative half, simply the singer, did not sit properly with me.”
Lou Gramm Has ‘By no means Had Any Regrets’ About Quitting Foreigner
Following their efficiency in Belgium, Gramm and the remainder of the band flew again to America. Quickly afterward, he knowledgeable administration he’d be leaving the group, formally departing in early 2003.
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“’Why? What might be unsuitable? All the pieces’s going so good,’” Gramm recalled being requested. “I stated, ‘It isn’t going good.’ I stated, ‘I am being shut out creatively, which is extraordinarily essential to me.’ I stated, ‘I am not only a singer. I am a songwriter.’ I stated, ‘And I at all times have been, even earlier than Foreigner.’ So I left the band. And I’ve by no means had any regrets about it since.”
Kelly Hansen could be introduced in as Foreigner’s new frontman, a place he has held since 2005. In the meantime, Gramm stayed estranged from the band for over a decade. He finally joined Foreigner for just a few performances throughout their 2017 fortieth anniversary tour and most not too long ago performed with the group’s present lineup when Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame.
Foreigner Albums Ranked
It is laborious to think about rock radio with out the string of hit singles Foreigner peeled off within the ’70s and ’80s.
Gallery Credit score: Jeff Giles
