Lou Gramm Reveals Why He Quit Foreigner
· Ultimate Classic RockLou Gramm has offered details on his decision to leave Foreigner.
It was 2003 when Gramm, the group’s founding vocalist who was then in his second go-round with the band, decided to quit for good. During a conversation with SiriusXM's Classic Rewind, he recalled the circumstances that led to his exit.
"In the late '90s, early 2000s, Mick [Jones] and I began writing. And we put some really, really good ideas together,” Gramm remembered (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I think we had about seven songs complete. And we were hoping to finish with about three or four more songs and put out a new Foreigner album.”
At the time, Foreigner hadn’t released a new album in close to a decade. Still, the band was actively touring, and while on the road Gramm decided his run with the group was over.
READ MORE: How One Person Saved Foreigner From Obscurity
“We were playing something called 'Night of the Proms' [in October 2002],” the singer recalled. “It was done in Brussels, Belgium, and they had a huge indoor tennis arena where there could be four games of tennis going on at once. It held 80,000 people. And after that series of shows, I left the band…. I just had enough."
The reason, Gramm explained, came down to his fractured relationship with Jones.
"[Mick is] the founder of the band, he's the leader of the band, but he wasn't necessarily doing the job the way he used to do it, and he was suppressing a lot of my creativity,” Gramm noted. “‘Just sing your parts, Lou.’ And after contributing to just about every hit song that the band had released in 20-some years, to be reduced to just a non-creative part, just the singer, didn't sit well with me.”
Lou Gramm Has 'Never Had Any Regrets' About Quitting Foreigner
Following their performance in Belgium, Gramm and the rest of the band flew back to America. Soon afterward, he informed management he’d be leaving the group, officially departing in early 2003.
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“'Why? What could be wrong? Everything's going so good,'” Gramm recalled being asked. “I said, 'It's not going good.' I said, 'I'm being shut out creatively, which is extremely important to me.' I said, 'I'm not just a singer. I'm a songwriter.' I said, 'And I always have been, even before Foreigner.' So I left the band. And I've never had any regrets about it since."
Kelly Hansen would be brought in as Foreigner’s new frontman, a position he has held since 2005. Meanwhile, Gramm stayed estranged from the band for over a decade. He eventually joined Foreigner for a few performances during their 2017 40th anniversary tour and most recently played with the group’s current lineup when Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
9. 'Unusual Heat' (1991)
Foreigner's first and last outing with singer Johnny Edwards is a perfectly serviceable slab of AOR, but for the most part, the songs don't live up to the standard set by the band's earlier LPs. Buffeted by changing trends and abandoned by fans who weren't interested in starting over with a new singer, the band saw its commercial fortunes quickly plummet. It came as no surprise when Lou Gramm rejoined the group a year later.
8, 'Inside Information' (1987)
Mick Jones and Lou Gramm were increasingly at odds during the period that produced 'Inside Information,' and you can hear the strain — while not without its moments ("Out of the Blue" ranks among the band's best power ballads), for the most part, this is the sound of a group treading water.
7. 'Can't Slow Down' (2009)
Foreigner underwent something of a sonic evolution when Johnny Edwards replaced Lou Gramm, and the experiment didn't quite pay off. Perhaps that's why after Gramm's next departure, he was replaced by a singer more in the same vein: Kelly Hansen, who acquits himself admirably on this solid set. 'Can't Slow Down' won't replace the group's older efforts in longtime fans' collections, and it isn't trying to — instead, it's a surprisingly strong late-period collection from a group with nothing left to prove.
6. 'Agent Provocateur' (1984)
It's the album that produced Foreigner's sole No. 1 single in the U.S. with "I Want to Know What Love Is," but 'Agent Provocateur' also marks the spot where the group's creative momentum first shows signs of starting to slow. While "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "That Was Yesterday" are a couple of Foreigner's better singles, this record's strong cuts are padded by a disappointing amount of filler. In a lot of other discographies, it would stand out more than it does here.
5. 'Head Games' (1979)
Plenty of rock bands suffered some degree of burnout during the album-a-year era, and Foreigner were no exception. Without the time to really bear down on their songs and recordings, they were bound to fall prey to diminishing returns sooner or later — and although 'Head Games' boasts more than its share of moments, it's easy to understand why fans failed to show up as they had for 'Foreigner' and 'Double Vision.'
4. 'Mr. Moonlight' (1994)
After reuniting with Foreigner for a few new tracks on 1992's 'Very Best ... and Beyond' compilation, Lou Gramm returned for this strong full-length set, which distilled the group's creative strengths while maturing its sound. Without a label after leaving Atlantic Records, they licensed 'Mr. Moonlight' to the indie imprint Rhythm Safari in the U.S., and the company's lack of resources doomed the record to vanish with a whimper. "Until the End of Time" almost brushed the Top 40, but this isn't an album most people remember when they think of Foreigner — which is a shame, because it hinted at a bright creative future for Gramm's second stint that never really materialized.
3. 'Foreigner' (1977)
Foreigner's debut is a pretty terrific little rock 'n' roll record — and the opening tandem of "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold as Ice" remains a classic one-two punch. But as promising as 'Foreigner' is, it still only hints at the band they'd grow into over their next few LPs.
2. 'Double Vision' (1978)
What sophomore jinx? A little more than a year after making a major splash with their debut, Foreigner returned with an even stronger collection — one that boasted another pair of classic-rock radio mainstays ("Hot Blooded" and the title track) and quickly honed in on the strongest elements of the band's sound.
1. '4' (1981)
Stung by the relative failure of 'Head Games,' Foreigner doubled down while working on their follow-up, conscious of the stakes and determined to rebound. They pulled it off in a major way with '4,' which walked the line between radio-friendly ballads ("Waiting for a Girl Like You") and meat-and-potatoes rock ("Juke Box Hero," "Urgent") about as successfully as any hit album from the era. Sonically expansive enough to embrace the rising tide of synths, yet still fundamentally strong on a compositional level, it finds the band working on all (ahem) four cylinders — a peak efficiency they'd struggle to recapture.