Feature image: Foreigner’s Lou Gramm. (Photo courtesy of Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts)
Lou Gramm was a young singer in a tough spot when he got the call that changed his life.
Black Sheep, his band of chums from upstate New York, had a record deal and a tour booked with Kiss when their truck crashed on Christmas Eve 1975, destroying most of their equipment and scuttling their rock ‘n’ roll dreams.
Meanwhile, British guitarist Mick Jones had landed in the Big Apple after leaving the band Spooky Tooth. Recruiting a new group, he reached out to Gramm, who had given him the Black Sheep albums at a Spooky Tooth show months earlier. The two quickly discovered a knack for writing songs with indelible riffs, catchy hooks and gritty vocals. The project, originally dubbed “Trigger,” settled into a lineup of three Brits and three Yanks who took the name Foreigner.
With disco and punk gaining commercial and critical attention, these hopefuls weren’t sure if their mainstream rock formula would click, but they began writing and recording “like our lives depended on it” and shopping their tapes around to record labels, Gramm says in a phone interview.
“We got a lot of response that they thought we were a really good band, but we weren’t quite what they were looking for,” he recalls. “People didn’t know what the rock scene was anymore. So when we came out with a pure rock album, that was attitude-heavy and recorded and produced very well, and Atlantic Records got behind it, we were on our way.”
Dominating the Charts
They certainly were. Starting with that self-titled debut album in 1977, Foreigner launched a barrage of hits that included the Top 10 singles “Feels Like the First Time,” “Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Double Vision,” “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and the international smash “I Want to Know What Love Is,” later a source of contention between the writers over credits and royalties. Foreigner’s first six albums went Top 10 in the U.S., and the band has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide.
For his part, Gramm (born Louis Grammatico) is widely considered one of the greatest and most recognizable rock voices of his era. Classic Rock magazine ranked him second in its 2024 list of The 40 Best AOR (album-oriented rock) Vocalists of All Time, behind Journey’s Steve Perry and ahead of Boston’s Brad Delp. His first solo album — another point of friction with Jones — spawned the 1987 Top 5 single “Midnight Blue.”
Hardships and Hall of Fame Honors
Gramm left Foreigner for the first time in 1990 but has maintained an intermittent relationship with the band over the years. A noncancerous brain tumor discovered in 1997 was effectively removed, but the physical and mental impact required a long, gradual recovery.
Later career highlights have included the 2013 induction of Jones and Gramm into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the 2024 induction of Foreigner — after 22 long years of eligibility — into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jones, who had retired from touring due to Parkinson’s disease and now has Alzheimer’s, Gramm says, did not attend in person.
“But as soon as we were inducted, we called him from the stage and told him that we’re in, and he was very happy,” Gramm says.
One Final Tour
Now, at 76, Gramm is closing the curtain on his own career with a long-awaited third solo album and tour he vows will be his last. “Released,” which dropped in March, features 10 previously unreleased original songs written with longtime collaborator Bruce Turgon, who played bass in Black Sheep and later in Foreigner. Many tracks were recorded or at least initiated during the making of Gramm’s first two solo albums, and not surprisingly, they sound like vintage material.
Gramm will perform Sept. 26 at Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, accompanied by the Lou Gramm All-Stars, a lineup that includes some old friends as well as his brother Ben on drums. Fans can expect Foreigner classics, solo hits and “a couple songs that I’m pulling out of the woodwork,” he says.
And he really means it: “At the end of this year, I’m coming off the road permanently.”
“Just like a ballplayer or anybody else, you gotta know when to hang it up,” he says. “And I’ve got a very good album to promote as my final project, and I’m going to be doing shows with Foreigner too, so it’s going to be fun. After 54 or 55 years, to see the finish line in front of me, it feels good to go for it.
“So, it’s been a long journey, ups and downs, but I really like the way it’s turned out.”
Visit thecenterpresents.org to purchase tickets.
Entertainment reporter Scott Hall is a musician and journalist who has covered music in Central Indiana for more than three decades. He is the director of communications at Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts.