Foreigner Biography

Jeff Pilson:
"I know from my personal experience that the songs from my youth are the songs that move me the most. Every generation has its own heroes, and we're just fortunate that Foreigner had some staying power."

Kelly Hansen:
“The best part about being in this band is getting the chance to do something I feel I was meant to do. I feel extremely fortunate to be given this wonderful opportunity to play with such a substantial group of people, and it just keeps getting better.

Mick Jones:
“I’m grateful to be surrounded by the talented musicians that make up Foreigner today. Now each night on stage brings Foreigner’s music alive with energy and excitement. Thanks guys for making it all new again.”

“The life expectation of bands was pretty low. I didn't even think I'd be playing after the age of 30, 35. I guess the (Rolling) Stones and (Led) Zeppelin were starting to become "classic" at that point, but I had no idea. I wasn't expecting anything like the reception we got for the first album, even. I thought it was going to be a labor of love for the next few years to establish ourselves. I certainly hadn't set my sights past that. So what's happened has been ... unbelievable, really.”

Mick Jones on Lou Gramm:
“We went through a tremendous amount together, highs and lows. We were never the closest of friends, but I think we both appreciated each other's gifts. At times it felt very close. I look back at a lot of great, happy times, a lot of very heady times, especially in the first few years.”

Mick Jones on forming Foreigner:
"My initial musical vision for Foreigner was to combine Blues and R&B with British Rock and make it sound soulful and authentic. I’d grown up in England and had the English influence, but I was also inspired by many elements of American music, from Mississippi Blues to Country and Western. Foreigner was the vehicle to get that musical blend across.”

Lou Gramm:
“What we would do is as soon as the album was finished we would go on tour for nine month to a year. When the tour was over we would have a couple of weeks off, then be right back in the studio. But we found this constant submerging of yourself into your career for every minute of your life ended up wreaking havoc on marriages and home life. That's when we started taking four to six months off at the end of a tour before beginning work on a new album, but the problem is after every tour we would take more and more time off - sometimes it would be a year and a half. We weren't really using our time to our best advantage. That could happen to anybody and we see it does.”