How One Person Saved Foreigner From Obscurity

The history of Foreigner is nearing the 50 year mark. But as original members, vocalist Lou Gramm and keyboardist Al Greenwood, detailed in the below conversation, their entire ride might have ended if they hadn’t encountered legendary A&R man John Kalodner.

Every label had passed on the future AOR superstars, including their eventual home, Atlantic Records. It was Kalodner who helped to turn the tide.

Long before the ink was dry on the contract and before there even was such a document, the band’s founder, guitarist Mick Jones, had brought in a song idea that would turn into “Feels Like the First Time.” Before long, they had songs, but still no record label. Thankfully, the group persevered, even as lineup shuffles continued and when their self-titled debut was released in 1977, the music within — and the record sales that followed — proved that it had been worth the hard work and resilient spirit.

Here in 2024, Foreigner is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and though Jones will miss the ceremonies this weekend due to his ongoing issues with Parkinson’s disease, Gramm and Greenwood, joined by bassist Rick Wills, will be in Cleveland to accept the honor on behalf of the band.

In separate conversations prior to the induction weekend, Gramm and Greenwood shared some stories from the band’s early days. They were also both enthused about the release of “Turning Back the Time,” a newly completed song from the ’90s that features Gramm on vocals alongside Jones and serves as the anchor track on a new compilation of the same name. It’s a nice full circle moment and the latest reminder that the music they’ve created over the years will remain as a permanent soundtrack long after they’ve left the stage.

Lou, what’s the moment where you really found yourself as a singer?
Lou Gramm: I think it was about two or three years into Black Sheep. I started out as a drummer with other bands in high school. When Black Sheep started, I was the band and the singer. But we were doing cuts from Traffic, Free, Humble Pie and stuff like that. We had one or two originals, but as the band progressed, we put more originals [in the set]. It was difficult for me to put the song across from behind a huge set of drums. So we decided to audition singers. We auditioned about six or seven singers and none of them fit the bill for the style that we needed.

How did Foreigner eventually start to come together?
Al Greenwood: I had a band of my own that was I getting together and I was doing session work and stuff like that. I got a phone call from Mick Jones. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but he explained that he was in Spooky Tooth [and had worked with] Leslie West and all of that stuff. He was putting a project together, would I be interested in joining? I told him that I had my own band at the moment, but I thought to myself, “Well, he’s probably in a beter place than I am, so I might as well check this out.” We got together in the office of Bud Prager, who [later] became our manager. He had an office on Broadway in Manhattan and in the middle of his office, he had a storage area. We’d push all of the file cabinets aside, set up our instruments and start jamming.

The first rehearsal of Foreigner was Mick Jones, myself, Stan Williams on drums and Jay Davis on bass, just the four of us. We’d come in and jam every day and this would go on for a while. After about two weeks, I said, “I don’t know if this is for me.” There’s no songs, we’re just jamming. It’s fun to jam, but I thought we’d have some songs put together [by that point]. I went in [the next day] and I’m about to go to Mick [to give him the news]. He turns to me and says, “I have this song” and he started playing “Feels Like the First Time” on guitar. So I thought, “Okay, now I think we’ve got something here.” The rest is history — I stayed with it and that’s how I met Mick.

Watch Foreigner’s ‘Feels Like the First Time’ Video

Lou, how did you get the call to audition?
Gramm: My dad called me and said, “This guy named Mick Jones just called. Do you know him?” I said, “I’ve met him.” He says, “Well, he’s left his number, he wants you to call him back.” I talked to Mick and he asked me to come down and audition for his new, unnamed band.” I said, “Thanks for the opportunity, I’m going through some tough times with my band. I have to decided whether we want to continue or put it to rest.” So I asked if I could call him in a couple of weeks and he said that was fine. I told the guys in Black Sheep that Mick had called and they said, “Lou, we’re done. We’ve got the worst stroke of luck that could ever happen. We can’t meet our obligation, the record company dropped us. Go to New York and audition and see if you can make something happen for yourself”. They acquiesced and more or less gave me the chance to do something else and I’ll never forget them for that. I went to New York and auditioned. My tape ended up being the one that Foreigner’s manager sent out to all of the record companies as a demo to get them interested. One at a time, they’d come to hear us rehearse. Atlantic Records was interested and eventually gave us a contract.

Greenwood: Lou walked into the studio, the same as all of the other singers. We were sitting in the control room and he was out in the studio with the microphone and the lyrics. He started singing “Feels Like the First Time” and within a couple of lines, we said, “This is the guy.” It was just magic, a perfect fit.

Gramm: Mick asked me to stick around and come and work on a couple of song ideas with him. But after all of that time, he hadn’t told me if I was in or not in. He never said, “We want you to be the lead singer of the band, would you consider that?” But he asked me to come over for dinner. “We’ll fool around with some songs.” We did that for three or four nights and I told him, “You know, Mick, when I came down here, I thought it was only going to be for a day. I only brought two changes of underpants and a couple of t-shirts and I’ve been wearing the same jeans for four days. I said, “You’ve got to tell me, am I in?” He says, “Of course you’re in!”

Greenwood: We brought that demo tape [that Lou mentioned] to every label and they all rejected us. Two members left — Stan Williams, the drummer and Jay Davis, the bass player. But Bud Prager said, “Look, I really think Atlantic Records is the [label] you should be on. They’ve got Led Zeppelin, the Stones, it’s a great label.” So he says, “I’m going to bring it back up there.” He brings the demo tape back up there and this time, it lands on John Kalodner’s desk. When he listened to it, he said, “I think this is something.” He brings it up to Jerry Greenberg and Jerry says, “We already passed on these guys.” But John Kalodner says, “No, this is going to be something. It’s going to be big.” That’s how we got our deal. But [the problem was] we didn’t have a band, because two of the members left. So now we had to audition for a drummer and a bass player and that’s how we got Dennis Elliott and Ed Gagliardi. That’s [how we completed] the band. We went right into the studio for the first record and the whole process took about a year.

Foreigner played a show with the Stones in 1978. That seems like it would have been quite an experience.
Greenwood: It was a cold and rainy day in Philadelphia when we played with the Stones. It was at JFK Stadium, a big outdoor venue. That was crazy, playing with the Stones. [Laughs] They were in their own trailer and cordoned off. But that was an amazing gig. It was really a lot of fun to do.

Lou, you later got to sing some Led Zeppelin songs with Robert Plant. How did that come about?
Gramm: I believe we were in Munich. Foreigner was touring Europe and when we got to Munich, it was an outdoor show with wall to wall people. I think was about 60,000 people. We walked off stage after our last song, but before our encore, we walked into our dressing room and Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were in there. Mick had known them for years and years and they hugged. I had met them before, so I said hi to them. Jimmy had his guitar strapped on, so he wanted to come out. But they both wanted to come out on the encore and play with us. It wasn’t until we were walking out on stage that they started talking about, “Well, what are we going to play?” Leave it to the last minute, you know? [Laughs] They played a little bit of “Whole Lotta Love.” I sang with Robert on that song and then we did a little bit of “Stairway to Heaven.” We finished off with “Hot Blooded” and they played with us on that too. It was so great.

There was certainly no way to imagine that something like this Rock Hall honor would happen back when Foreigner first began.
Greenwood: I never would have imagined it. There’s no way that I would have said that 47 years later, this would still be relevant, and we’d still be talking about it. Having the new song out, “Turning Back the Time,” with Lou’s vocal, he sounds great and the new collection, which is just to help celebrate the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is really exciting.

What are you looking forward to the most about the Rock Hall induction ceremonies?
Greenwood: Well, I’m just completely honored to be part of this induction class and the amazing artists that are with us. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the artists play.

Gramm: I think the surviving members of the band being together and accepting that award, I know it means the world to all of us. It’s important, you know, at this point of our careers, to be recognized and appreciated. I think playing a song is going to be fun for the the original band again. It’s just going to be a real treat. I’ve got my my children and their wives or girlfriends coming. We’re all riding down together in a big 18-passenger van. We’re going to make it a ton of fun.

Listen to Foreigner’s ‘Turning Back the Time’