NEW YORK – This month, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame rectifies a wrong that many rock fans will celebrate with their lighters up in the air — the band Foreigner will finally be welcomed in.
The English-American rockers — with hits like “Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You" — topped the charts in the 1970s and ’80s but never made it into the hall — much less a ballot — until last year, despite being eligible for more than 20 years.
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“It’s just been a long wait and I know that we’ve done enough in our career to warrant induction,” says Al Greenwood, keyboardist and a founding member. “I’m not bitter about it. I mean, we’re finally getting in and that’s great.”
Foreigner, led by singer Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones, recorded nine Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and six Top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, including “4,” which spent 10 weeks in the top spot in 1981.
Foreigner were nominated for three Grammys and their songs have been heard on everything “Miami Vice” and “The Simpsons” to “Arrested Development” and “Stranger Things.” Tone-Loc sampled “Hot Blooded” to create “Funky Cold Medina.”
“We weren’t the best looking band in the world. We weren’t the most dress-conscious band in the world. But Mick and Lou came up with some very, very strong songs and that’s what’s kept it going,” bassist Rick Wills says. “Sixteen top 30 hits isn’t too shabby.”
The belated embrace by rock's establishment has a bittersweet taste, since original bassist Ed Gagliardi and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald have died and Jones has been sidelined by Parkinson’s disease. The band will be inducted Oct. 19 in Cleveland.
The opening of the door for Foreigner coincided with a change in hall leadership in 2023 that led to key legacy acts getting invites, like Cher and Peter Frampton. Foreigner were among the top vote getters when the fans voted, nabbing almost 528,000 votes or 12.54%.
They'll join Mary J. Blige, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & the Gang, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band, the late Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick, Alexis Korner, the late John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton in the class of '24.
“I think a lot of the talent that is in this class has been waiting on the outside as well as Foreigner,” says Greenwood. “I’m just so thankful that I’m in this class with such incredible talent.”
The band got a public push from Jones’ son-in-law Mark Ronson, who recruited musical friends such as Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Slash, Jack Black and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith.
Foreigner in their heyday offered varied songs — the ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is” is very different from “Urgent” — but many have endured to become the backbone of classic rock playlists. A new line-up — dubbed Foreigner 2.0 — attract tens of thousands a night on tour.
Jones started the American-British band in 1976 in New York City, selecting each of its members, the first being Greenwood, who he'd never met. The keyboardist was invited to jam with Jones in a storage area of the band's manager's office.
But Greenwood soon grew disillusioned by the lack of progress over two weeks and decided to tell Jones he was going back to his own band.
“I’m about to go up to Mick and Mick comes in and says, ‘I’ve got this song.’ And he starts playing ‘Feels Like the First Time’ on guitar. And I go, ‘Wow, I think we got something here,’" he says laughing. "Thankfully, I did not leave.”
The fledgling band's four-song demo — which included a raw version of “Feels Like the First Time” — was turned down by all the major record labels until music legend John Kalodner convinced Atlantic Records to reconsider.
Four hit albums in five years — “Foreigner,” “Double Vision,” “Head Games” and “4” — cemented the band's place in classic rock history but not in the Rock Hall. Members watched bands that used to open for Foreigner go in while they waited.
“I don’t think any of us quite believed it because we thought, well, it was never going to happen,” says Wills, who spent 12 years in Foreigner and then went into Bad Company.
Wills joined in 1979 after having worked with Frampton and Roxy Music. He was in New York and called Gramm because he heard Foreigner was looking for a new bassist. He was invited to their open auditions the next day.
After Wills showed his chops on songs like “Double Vision” and “Hot Blooded,” drummer Dennis Elliott announced he wanted Willis in the band. There were some 70 bassists still waiting to audition.
Willis urgently left to fly home to London to help care for his two young children, who were suffering from whooping cough and chickenpox, and woke up to a phone call that he was in the band. He got on the next flight to New York and straight into the studio for “Head Games.”
“I’ve been incredibly lucky with being in the right place at the right time. I guess that’s my mantra,” says Wills. “I’ve become what I’ve become because of Foreigner.”