Musical Musings

Lou Gramm returns to Foreigner

By Joe Matera

Oct 24, 2025

As one of the major rock acts of the 1970s and 1980s, Foreigner continue to stay active on the touring circuit.

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Though the last remaining founding member and guitarist Mick Jones retired from touring in 2023 due to his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, the band today features a line-up that didn’t played or sing on any of the group’s well-known hits, such as Cold As Ice, Urgent, Jukebox Hero and I Want To Know What Love Is.

But long time Foreigner fans will be pleased to know that on the band’s upcoming US December dates, the original vocalist of all those hits, Lou Gramm, will be returning to join the group in performing a select number of songs that he helped create.

Foreigner have toured Australia on several occasions, with their first visit to our shores back in 1978.

“The country was absolutely beautiful, exciting and very colourful,” Gramm recalled to Musical Musings.

“I was blown away by the spirit of the audience and how much good rock music meant to them.

“I think we went down really well and we did other shows in Australia on that short tour.

“I remember thinking Melbourne was a beautiful city, it was clean and very attractive and as were all the cities where we performed, but that one stood out because of the beautiful architecture.”

Gramm is excited to be back in the group and looking forward to performing for audiences again.

How does it feel to be part of the group again and performing songs live?

“It feels fantastic,” he said.

“The guys in Foreigner are excellent players and are great to hang out with.

“Everything is done first class and we take great pains to play the songs the way they’re meant to be played.

“It really is a shame that Mick couldn’t be on stage with us for this tour, as it’s a very special one.

“I know he’s with us in spirit and he keeps in contact with us after shows and things like that, so we feel his presence and he is still a part of the band.”

Gramm has many fond memories of his time with group, but one particular show stands out.

“It was playing [US music festival] California Jam II in 1978,” he said.

“It was one of the most exciting shows I played with Foreigner during my many decades with the band, and it was our first big outdoor festival.

“It was incredibly exciting, because as a band, Foreigner had not performed a show of this stature.

“The show was fantastic and we debuted the song Hot Blooded and the crowd kept cheering on and we had to come back and do one more song.

“I felt it was a resounding success, and a first big stepping stone in our careers.”

Music news

Here’s some news that will bring a smile to Pink Floyd fans. Guitarist David Gilmour recently told Rolling Stone magazine that he was “slowly building up towards a new [solo] album, and I have quite a bit of material that is in some sort of formative stage”.

Former Beatle Ringo Starr is working away on another country album.

Recently announced Australian tours include Counting Crows, who will return to Australia and New Zealand with ‘The Complete Sweets! Tour’ in March-April 2026, and Richard Marx, who will return also in April 2026 for his ‘After Hours Tour’.

Marx was last in the country in 2023.

Last week the UK Official Chart revealed its Top 40 biggest rock and metal albums released in the UK this century.

Taking the number one spot was Green Day’s American Idiot album followed at number two by Linkin Park’s debut album, Hybrid Theory.

Behind the album

A series that briefly looks back on a classic album.

This week I look at David Bowie’s 1969 David Bowie album, which was re-released in 1973 as Space Oddity.

David Bowie was a pioneering artist who constantly evolved and shape-shifted both musically and visually during his five-decade career.

Bowie released his self-titled debut album in 1967 and followed it up in 1969 with this album, which bizarrely is also self-titled, leading to much confusion over the years.

In the US though, the confusion continued, with the album being released there as Man of Words/Man of Music. In 1973, it was re-released in Australia under its now more well-known title of Space Oddity. Again, further confusion ensured.

Interestingly the album’s producer, Tony Visconti, only accepted the project on the condition that one of the tracks, Space Oddity, was given to someone else as he felt it lacked any commercial potential and reeked of pure novelty.

In the end, another producer Gus Dudgeon came onboard to produce that one track.

In an ironic twist of fate, it was that track that eventually brought Bowie his first ever hit.

The music on the album finds Bowie searching for an identity.

Though much of the material is heavily seeped in mysticism, poetry and a post-summer-of-love ethic, it does bring to the fore Bowie’s intelligent and flickering genius, which lay beneath the album’s material.

Upon release, the album received mixed reviews, but went on to become a landmark in Bowie’s career trajectory, setting the stage for what was to follow during the rest of the Seventies. And in turn forging Bowie’s legacy into stone.

Ace Frehley tribute

Last week the music world suffered the loss of one of rock music’s most iconic guitar players, Ace Frehley. Passing away at 74, Frehley was lead guitarist for the group Kiss.

With his Spaceman persona and theatrically smoking guitar, he inspired a generation of guitarists while a member of Kiss from 1973 to 1982 and then again from 1996 to 2002.

In 1978, all four members of Kiss released solo albums, with Frehley’s becoming the most commercially success of the four, and earning him a hit single with his cover of New York Groove, which he later became synonymous with.

I interviewed Frehley on several occasions over the years, and found him an entertaining interviewee, always open to sharing stories of his Kiss days and exploits.

In a 2009 interview I conducted with him, I asked him how he would like to be remembered. “I am what I am,” he told me.

“I’ve never been anything but just a wide-eyed kid from The Bronx who got lucky enough to be in one of the biggest rock groups in the world. I’m just happy I can give enjoyment to those who listen to my music. It’s all about rock and roll to me.”