Lou Gramm has offered details on his decision to leave Foreigner.
It was 2003 when Gramm, the group’s founding vocalist who was then in his second go-round with the band, decided to quit for good. During a conversation with SiriusXM’s Classic Rewind, he recalled the circumstances that led to his exit.
“In the late ’90s, early 2000s, Mick [Jones] and I began writing. And we put some really, really good ideas together,” Gramm remembered (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I think we had about seven songs complete. And we were hoping to finish with about three or four more songs and put out a new Foreigner album.”
At the time, Foreigner hadn’t released a new album in close to a decade. Still, the band was actively touring, and while on the road Gramm decided his run with the group was over.
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“We were playing something called ‘Night of the Proms’ [in October 2002],” the singer recalled. “It was done in Brussels, Belgium, and they had a huge indoor tennis arena where there could be four games of tennis going on at once. It held 80,000 people. And after that series of shows, I left the band…. I just had enough.”
The reason, Gramm explained, came down to his fractured relationship with Jones.
“[Mick is] the founder of the band, he’s the leader of the band, but he wasn’t necessarily doing the job the way he used to do it, and he was suppressing a lot of my creativity,” Gramm noted. “‘Just sing your parts, Lou.’ And after contributing to just about every hit song that the band had released in 20-some years, to be reduced to just a non-creative part, just the singer, didn’t sit well with me.”
Lou Gramm Has ‘Never Had Any Regrets’ About Quitting Foreigner
Following their performance in Belgium, Gramm and the rest of the band flew back to America. Soon afterward, he informed management he’d be leaving the group, officially departing in early 2003.
“’Why? What could be wrong? Everything’s going so good,’” Gramm recalled being asked. “I said, ‘It’s not going good.’ I said, ‘I’m being shut out creatively, which is extremely important to me.’ I said, ‘I’m not just a singer. I’m a songwriter.’ I said, ‘And I always have been, even before Foreigner.’ So I left the band. And I’ve never had any regrets about it since.”
Kelly Hansen would be brought in as Foreigner’s new frontman, a position he has held since 2005. Meanwhile, Gramm stayed estranged from the band for over a decade. He eventually joined Foreigner for a few performances during their 2017 40th anniversary tour and most recently played with the group’s current lineup when Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire