“People come to see us all the time and say, ‘I forgot how many songs you have that I know,’” bassist Jeff Pilsen of Foreigner told the Charleston City Paper ahead of the band’s coming Nov. 13 farewell tour performance at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center.
Foreigner is the Rodney Dangerfield of classic rock. “The songs are more famous than the band,” Pilsen admits. “I mean, we have 16 top-30 songs. That’s unheard of for a band. For us, writing a setlist is like cheating.”
The original half-British, half-American band’s eponymous 1977 debut kicks off with “Feels like the First Time” and “Cold as Ice.” 1978’s follow-up, Double Vision, opens with “Hot Blooded.” By the early ’80s, they’d added “Juke Box Hero,” “Waiting for a Girl like You,” and the power ballad (still the band’s biggest hit), “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
Foreigner’s early core was guitarist Mick Jones (the only original member — and Brit — still with the group), singer Lou Gramm and Ian McDonald, who played guitar, horns and keys. Pilsen joined the group in 2004, just before current singer Kelly Hansen took over singing duties from Gramm.
“What drew me to Foreigner as a teenager in the ’70s was that Ian McDonald was in the band, and he’d also been in King Crimson,” Pilsen said. “I was a huge prog rock fan. I remember the first time I heard ‘Feels Like the First Time,’ and it blew me away. I just thought, ‘This whole thing is incredible.’”
Millions of fans agreed. But despite Foreigner’s success, they can’t get no respect — they’ve never won a Grammy, and they’re not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Today, Foreigner is still among the top 10 classic rock bands receiving radio play, holding space with Van Halen, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. It’s that the band’s catalog works equally well in a dentist office as in an arena — or the lack of early Behind the Music-worthy drug-fueled antics — that lands them on the softer side of hard rock.
And they embrace that. On this farewell tour, which continues through 2024, the concert concludes with “I Want to Know What Love Is,” featuring a (still to be determined in Charleston) high school choir from each city they play in. The band donates $500 to the group after each show as part of an initiative to encourage funding for music programs in public schools.
“We love this music and we take it very seriously. The band is rocking on all cylinders right now,” Pilsen said of the tour. “Audiences have been amazing, and it makes you think, ‘Well, this is an odd time to stop,’ but we want to go out while we’re still at our very best.”
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No newspaper subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations from downtown to North Charleston to Johns Island to Summerville to Mount Pleasant.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.