I still have this vision of a picture of Foreigner I saw in Circus magazine. Big stage (some multi-band outdoor thing). There was an extra drum kit for Gramm, and Ed was playing a lefty, greenburst Ric copy. RIP sir...
I don't know if Foreigner ever really WAS a "band", but if they were, that definitely ended before their third record came out. It basically became the Jones/Gramm project. Gramm was a phenomenal singer, but I think I might have been born with an allergy to AOR. I remember being 13, having just started playing bass, when Foreigner and Journey suddenly hit the airwaves. Even as a little know-nothing, something didn't sound right to me. It just seemed totally contrived. I think "commercial" was the word I used. Then I had to live through it all in high school with REO, Loverboy, Billy Squire... Hated it all at the time, as I was digging back into old 70s prog.
No offense meant, I'm just telling the story of a teenage kid! Looking back, I have MUCH more appreciation for a lot of that stuff now. Some really good songwriting and production going on. And now that I'm 50, I don't have to apologize for sounding like a grumpy old man - popular music in the new millennium BLOWS! I'd like to fire bomb Max Martin's place (kidding...). I'm kind of enjoying the new trend of re-hashed 70s rock and roll - Rival Sons, Winery Dogs, California Breed, Moonkings...
