Foreigner, that venerable, hotblooded jukebox hero of yesteryear, played to thousands of screaming fans the other night at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, busting out hit after hit for classic-rock fans who have absorbed those songs into their mitochondria since they first heard them coming out of their ’70s-era console stereos. You know them all — “Hot Blooded,” “Urgent,” “Cold as Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Dirty White Boy,” “Double Vision,” “Head Games,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” etc. — with top-notch musical professionalism and dead-on fidelity to the originals, which is exactly what the old fans and their newly indoctrinated progeny came to see.
So does it matter that the band they saw in St. Louis the other night, billed as Foreigner, contains exactly zero original members of Foreigner? Does it make any difference that no one on that stage had anything at all to do with making any of those Foreigner hits in the first place?
First of all, judging by the fun everyone was having, the answer is no. Which raises even more questions. For instance, what percentage of the audience knew or cared that no original members were on stage? Surely, most realized that Lou Gramm, the man who sang all of those hits on the studio albums, is no longer in the band. Most likely, fewer in the audience thought anything about classic-era bassist Rick Willis and drummer Dennis Elliott — both still alive — being MIA. (Original rhythm guitarist Ian McDonald died last year.)
Did they realize also that founding guitarist Mick Jones would not be showing up? To the band’s credit, Jones was expected to be part of the tour, at least to some extent. He has been experiencing health issues and announced plans to permanently retire after this tour, at which point, with Jones being Foreigner’s last remaining original member, the band would discontinue touring for good, hence the tour’s billing: The Historic Farewell Tour, which kicked off on July 6. However, as of this writing, Jones has yet to appear at any of the tour’s shows.
So how does this work from a business-ethics point of view? Members of the band were upfront in pre-tour interviews that Jones would appear at “all the shows he can do with us as his health allows,” as longtime Foreigner lead singer Kelly Hansen told Billboard magazine. Such a comment seems honest on its face, as this hit-and-miss approach with Jones appearances has been Foreigner protocol on each of the band’s most recent tours.
I saw Foreigner at the 2019 Missouri State Fair in Sedalia during a tour that also saw random Mick Jones appearances. A month earlier, Jones did not make it to Foreigner’s show at the Family Arena in St. Charles, but in Sedalia, we hit the Mick lottery: Jones took the stage two-thirds of the way into the set to palpable excitement in the audience. It certainly felt more like an authentic Foreigner concert with Jones on stage, even if it didn't necessarily sound any more like one.
Had Foreigner announced that Jones would definitely not be performing in St. Louis last week, would it have affected ticket sales? Or would fans have been willing to pay as much for tickets knowing Jones was not on the bill? Those answers are unclear, but if the show were billed as, say, Kelly Hansen’s Foreigner Experience, rather than as Foreigner, it’s unlikely the event would still get booked at the 20,000-seat Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre.
Surely, there were some old fans in the audience wearing their KSHE Pig Roast shirts who were ready to turn to their buddies and shout, “Mick Fucking Jones!” as soon as the old rocker materialized. But he never did. The guitars were handled by hired guns Bruce Watson and Luis Maldonado who, again, played it all exceedingly well and looked perfectly cool doing it.
So, in all fairness, the current incarnation of Foreigner is terrific, and they sound better and put on a sturdier, livelier show than if the actual original members were indeed assembled to play this same set. To that point, I can’t heap enough praise on singer Hansen, who is a quintessential metal-lite frontman — tough-tonsiled, long-limbed, yoga-toned, feather-haired, crowd-pleasing. He sings with all kinds of power and range and brings as much nostalgic accuracy and precision tone to these beloved songs as anyone alive could. During “Juke Box Hero,” Hansen popped up in the middle of the crowd standing on a 20-foot pedestal, working the crowd with all the drama and punch that the song could ask for, a move only a rock star could pull off.
Speaking of rock stars, current Foreigner (or Foreigner*) bassist Jeff Pilson, for instance, was a founding member of ’80s-metal icons Dokken. (When Hansen introduced Pilson on stage, keyboardist Michael Bluestein briefly tore into the opening riff to “Breaking the Chains,” a cruel tease.) Pilson, by the way, performed the entire show while seated due to a recent injury involving, according to Hansen, a ladder and a chicken coop. So, yes, they are rock stars. Whether or not they are Foreigner is another story.
Some would argue that Hansen has been in the band for almost 20 years, nearly as long as Gramm ever was. But not only did Gramm sing every Foreigner hit, he co-wrote them all with Jones (with the notable exceptions of “I Want to Know What Love Is,” “Feels Like the First Time,” and “Urgent,” which Jones wrote alone). Therefore, Hansen is, in this capacity, as great as he is at his job, a singer of another man’s songs.
And get this for curious contrasts. Opening band Loverboy, who also played rock-solid version of its big ’80s haymakers (“Working for the Weekend,” “Turn Me Loose,” “Lovin’ Every Minute of It”), is, apart from original bassist Scott Smith who went lost at sea in 2000, still made up of the same four guys who recorded those songs: Guitarist Paul Dean, keyboardist Doug Johnson, drummer Matt Frenette and singer Mike Reno. Reno still ties a sweet, soulful bandana, and better yet, he still hits that high note on “Turn Me Loose.”
Without Reno, Loverboy are probably out of business as a touring entity, unlike Foreigner, which relies on Hansen’s unusual skill and charisma. But, again, perhaps it’s much more about the music and the experience of listening to it with a group of like-hearted fans than it is about the specific people on stage who are making it come out of the speakers. In St. Louis, we know this fact more than any other city in the country. After all, how many original Pink Floyd members are in El Monstero?
St. Louis is home to a long list of exemplary tribute bands to the likes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Elton John, Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, the Police, ELO, Billy Joel, and others, thereby giving rock fans a chance to revel in meticulously played concerts featuring the music of artists they will likely — or, in many cases, definitely — never get to see live again. Local fans who regularly gobble up tickets to El Monstero or Celebration Day or the Hard Promises can testify that (a) they’ll be damned if they are willing to give up this music just because the artist happens to be retired or, you know, dead, and (b) these shows can be as well played (or better) and just as satisfying (or more) than the real thing. Case in point: At El Monstero’s concert earlier this month at HCA, classic-rock superfan Ralph Morse sported a homemade T-shirt that read, “Pink Floyd: World’s Best El Monstero Tribute Band.”
So if fans are willing to play along with tribute bands, in some cases pretending that the band they are seeing is actually the real thing, are they willing to pay even more for a touring band that has no original members? Let’s say the only connection left is that the keyboardist’s cousin was the band’s original bus driver. Is it still the band as long as the current group of musicians owns the name and logo rights?
In any case, we’d better get used to the phenomenon. Several classic rock bands are coming to St. Louis that feature scant representation from their original or commercial-peak eras, especially when it comes to arguably the most important member — the original singer. Kansas (The Fox, July 29) features only drummer Phil Ehart and guitarist Rich Williams from the original band. Lynyrd Skynyrd (Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, August 17) has no remaining original members after its last man standing, guitarist Gary Rossington, died in March. Among the three lead vocalists who made Three Dog Night (The Factory, October 8) famous, only Danny Hutton remains in the band. Little River Band (The Factory, October 21) has no original members, leaning on only longtime bassist-turned-lead-vocalist Wayne Nelson, who wasn’t around for the band’s biggest hits. Yes (The Factory, October 23) features no original members, relying solely on ’70s-era guitarist Steve Howe to justify the band’s billing. Quiet Riot (River City Casino, November 17) is down to bassist Rudy Sarzo.
Which brings us back to our original question. Does it matter? And maybe there is only one answer: If we can’t cope with the idea of losing our favorite classic-rock music — the hits, the iconography, the communal singalongs — then it can’t matter. Long Live Foreigner(’s logo)!
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