CLEVELAND, Ohio - Kelly Hansen has been the lead singer of the legendary classic-rock band Foreigner for more than two decades. But he’ll be watching from the audience on Oct. 19 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse when the band is finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Foreigners “classic-era” 1970s players -- vocalist Lou Gramm, guitarist Mick Jones, drummer Dennis Elliott, keyboardist Al Greenwood, keyboardist Ian McDonald, bassist Ed Gagliardi and bassist Rick Wills -- will be getting the official Rock Hall flowers. But Hansen says he’ll be there to fly the Foreigner flag and cheer them on, particularly Jones, with whom he has toured and recorded for almost 25 years.
“I’m happy for the guys, the original guys that they’re finally getting their just desserts,” says Hansen. “I think it’s really like the cherry on the cake of a really great career and something that they wanted for a long time and I’m glad they got there. I’ll be there to stand by and be any kind of support that I can be. And you know, to witness and enjoy the whole ceremony for sure,” he said.
In the meantime, Hansen has more immediate concerns, namely Foreigner’s farewell tour, which stops by Blossom Music Center on Wednesday, June 12, on a bill with Styx and John Waite.
The tour is a chance for Jones, Hansen to look back 50 years and to dive into a catalog that includes some of the most memorable hits of the classic rock era. They will be joined in the journey by a current lineup that includes bassist Jeff Pilon, keyboardist Michel Bluestein, guitarist Bruce Watson, drummer Chris Frazier and guitarist Luis Maldonado.
If you were an FM rock radio fan from the late ’70s into the mid-80s or were an early adopter of MTV, then you had no choice but to know of Foreigner.
The band seemingly popped up out of nowhere to quickly take over mainstream rock radio, rising to fame with a string of catchy Top 10 hits beginning with their 1976 debut single, “Feels Like The First Time,” and its equally popular followup, the dramatic “Cold As Ice.” Both of those singles went gold, making their mothership album, “Foreigner,” a bestseller.
A little more than a year later, the streak continued with the album, “Double Vision,” yielding more Top 5 hits, including the title track and “Hot Blooded.” The band’s winning streak would continue into the ’80s and through their next four albums, pushed along by hits such as “Head Games,” “Urgent,” “Jukebox Hero,” “Dirty White Boy,” and the ballads “Waiting For A Girl Like You.” The band’s biggest hit of all -- “I Want To Know What Love Is” topped the singles charts in worldwide.
Original singer Gramm left the band in 1990 but briefly returned for reunion concerts before being replaced by Johnny Edwards for the 1991 album, “Unusual Heat.” A long break soon followed. When Jones reformed Foreigner in 2005, L.A. bred singer Hansen settled in and solidified the vocal spot.
Hansen says the “farewell tour,” currently set to wrap up with a two-week stand in Las Vegas in November, will be the end of Foreigner as regulars on the summer concert circuit. But he says it won’t be the end of the band, or even as a performing group
In short, hardcore fans need not fret.
“We’re not disappearing off the face of the earth,” he says. “We’re just not going to tour nine months a year like madness. I’m sure we’ll be here and there but not like we’ve been before.”
One longstanding tradition on Foreigner tours is having local choirs either open for and often perform “I Want To Know What Love Is,” with the band to help raise awareness of the importance of keeping music education in schools.
The band has hosted Solon’s Note-Oriety Show Choir, The North Ridgeville High Spectrum of Sound, The Nordonia High School Synergy choral group and others through the years. At the Blossom show, the New Philadelphia High School choir will be backing the band. Foreigner will donate $500 to the choir for their program.
“We’ve been doing it for many, many years. And we feel it’s important to raise awareness about the lack of funding for school music programs and music and the arts are the first things to suffer when there are budget cuts, which there have been quite quite many of them in the last 15-20 years,” Hansen said.
“And it’s important for young people who experience the music and the arts to take them places around the world and back and forth and have time to let them grow as human beings and learn about things that are bigger than their own bubble at home,” he said, noting his own experience with music education in his younger days.
“I’m a product of new school music programs. I was in choir when I was in school and and who knows what the ultimate effect of that was on me. But guess what, I’m singing in a band so it must have had some,” he said.
Although Foreigner won’t be “going away,” Hansen, who has been talking about the final tour in interviews for nearly two years ,said he he’s living in the now, and not too worried about the next.
“I’ve been having my periods of feeling it out there and sometimes that strikes you,” he says. “But, I’m in the middle of doing something. I’m kind of focused on what I’m doing. And, and I’ve thought about this for a few years, so it’s not like it’s a surprise. So I’ve had plenty of time to ease into it. So I’m ready,” he said.
“It takes it takes a lot of focus to for a heavy duty schedule, like we’re going to be doing starting in a couple of weeks. So I’ve got I’ve got a lot to focus on so I don’t have a lot of time for sitting down and putting my head in my hands and crying about this being the last nine month tour,” he said with a chuckle.
He also says he has "a lot of work in front of me.
“I’m focusing on making moves with my family and stuff. I’m not really focusing on what might be happening next, musically, after the tour. Nothing is on my schedule,” Hansen said.
Hansen said besides the lost pandemic years it’s been a while since he’s had an open schedule and at age 62 with a wife and two stepsons, he’s ready for something else, at least for a while.
“I have a lot of other things to do, things that I like to do. Spending time with my wife and my family and I like to cook (he’s friends with Cleveland celebrity chef Michael Symon) and my motorcycle and I work on cars and I do stuff around the house and, you know, live a life that I haven’t been able to live for the last 20 years,” Hansen said.
Foreigner, Styx and John Waite perform at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, at Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls. Tickets, $32.55 plus fees for lawn and starting at $54.35 plus fees for pavilion, are available at livenation.com.
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