Foreigner's recent fusion of two disparate eras of the band is unlike any rock reunion compromise we've ever seen.
Over the last year, the current lineup of the band, led by guitarist Mick Jones, has performed several times with surviving members of the band's founding lineup, including former frontman Lou Gramm.
While Gramm isn't officially back in Foreigner again since leaving in 2003...he's not really out of the band anymore.
Jones has even bandied about writing more music with his former bandmates. Gramm tells Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon that he hopes they all follow through.
"I have those rough ideas to the songs that [Jones is] speaking of," Gramm said. "The song ideas that we have are really, really, really different and interesting. I would like nothing more than to complete those with him."
Many of the ideas in limbo are nearly 20 years old, Gramm explained. He'd like to see them come out one day on an EP.
While Gramm would like to get back into the studio with his former writing partner, he says he's not much interested in doing more than a handful of shows with Foreigner.
"I know there's going to be some [shows] coming up," Gramm said. "Not 30 shows; I'm talking about maybe about five or six shows."
Gramm as well as original Foreigner members Ian McDonald and Al Greenwood, performed a three-song encore with Jones and company at a show in Wantagh, New York, in July of 2017. The collective appeared together on stage a handful more times last year.
The singer says he wasn't happy at first to see Jones continue Foreigner without him all those years ago, but he thinks the current lineup of the band does justice to its legacy. Gramm adds that he doesn't think the group has the same creative magic as the version he fronted.
"I'm not real thrilled with their own songs," Gramm said. "They lack that certain something. But when they play our old hits, they do it well. [Current frontman Kelly Hansen] sings it good, the band plays it well, and you put Mick right in there and you're good."
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