featured image: wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Lou-Gramm-742×1024.jpg

“HE WONDERED IF I’D BE INTERESTED IN GOING TO NEW YORK FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS TO AUDITION FOR THE BAND.” – Lou Gramm

Rock Candy Magazine Issue 53 Out Now Featuring FOREIGNER

November 30, 2025 – In a rare, in-depth interview with Rock Candy Magazine, Lou Gramm, one of my all time favorite singers, the man with the golden voice, revealed to editor Howard Johnson that joining Foreigner was purely a twist of fate. When guitarist Mick Jones first invited him to audition, Gramm said, he had actually turned the offer down. I cannot even imagine my life without Foreigner!

“I said, ‘Mick, jeez, that’s very nice of you to ask me, but Black Sheep [signed to Capitol Records] is in a difficult spot right now. We’ve got our second album coming out, and we’ve just started a tour with Kiss. The problem is that we had an accident right after the first show in Boston. We’ve lost our truck and 80% of our equipment. We’re trying to figure out what to do and how we can continue to tour.‘” But Mick Jones didn’t let go of trying to get Lou to audition: “I told Mick I was honored to have been asked and I hoped that our paths would cross again in the future. Mick asked me if he could call me back in two or three weeks to see how things were going, and I told him I’d be happy for him to do that.“

Unfortunately for Black Sheep, they were unable to find the money to make things work out, and then their label dropped them, so Lou’s bandmates did something truly good and honorable. “They said, ‘Lou, we have to be realistic. To all intents and purposes Black Sheep is over. You really need to get hold of Mick and see what he has to offer.‘”

In the beginning, shockingly, Foreigner was not taken seriously by many record labels. “That’s true. We sent out plenty of demo tapes, and the idea was that, if anyone expressed an interest, we’d invite them to come and take a look at us playing live. We had maybe eight or nine labels come down. They pretty much all said the band was proficient and that we had good song ideas, but somehow they didn’t quite get it.” Fortunately, a young A&R guy at Atlantic, John Kalodner, who would go on to shape and remake the careers of many bands and artists later on, was at one of the showcases the band did for Atlantic, and even though the label wouldn’t pick them up, he got back to them and said they needed to cut down their songs for the radio. “He said, ‘Next time you hear a Beatles song, time it. I guarantee it won’t even be three minutes long… and he was right. I hadn’t realized how short their numbers were… Even though they were short, they satisfied all your needs. So Kalodner, Mick, and I went back into the songs.” They re-introduced some of the songs once again to Atlantic, got a three album deal, and and right out of the gate their first album went to the top 5 in the U.S., as well as their debut single “Feels Like The First Time.”

Just recently, Gramm did some guest appearances with the current Foreigner lineup, and he talked about them warmly and graciously. “At first, I was angry at Mick for starting a new Foreigner, but so much time has gone by now, and it wasn’t the fault of the guys who are now in the band, was it? If I were one of them and had been offered the opportunity, I would have taken it too. So we’ve got a nice friendship now… After all that’s happened over the years, I’m still extremely proud of my career with Foreigner, and at this stage of my life, that’s the most important thing.“

Check out the full Lou interview, along with a 60-year salute to the Scorpions, Steve Morse on finding peace and purpose, the making of the King’s X debut album, a new take on Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime, an exclusive look at the “Back to the Beginning” show, and much more inside issue 53 of Rock Candy Magazine.

ABOUT ROCK CANDY MAGAZINE

Rock Candy Magazine is a 100 page, full-color bi-monthly rock magazine, created in the U.K. Covering the sights, sounds, and smells from the greatest era in hard rock, the ’70s, ’80s, and early ’90s. The brainchild of respected U.K. rock journalists Derek Oliver, Howard Johnson, and Malcolm Dome – all frontline writers for the legendary Kerrang! magazine in the golden era.