The Mick Jones Interview

Today, as I write this, I recall meeting Mick Jones and the rest of Foreigner on this exact date 21 years ago. It was backstage at Madison Square Garden and I was working with Vanilla Fudge at the 40th anniversary concert for Atlantic Records. There were so many acts on the bill, pretty much everyone had to share a dressing room. As it turned out, Vanilla Fudge was paired up with Foreigner.

I spoke briefly with Jones, singer Lou Gramm, bassist Rick Wills and their backstage visitor David Gilmour before Foreigner's performance. After a handful of tunes, they returned, asking everyone within earshot to join them for the encore of “I Want To Know What Love Is.” Somehow, I ended up on stage, standing next to Phil Collins and Roberta Flack, singing the chorus of one of the biggest hits of the 80s. Who would have guessed I’d be talking to the song’s author again so many years later.

I reminded Jones of that night in New York City, and he laughed as he told me about the trials and tribulations surrounding the band at that time. But what seemed to excite him the most was the current incarnation of Foreigner, featuring a seasoned, yet youthful cast of musicians who have helped recharge their leader’s creative batteries. Touring steadily for a mixed audience of young and older, Foreigner is also recording their first album of all new songs in 15 years. To borrow the title of Foreigner’s 2008 2-CD career compilation, “no end in sight” is a good way to describe Jones as he pushes forward unabated and willfully optimistic.

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Foreigner are currently playing a few gigs in the States.

We’re in Louisiana, heading to Houston for a show tomorrow and then Dallas after that.

How long will you be in the south?

This is just a little stretch we’re doing for a week or 10 days. We’re currently in the studio recording a new album, and we have little breaks here and there just to keep our chops up.

So, are you heading back to the studio from here or do you have more shows after this?

These are just a handful of shows we’ve done in a few months. We are going to do a big European tour in June and part of July. This goes from Rock in Rio in Portugal to Moscow and a lot of other places in between.

How have the shows been going so far?

Very well.

Are you playing any of the new songs you’re currently recording?

Not the new songs just yet. We’re pretty much playing all of the hits plus songs people haven’t heard in awhile — other cuts from albums and a few little specialties. Principally, it’s really the hit songs, and pretty much all you could hope for if you’re a Foreigner fan or if you know those songs.

Are you getting a good range of age groups in the audiences?

Yeah….it’s wild. We’re getting a lot of young kids coming to the shows now. Whether that has to do, in part, with games like Guitar Hero and those video games, I don’t know.

So Foreigner is getting in on the music video game rage too?

Yeah, a couple of them.

That’s becoming quite a vehicle for introducing classic rock bands to younger audiences.

It’s amazing. These kids know all the words to the songs. They know all the parts.

Have you ever played Guitar Hero?

No. Apparently I would not be very good according to the other guys in the band (laughs).

As the sole original member of Foreigner, how do you view the current lineup compared to previous incarnations?

I think the chemistry is incredible. It’s as great of a live band as it is in the studio too. We have some great musicians in the band. I think it is powerful, if not more powerful, than certainly it has been in the last 20 years. There’s a surge of energy there.

Also, the band has a really good time on stage. There are no big egos involved. It’s really a joint effort. I think that comes across live. People really get that vibe when we play live. They get the feeling that we’re having fun too. The band is really tight and really a powerful sounding band. They really do justice to the songs. The songs come alive again.

Are the new members of the band contributing to the writing on the new album?

Yep. I’m writing with (vocalist) Kelly Hansen and (bassist) Jeff Pilson. There’s definitely some stuff going on between us. It’s really us, you know, pooling all our resources. I suppose I have the guiding role in that. So far it’s sounding great. I think that the real identity of the band is in there. I think it carries on in the Foreigner tradition, but branching out a little bit with a slightly more modern approach. There’s some really good stuff so far and I’m very happy about it.

And you’re back to being a six-piece, just like in the beginning. What advantages does that offer over a quartet?

When we traveled, we always had a couple of extra people with us during the 80s and the 90s. There’s quite a range of sound and textures, as well as the rock element of the band. You need that amount of sound and texture to really portray these songs as they should sound.

How did you find Kelly Hansen? Were you a Hurricane fan?

No, it was completely out of the blue. Kelly was living in L.A. — he’s a native L.A. guy — and he heard through the grapevine that I was looking to put something together. I think, through our rhythm guitar Thom Gimbel, he got in touch. And Thom arranged to have him put his voice down on a couple of our tracks, and immediately…I mean, I’d been searching for about six to nine months. From what I’d heard and people that we’d worked out with, I was quite despondent at the time. But then I heard Kelly’s voice, and immediately I heard the texture and the power, and that was it. We got together and it really clicked. And he’s getting better and better.

Of course, you’ve had other changes in the band’s personnel over the years as well. Perhaps one of the more significant in recent years was the tenure of Jason Bonham. Did his work with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones have anything to do with his leaving the band?

I think actually, that has come to a halt, as far as I know, and as far as what Jason told me a few weeks ago. He had basically opted to take that opportunity. It had been his childhood dream, I guess. Obviously, playing at the 02 event that we did with them was pretty magical for him. I think he was quite hopeful that Led Zeppelin would get back together, but it didn’t really pan out that way.

Jason remains a great friend. Who knows, at some other point, we may play again together. I think he wanted some time off too. He’d been working pretty hard for the last five or six years. I think he wanted a little time with his family and a little time to recuperate.

Stepping back to the 70s, how did you go from playing with Spooky Tooth to forming Foreigner?

Personally, I can see the thread. There was an element of soul in Spooky Tooth with the two singers, Mike Harrison and Gary Wright. In a way, that was where I started to hone my songwriting. It was a launching pad for me, in a way. To me, it was a natural progression from there. I had been used to working with two great voices that were quite soulful. I think that carried on through. My roots, apart from earlier rock, were really influenced by a lot of R&B music. I think that’s kind of carried through in our songs. If you listen to songs like “Urgent,” to me that’s almost like a soul song. So, for me, it was a natural progression; but with Foreigner, I really started to concentrate on my songwriting.

After the first three albums, there was a major shift in Foreigner's personnel. Looking back, was that integral to the band’s evolution?

It was. It focused the band a bit more. We had to do our growing up in public, as it were. Those sort of changes that so often occur in the early stages of a band unfortunately had to happen while we getting to the peak of our success. They were tough decisions at the time, but both Lou (Gramm) and I felt that we needed to concentrate on the strength of the songs and the material, and that we were really kind of the crux of that.

Whether it was the right decision — I don’t know. We were very successful after that, culminating in the 4 album. You never know how things would have gone the other way. I still am in touch in Ian McDonald and Al Greenwood, the keyboard player, from time to time — Dennis Elliot, our original drummer. If ever we do get elected into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, we will all get together and have a good old jam that night.

You’ll need a few tables that night (laughs).

Yeah, right (laughs).

In the mid 80s, Foreigner recorded “I Want To Know What Love Is.” What do you remember about putting that one together?

I had a place in London where I was writing, an apartment. I had just purchased a synthesizer and I was experimenting with it. I came up with this nice kind of organ-type sound and I just started fooling around with it. I got what is now the intro to the song and the title kind of came. Basically, it was overnight and I finished it the next day.

It started off as probably more of a relationship song, but as we worked on it, it gradually developed with kind of a universal feeling. Hence, we went in the direction of getting the gospel choir. We had originally dreamed that maybe Lou could have sang it with Aretha Franklin. That's kind of what was I had in mind. But we ended up with Jennifer Holliday, which was great.

Did you have any idea it would become a Number One hit all over the world?

You never really know. You can feel confident with the song, but knowing where it would go after that. I did think it was a powerful song and everybody who heard it seemed to be affected by it. It just brought a lot of emotion, and that’s usually how you can tell in the early stages. You play it for people and you see their reaction, and the reaction to the song was very strong.

After Agent Provocateur, you continued to write more songs on your own, many of which have been successfully recorded by other artists. Is it easier for you to write on your own as opposed to teaming up with others?

Sometimes. I do enjoy collaborating with people and bouncing off another writer. We developed that, Lou and I kind of had a nice sort of relationship in that way. Especially, if you get to know somebody. Even if you don’t, it’s good to have somebody to bounce off of. See where their ideas, and what they think of what you’re doing. I do enjoy working with people. Very often, I’ll come up with the essence of the idea and play that for somebody else and see where we can take it.

Since the end of the 80s, you and Lou Gramm reunited a couple of times, released solo albums, and now it seems he has left the band for good. What motivated you to keep Foreigner going without him?

I believed in the band and I believed in the music that we created up to that point. I felt that it was foolish to sort of throw everything away. So I kind of kept it going. It was the most important thing that happened to me in my life, having been the initial creator of the band and it was a vision that I had. I felt it would be shame to just disintegrate. I still felt we had something to do.

I think we could have gone well into the 90s if we had remained intact. There were other circumstances in the 90s, with the shifts of directions of music, the grunge era. But we kind of managed to outlive all that (laughs). Right through punk through new wave through glam rock through grunge — we’re still here. People still like the songs.

Today, Lou Gramm has his own thing and you still have Foreigner. Do you think you two will ever work together again?

I don’t know. There’s no sign of it at the moment. We’ve really taken this new lineup of the band quite seriously. I’m pretty committed to that and the work that we’re doing currently. Making a new album has been on my mind for quite a while. I’m very happy with this band. It’s a great band — no egos, no problems, no baggage. It really is a lot of fun. I genuinely look forward to going on stage now. And, at times, especially toward the end there, it wasn’t a fun kind of deal. I think just Lou and I had reached the end of the road together.

Do you still speak to Lou?

I inquire about him. We don’t actually speak. As far as I know, he has his band. I think he may have headed into more of a Christian kind of direction.

Of course, you’ve also been a producer on albums with Van Halen, Billy Joel and The Cult, to name a few. Which one of these posed the greatest challenge?

All of them (laughs). They were very different in a way, especially Van Halen to Billy Joel. That was quite a step. All different, and for me personally, an experience. It broadened my view of things. It was very interesting to be part of the inner workings of those people. So I considered it a learning experience. Whatever I do, which I haven’t done before, the main thing is to keep learning. And I still do that to this day.

Last year, you included a new song “Too Late” on the No End In Sight compilation. Is the material you’re working on in that vein?

I would say as far as recognizable as Foreigner, but we’re taking a bit of a harder approach on this album. Back to the roots of it. So far, we have some very powerful stuff. It’s also to remind people that essentially, Foreigner is a rock band and to kind of reinforce that more on this new album.

When’s the new album coming out?

Well, we’re shooting for later in the year, around October. You know, we have a tremendous touring schedule this year. We’re trying desperately to complete the album right now. It will be a three-piece set, with one brand new album, then an album of remixes of a lot of the hits plus a live DVD. So that should bring everybody up to date.

Mick, you’ve been very successful, not just with Foreigner, but as a songwriter and producer in your own right. So, after so many years, what keeps you going?

Well, I kind of, in a way, rediscovered my guitar playing. I kind of forgotten about it for a little while, especially around the time that Lou and I had broken up. Somehow, I have a renewed spirit. The band, apart from being really powerful musically, it’s a lot of fun on stage. I really look forward to playing every night. As far as I’m concerned, I felt a bit jaded at times in those days I was talking about, but I’ve kind of found a new spark. I'm looking after myself a lot better these days. Genuinely, the feeling to get on stage every night has reawakened that hunger in me.

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