Unlike many bands in the pantheon of Classic Rock, Foreigner has been guided by one member’s vision for over 40 years. Guitarist Mick Jones penned or co-penned all of the act’s most enduring songs, from time-honored sex paeans like “Hot Blooded” and “Feels Like the First Time” to barstool hits like “Juke Box Hero.”
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Now in the midst of a leg which originally took them to summer, the group has announced their Juke Box Heroes 2020 tour, a nationwide stretch which kicks off in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 9th and wraps on September 13th with a show in Austin, Texas. Fellow rock icons Kansas will join for select dates.
“Every night is a new night,” Jones says of life on the ever-open road. “A new audience. And we’re very lucky because we get to feel welcome when we walk onstage. But it changes depending on everything: what’s going on at home, what happened that day, fires you have to put out, everything.”
Juke Box Heroes 2020 follows the summer 2019 arrival of Foreigner’s tenth live album (and music film), Double Vision: Then and Now. Captured at a 2017 concert at Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, the release celebrated 40 years since Double Vision, which scored its creators their third, fourth, and fifth charting singles.
Reuniting original members of the band including frontman Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood, Dennis Elliott, Ian McDonald, and Rick Wills with Jones (the sole remaining founder) along with his current lineup — singer Kelly Hansen, Tom Gimbel, Jeff Pilson, Michael Bluestein, Bruce Watson and Chris Frazier — the 14-song LP includes cuts from five past albums and a mostly-acoustic rendition of “And the Flame Still Burns,” which Jones wrote for the 1998 film, Still Crazy.
“Everybody had different ideas of how it was going to go,” Jones recalls of the reunion. “It was actually a little edgy in the beginning, but literally within two days, everybody was getting along like they’d known each other for 20-30 years. Lou [Gramm] and Kelly [Hansen] got on like a house of cards!”
Hearing songs which have kept Foreigner in the Top 20 list of Classic Rock station’s since the format’s inception, like “Feels Like the First Time” or “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” performed live with such revelry is a healthy experience for longtime fans — a sonic nootropic for listeners who recall these tunes from their high school days, if not their childhood. Gramm’s strident voice flies over proto-hard rock riffs, played now on elder instruments by elder men, to summon the magic of these tunes’ original renderings, while updating them with a sleek production. The result is a return-to-form, rediscovering the inspiration behind their music music while looking forward to legacy — a double vision.
As Jones, who was inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame by Billy Joel in 2013, puts it: “everybody was getting this feeling of, ‘wow, we’ve done some pretty good stuff together.’ And look at us now, we’re carrying on.”
Tickets to Juke Box Heroes 2020 can be purchased here.
Feel the energy of rock icons live! Book your tickets for the tour featuring Styx, Foreigner, and Juke Box Heroes and enjoy a night of timeless music.
