foreigner tour 1993

New Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Foreigner will bid farewell to Missouri this summer

In the sports world, fans rarely have a chance to see a star play after being named to their game's hall of fame.

In music, the opportunity remains rare but comes around a bit more often. Classic-rock fans will get that chance — at least three of them — starting this summer when newly-minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Foreigner swing through the Show Me State.

The hall's 2024 class was named Sunday; Foreigner joins the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Mary J. Blige and more to be inducted in a future ceremony.

Foreigner's three scheduled Missouri dates are part of a farewell tour running through the end of 2024, and possibly beyond. Closest to home here in Columbia, the band will play the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia Aug. 8 with Maggie Rose. Tickets are $50-$60.

First though, the band will play Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in the St. Louis area June 18; Foreigner will also play Ozarks Amphitheater in Camdenton Oct. 4.

Before the band hits its final stride, here's a quick look at Foreigner, by the numbers.

Foreigner, by the numbers

1976: The year British guitarist Mick Jones formed the band in New York City.

1: The highest American chart position achieved by one of Foreigner's singles; "I Want to Know What Love Is," the band's only No. 1 stateside hit, topped the charts in 1984.

9: The amount of Top 10 hits the band scored in the U.S., starting with 1977's "Feels Like the First Time" and ending with "I Don't Want to Live Without You" in 1988.

2009: The date of the band's most recent album release, "Can't Slow Down"; AllMusic scribe Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the record "sounds like it could have been a hit in the late '80s."

2003: The end of star singer Lou Gramm's official run in Foreigner, though he has popped up and on stage with the band on a few occasions.

1: Number of original Foreigner members left: Jones is the only remaining founder, though several of the current members have been around for some time, including singer Kelly Hansen since 2005.

Jones' touring role has been limited for some time by Parkinson's disease.

"As to whether I get up on stage and perform hasn’t really been decided as yet," Jones told Billboard about the forthcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony . "In some ways it might be nice just to be there to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy being inducted."

To learn more about Foreigner's final run of shows, visit https://www.foreigneronline.com/ .

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at [email protected] or by calling 573-815-1731.   He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

Local News | Foreigner and Styx bring musical arms race to…

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Local News | Foreigner and Styx bring musical arms race to Michigan

This spring and summer, Foreigner, Styx, and former Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm head to Michigan for a slew of concerts.

Gary Johnson, the president of the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in Bay City, told The Morning Sun that “it was next to impossible to be listening to your car radio during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and not hear a song by either Foreigner or Styx.”

“Both bands had a penchant for crafting interesting albums along with catchy singles that enabled them to dominate playlists on both AM and FM stations,” he said.

Darcy Irland-Risener of Flint added that their hits, from “Come Sail Away” to “Juke Box Hero,” “Renegade” to “Hot Blooded,”completely saturated the airwaves of Michigan’s department stores, coffee shops, clubs, and restaurants at the same time.

However, numerous Michigan residents told The Morning Sun that they would not have chosen to escape Foreigner and Styx’s music even if they could have — and they cannot wait to see them perform.

Michigan Mania

Sharon Bell of Metro Detroit said that Foreigner has been her favorite band for over 40 years.

“My brother, a true music lover, bought me my very first album,” she said. “It happened to be Foreigner’s very first album, which I fell in love with.”

Connie Erwin-Flanagan of Niles said that her brothers introduced her to Styx when she was about 12 years old and that she has followed the band ever since.

“The first album I bought with my own money was The Grand Illusion,” she recalled.

Erwin-Flanagan also reminisced about helping the now-defunct JD’s Pizza deliver food to Styx guitarist and vocalist Tommy Shaw when he lived in Niles.

“He was very nice,” she said. “He would usually order a sausage and pepperoni, sometimes just a pepperoni. He always tipped really good. He’s such a down to Earth guy.”

As Michigan residents visit their former heroes at a string of Great Lakes State shows in the coming weeks, they should know that, while they were busy idolizing these two bands 40 years ago, those musical acts were similarly busy admiring each other.

Foreigner Admired Styx

Lou Gramm, Foreigner’s lead singer from its founding in 1976 to 1990 and then again from 1992 to 2003, told The Morning Sun that he greatly appreciated Styx’s talent.

“I always thought their musicianship was good, and their vocals were exemplary,” he said about the band founded four years before Foreigner.

“Their repertoire seemed to get better as time went by,” he continued. “Every album made me give it a second listen because I heard things in there that I really liked.”

Styx Admired Foreigner

Gramm may have heard Styx on the radio before the Chicago-founded band even knew who he was.

Nevertheless, Styx founding member, lead guitarist, and vocalist James Young told The Morning Sun that Foreigner came on Styx’s radar soon after the group released its self-titled 1977 debut album.

“They had some great rock songs, and their lead singer was fantastic,” he said. “And they had very strong guitar playing in Mick Jones.”

“Collectively, they wrote great songs, and they recorded great sounding records,” he continued. “I love that band.”

Foreigner Plays Catch-Up

Foreigner matched Styx’s musical success rapidly.

While Styx had one top 20 hit in the first four years of its musical career — “Lady,” which peaked at Number Six — all three of Foreigner’s debut album singles (“Feels Like the First Time,” “Cold As Ice,” and “Long, Long Way from Home”) hit the top 20.

“We were maybe a little more adventurous with the structure we applied where Foreigner’s [songs] are a little more predictable,” Young said. “Maybe that makes them a little more friendly to the average listener.”

“I think we were more of a vocal band, in a way, than Foreigner was,” he continued. “They were about a lead singer, but we were about the harmonies, in a sense, a little bit more, and trying to not be just one-trick ponies.”

A Hitmaking Arms Race

“Michael J,” a nationally syndicated iHeart Radio host heard on Central Michigan’s 98.5 WUPS-FM, told The Morning Sun that, by 1977, Foreigner and Styx seemed to be engaged in nothing short of a hitmaking arms race. When one band would break new ground, the other would quickly follow.

“Styx and Foreigner’s battle for ticket sales and the radio airwaves ignited in March of 1977” when Foreigner released its first single,” he said. “I vividly remember the debut of both of these ‘arena rockers’ because they were my first two concerts consecutively.”

Styx dropped its breakout record, The Grand Illusion, which counted the title track plus “Come Sail Away” and “Fooling Yourself” as hit singles, just four months after Foreigner released its breakthrough debut album.

Young said that, when recording The Grand Illusion, the band did not make a concerted effort to become a more mainstream-friendly group.

“We were kind of learning as we went along,” he said. “There was no premeditation to this whole thing.”

“To think that it was all pre-thought through before we got started— no, we were just trying to write another good song and then find a way to deliver it in a way that might catch somebody’s ear currently at that time,” he continued.

Which band had the more successful rise to fame? It depends on who you ask.

While Foreigner edged out The Grand Illusion commercially and in Billboard Hot 200 placement (number four for the former, number six for the latter), Michael J said he believed Styx offered morestage presence and overall concert excitement.

The Foreigner-Styx musical arms race continued the following year when Foreigner’s Double Vision (featuring “Hot Blooded,” “Blue Morning, Blue Day,” and the successful title track) and Styx’s Pieces of Eight (“Blue Collar Man,” “Renegade”) battled it out on the charts.

On Top of the World

In 1981, this friendly musical rivalry reached its climax.

Styx, still riding the high of releasing Paradise Theater (“The Best of Times,” “Too Much Time on My Hands”), its first number-one album, watched Foreigner drop the first number-one record of its own months later.

That album, 4, included “Juke Box Hero,” “Urgent,” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You.”

This competition-not-competition between the two groupsultimately resulted in a near-statistical tie in Billboard standings – one Number One single (“I Want to Know What Love Is”) and nine top ten hits for Foreigner, and one Number One (“Babe”) and eight top tens for Styx.

Catch Them Live!

This spring and summer, Michigan residents can hang with these rockers at a series of shows.

Styx will play at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort on Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4. Then, the band will return to Michigan in June with Foreigner for the first show of their Renegades-Juke Box Heroes tour, which will stop in Grand Rapids on June 11 and Clarkston on June 15.

Gramm will not reunite with his former bandmates for a few songs like he did at two 2017 Mt. Pleasant gigs to commemorate Foreigner’s 40th anniversary. However, on August 23, he will perform a full set of Foreigner classics in Clarkston with Poison’s Bret Michaels.

Gramm said that, after 52 years of being on the road, he will retire from touring later this year.

“I can’t say that I could go another 10 years, or five years even,” he said. I’ve run the course.”

Foreigner keyboardist Michael Bluestein told The Morning Sun that, after this tour, his band will reduce the number of shows it performs annually.

Young said that he will, to quote “Come Sail Away,” carry on with Styx.

“I do a lot of reading about what medical supplements to take, like vitamin D3 and K2,” said the guitarist, who played the role of Doctor Righteous for Styx’s 1983 rock opera and concept album Kilroy Was Here. “I’m in my 70s, but I love doing what I do and go out of my way to stay physically in shape.”

Mammoth Music Legacies

While some of these acts may be beginning to dissipate from the road, Bret Hoag, a music lecturer at the University of Michigan, told The Morning Sun that their legacies and impact on the modern-day music scene have demonstrated no signs of evaporating.

“At the University of Michigan, in my intermediate guitar classes, students had to learn and perform rock tunes to know for one of their projects,” he said. “Multiple times, 18- to 22-year-old students wanted to learn Foreigner and Styx’s songs.”

“They are bands that remain relevant.”

Event Information

Styx, Foreigner/Styx, Lou Gramm/Bret Michaels

– Styx – 8:00 p.m., Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5; Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort (Mount Pleasant)

– Foreigner and Styx – 6:45 p.m., Tuesday, June 11; Van AndelArena (Grand Rapids)

– Foreigner and Styx – 6:45 p.m., Saturday, June 15; Pine Knob Music Theatre (Clarkston)

– Lou Gramm and Bret Michaels – 7:00 p.m., Friday, August 23; Pine Knob Music Theatre (Clarkston)

(Tommy Behnke (@Tommy_Behnke) is a freelance journalist.)

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Orange Beach Middle & High School students to perform with Foreigner at The Wharf

O RANGE BEACH, Ala. ( WKRG ) — A group of 15 students at Orange Beach Middle & High School will join the stage and perform with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Foreigner at The Wharf Amphitheatre performance on August 16.

The students are a part of Grace Staton’s theater group that performs a variety of concerts and plays.

The Wharf will host the Renegades & Juke Box Heroes Tour with Foreigner, Styx and special guest John Waite.

This is not the first time Foreigner has performed at The Wharf with a local high school group. In 2014, the Gulf Shores High School choir performed with Foreigner at The Wharf Amphitheater.

On May 6, the Davidson High School Choir joined Foreigner on stage at the Saenger Theatre in downtown Mobile. The choir and the band performed “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

Tickets for the show in Orange Beach are on sale through ticketmaster.com , starting at $20.50. VIP packages begin at $275.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.

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