Formed in New York City back in 1976 by British and American musicians, Foreigner became in the following decades one of the best-selling bands of all time, with an estimated amount of more than 80 million records sold worldwide.
The only musician who was part of the band since they started is the British guitarist, keyboardist and producer Mick Jones. However, since 2023 he is not touring with the band, although they are currently on the road with their farewell tour. In an interview with Ethan Dometrius (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), the bassist Jeff Pilson (Ex-Dokken), said that there is no end date for Foreigner’s farewell tour, because they still don’t know when they wil finally retire.
Jeff Pilson says there is not end date for the Foreigner farewell tour
He explained that the band’s singer Kelly Hansen (Who replaced the Lou Gramm in 2005) wants Foreigner to finish their activities before he can’t deliver the performance the songs need in terms of vocals, since they are not easy to sing. So that’s a conversation they had over the years and that’s why they want to every year do less shows but maybe not stop completely.
“(Foreigner is) not going away. We’re not falling off the face of the earth. We’re just not gonna be doing the nine- and 10-month tours like we used to. But we’ll still be around, and you’ll still hear us. Well, because we are looking at it, like, ‘Well, let’s just see what happens’ — we know, for instance, that next year we’re gonna do some shows, but we’re gonna do a lot less. So we just kind of sit down and say, ‘Well, how long do we wanna go? When do we wanna go?” How many shows do we wanna do?'”
“And that way we can kind of wind it down nicely over the next few years. No absolute end date. That’s not the objective. There is no absolute end date yet. That’s not the plan. It’s a wind-down right now. But again, we call it a farewell tour because this is the last time we’re gonna really be touring, touring, touring,” Jeff Pilson said.
The band’s current line-up has Jeff Pilson (Bass), Kelly Hansen (Vocals), Michael Bluestein (Keyboards), Bruce Watson (Guitar), Chris Frazier (Drums) and Luis Maldonado (Guitar).