Who needs candy or flowers, when you can give the gift of music to your better half with a red-hot limited-edition vinyl from FOREIGNER. The band continues its epic two-year farewell tour with Las Vegas residences at The Venetian Hotel, a run of Canadian shows, and this summer, co-headlining the “Renegades & Juke Box Heroes” tour with STYX and special guest John Waite. Now, FOREIGNER announces “Farewell – The Very Best Of Foreigner (Hot Blooded Edition)”, a very special limited-edition album, available exclusively at tour stops and online in time for Valentine’s Day at this location.
A must-have collector’s album, this limited-edition striking red vinyl features FOREIGNER‘s greatest hits produced by Mick Jones with Jeff Pilson. Tracks include FOREIGNER‘s most beloved hits, such as “Hot Blooded”, “Cold As Ice”, “Urgent”, “Double Vision” and the worldwide No. 1 hit “I Want To Know What Love Is”, among many more. Only 5,000 individually numbered albums are available, and with many tour dates already selling out, these albums are sure to go quickly.
Mick Jones continues to elevate FOREIGNER‘s influence and guide the band to new horizons with his stylistic songwriting, indelible guitar hooks and multi-layered talents. Lead singer Kelly Hansen, one of rock’s greatest showmen, has led FOREIGNER into the digital age, inspiring a whole new generation of fans. Bassist Jeff Pilson, Michael Bluestein on keyboards, guitarist Bruce Watson, Chris Frazier on drums, and guitarist Luis Maldonado provide an unprecedented level of energy that has resulted in the re-emergence of the astounding music that speaks to FOREIGNER‘s enduring popularity.
With more Billboard Top 10 hits than JOURNEY, and just as many as FLEETWOOD MAC, FOREIGNER is universally hailed as one of the most popular rock acts in the world with a formidable musical arsenal that continues to propel sold-out tours and album sales, now exceeding 80 million. Responsible for some of rock and roll’s most enduring anthems, FOREIGNER still rocks the charts more than 40 years into the game with massive airplay and continued Billboard Top 200 album success. Streams of FOREIGNER‘s hits are approaching 15 million per week.
“Farewell – The Very Best Of Foreigner” track listing:
Side A:
01. Feels Like The First Time
02. Cold As Ice
03. Long, Long Way From Home
04. Hot Blooded
05. Double Vision
06. Head Games
Side B:
01. Dirty White Boy
02. Urgent
03. Waiting For A Girl Like You
04. Juke Box Hero
05. I Want To Know What Love Is
In a recent interview with Raul Amador of Bass Musician Magazine, Pilson spoke about FOREIGNER‘s ongoing two-year farewell tour. He said: “There may be something going on in ’25; we just haven’t heard yet. But what I will tell you is at the end of ’24 will be the end of our doing long tours. That’s really what we mean by this farewell tour. We’re not gonna do the long tours anymore. No more nine months of the year on the road. That will end at the show in Vegas. There may be some other things happening in ’25. We’ll see. It’s all kind of to be determined, but the gist of it is that we don’t want to do those long tours anymore, and that’s what’s going by the wayside.”
Regarding why now is the right time for FOREIGNER to call it quits, Pilson said: “It’s traveling. It’s family. It’s all that stuff combined. We’re not that young So, there is all that. And basically we wanna have a life; it would be nice to have more of a life. I mean, my daughter is in college now. I’ve missed a lot of stuff with her, and so I wouldn’t mind going home and spending a little more time in my studio ’cause, boy, do I love to record in my studio. [Laughs]”
In December, Hansen spoke to Guy “Favazz” Favazza of the St. Louis, Missouri radio station KSHE 95 about the “Renegades & Juke Box Heroes” trek with STYX. After Favazza suggested to Hansen that FOREIGNER extended its farewell tour in order to take in the STYX dates, Kelly insisted that this is not the case. “I’ve been saying constantly, in every interview, on stage during the show, at the meet-and-greets, everywhere I can, that this has always been a two-year farewell, because we couldn’t get everywhere in one year,” he explained. “I’ve been saying it all over the place. Listen, of course, I can’t exactly repeat everything, every day, everywhere, all the time, but I’ve been saying it constantly. So if someone has not looked more than one inch in front of their face, then I can’t help them. I’ve been saying it, so it’s always been the plan to do this for 2023 and 2024. The days of touring nine months a year is over after 2024… And that is over, and I’m sure there’s gonna be certain appearances or shows or something maybe along the way after that, but the days of doing this nine-months-a-year thing is over.”
Kelly continued: “I am not one to go out there and say, ‘It’s just gonna be for two weeks,’ and then 10 years later I’m saying the same thing. That’s not who I am, that’s never who I’ve been, and I’ve never portrayed myself like that. And so if you didn’t hear it any other time during the year last year, I’m sorry, but I have been saying it constantly that it’s gonna be a two-year thing.”
In July 2023, Hansen was asked by Mike Hsu of 100 FM The Pike if he and his FOREIGNER bandmates already know where and when the final show of the farewell tour will take place. Hansen said: “We’re just starting to kind of wrap our brains around what that might be. And listen, there’s a lot of pressure from a lot of different areas to get me to continue to do this. And I can’t see that I’m gonna continue to do this. So we’re now looking… ‘Cause when you’re a band like FOREIGNER, you’re already booking a year in advance. So we’re already deeply into 2024. But we haven’t decided yet where the last show’s gonna be.”
The only remaining original member of FOREIGNER, Jones suffered from some health issues beginning in 2011, eventually resulting in heart surgery in 2012. Ever since, it is never announced whether he will be appearing with the band for specific shows — it just depends how he is feeling.
Hansen told 100 FM The Pike about Jones: “He’s with us whenever he’s able to be with us. And he is still the architect of this band. And he and I have worked closely for many years. And the great thing about it is that we’ve always been very simpatico about our ideas and about how we think things should be done. So, yeah, whenever he can be with us, he is.”
After singer Lou Gramm left FOREIGNER in 2003, Jones took some time off before regrouping a couple years later with an entirely new lineup, featuring Hansen and Pilson, among others.
Gramm was the voice on FOREIGNER‘s biggest hits, including “Feels Like The First Time” and “Cold As Ice” from the band’s eponymous debut in 1977, and later songs like “Hot Blooded” and “I Want To Know What Love Is”.
Photo credit: Krishta Abruzzini (courtesy of Vanessa Menkes Communications)