Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and iconic 1970s band Foreigner recently decided to scrap plans to retire, citing what bassist Jeff Pilson described as “forward movement.”
“There’s just a lot of forward movement, and the band is incredibly excited,” Pilson told Billboard recently. The musician announced the band would transition lead singer duties from member Kelly Hansen to guitarist Luis Maldonado.
The band — known for his such as “I Want to Know What Love Is” and “Cold as Ice” — kicked off a farewell tour in the summer of 2023. The band saw increased demand after being inducted into the Hall of Fame last October.
“What started off as being a farewell tour now ended up being Kelly’s last tour and (the band) moving forward,” Pilson told Billboard.
Earlier this year, Hansen decided to skip the band’s tour dates in South America and Canada, leaving singing duties to Maldonado, who joined the band in 2021.
Hansen replaced the band’s original singer, Lou Gramm, in 2005, and explained the band’s reasons for a farewell tour two years ago:
“The time has come. We have more or less lived our lives on the road for almost eighteen years. We have always strived to give you our best and we intend to finish this the same way,” Hansen said at the time.
“Foreigner has a brilliant and increasingly demanding catalogue of songs to sing and I refuse to give them less than they deserve,” he continued. “So, we’re going to finish strong. I want to make it very clear how grateful and appreciative we are to our audiences all over the world who have supported this band. I’m sure there may be occasions when we’ll do some special appearances, but I think the time is coming for us to live off the road. Thank you all so much!”
Pilson told Billboard that there are no hard feelings within the band and that Hansen “deserves to have a wonderful life.”
He added that Maldonado stepping up to the mic came as somewhat of a surprise.
“Luis really had no intention of this,” Pilson said. “He was trying to talk Kelly into staying. And when it became clear Kelly really wants to live a life now … Luis just stepped up and, oh my God, that voice came through.”
Hansen said he’d step down after the band’s current U.S. leg of the tour, with the final dates planned for Oct. 10-11 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to Billboard.
