Lou Gramm comes, for many the best rock singer in history, who survived a brain tumor and returned to Foreigner

An opinion not very accepted: Lou Gramm He is one of the best rock singers of his time (1977-1987), for not exaggerating and maintaining that of all time.

As the vocalist of Foreigner always showed a voice of broad record, very ductile, which can sing rock with indisputable fierce (Hot Blooded), or undertake tender ballads in love (Waiting for a girl like you).

He even got his voice to stand out in the choral section of one of the most cloying issues that humanity remembers: I want to know what love is (1984), del multiplatino Provocative agent. If attention is paid, it will be perceived that, in a sea of ​​voices, that of Lou Gramm is the one that always sails in the roof line, with a control voice and unique falsettes.

Everything was a happy coincidence: people looking for people. Musicians looking for musicians … and find them to form an uncertain destination band. “Foreigner” means “foreigner”, and it was the simplest and most atredine name that Mick Jones found (British, member of the legendary Spooky Tooth) and Lou Gramm (New York, former Black Sheep), to form his band.

It was completed with Ian McDonald, another British who militated in the ranks of King Crimsonand three more Americans: Dennis Elliott, Greenwood and Ed Gagliardi. They composed songs, recorded an album and the unexpected happened: the thing exploded and the album sold four million copies in 1977.

What was the formula? The songs; well touched and especially well sung by Lou Gramm, who spoke with Clarion with views to the show that the band will provide in Tecnópolis on May 8.

“I think the songs we composed with Mick Jones- he explains- had something special, and were correct for the type of rock at that point in history. Disc music came down, and rock was returning strongly.”

One does not want tune in a frequency of bands like Boston, reo Speedwagon and Toto: midpoint between romantic pop and outdated rock.

“The fans wanted to hear good rock,” Gramm continues, “and that was what we gave them. The songs were developed and some were very rocked and dirty, and others more crystalline and pop. It was not something thought, the impetus of the songs came from the same place, and rock songs or ballads were applauded in the same way by the audience. receptive ”.

Popular success was unappealable: it cannot be discussed with an album that sold 4 million albums (five today, and in its history and Foreigner discography it exceeds 80 million), with songs like Feels like the first time o Cold as icethat they made their way, alone, without too much advertising.

But the voice of critics is like an insect that does not see it but can be heard: a chicharra of opinion. Maybe that has been the factor that delayed Foreigner’s entrance to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which just occurred last year, when they could have entered two decades ago. “I am happy to be,” says Gramm, “and I never understood why we were not induced, or even nominated, with our contemporaries. But I am no longer worried about solving that mystery.”

Foreigner is far from being a band with a single hit: nine themes of the group arrived at Top 40; Although it is true that I want to know what love is It stands out because he overwhelmed the limits of the Anglo world and spread throughout the planet.

Was this ballad perceived as a success by the band before triumphing? “It was a beautiful song- he was sincere Gramm- and I sang her with great pleasure, but I think Atlantic Records had faith that it came to No. 1. That choir was magnificent and we worried that it stood out in the song. And it became something magical, something fantastic.”

Lou Gramm even had a solo success with Midnight Blue In 1987, after the overwhelming success of Provocative agent, The one who followed a huge tour.

“I remember,” he says, “that we played about a year and a half, and when we returned Mick Jones told us that he was not going to be available for a year because he was going to take his wife to a cruise. We needed a break, but a month I started chopping the bug and I got together with the one I was Black Sheep’s bassist, my previous band, and we composed songs that I took to Atlantic Records.”

And he adds: “They asked me if there was more, and so it was that I edited my solo album Ready or notwe went on tour as Steve Miller Band supports and when Mick Jones was available again, I was already ready for another Foreigner album. ”That album was called Inside Information”.

The singer at some point in the 1990s left Foreigner, then returned and left again. But an event of those who change people’s lives made him recalculate everything, including his existence. For recurring migraines, vision problems and memory loss, he made a medical consultation in 1997 that resulted in a magnetic resonance. The result pulverized: un tumor cerebral inoperable.

“I consulted two or three surgeons specialized in removing such tumors. Two of them called me to their office and they told me to put my affairs in order, and that I stayed at home until the inevitable happened. I returned to my house to die. One night, seeing the program 60 minutes A doctor appeared talking about laser brain operations, the type of tumor I had. ”

Gramm spoke with the secretary of the doctor; Two days later he was in Boston, and the next one they operated. His chances were lowercase. “The operation lasted 19 hours and I remember talking to the doctor and astonishing myself as long as it had been, and even so, the man came to visit me. Until he told me: ‘Lou, I did not operate yesterday, they spent two days of the operation’.”

“The recovery,” he printed, “was very difficult, and had not less than three years, because after such deep surgery, your brain has to connect everything again. The doctor told me that she did not want her to go on a year and a half, but at five weeks she was already back in Japan on tour with Foreigner. How do I feel now? Fantastic.”

This will be Foreigner’s second presentation in Argentina, but the first for Lou Gramm, which was not in the previous formation. “I am sure because I waited all my life to be able to play in Argentina and meet Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, Mick Jones will not come this time because of his problem with Parkinson’s, but in two years the 50 Foreigner and Foreigner are fulfilled and Maybe we can meet all once again. This training we have now is very good. ”

And how does it feel to be “special guest” of a group in which he knew how to occupy a leader position? “It is a good thing, I left the group in 2005, but in the absence of Mick Jones for their health themes, some of us had to be on the tour. And the current band is very efficient, so these shows are going to be very fun for me, and from a very comfortable position, very convenient for someone who spent 19 hours in the operating room with the head open.”