Original Foreigner vocalist Lou Gramm recently chatted on Backstage Pass Rock News and revealed Mick Jones’ plans that almost destroyed his solo career.
During the interview, Gramm was asked how it felt to have hit names under his own name. In response, he recalled the meeting his bandmate had with Ahmet Ertegün, the founder of Atlantic Records. According to Gramm, Jones told Ertegün:
“‘If Lou’s solo album reaches a very popular stage he’ll never come back to Foreigner.’ That’s what Mick told him.”
Though he had some hit songs, his fame started to die down after some time. He explained:
“So suddenly after ‘Midnight Blue,’ the next song that came out [before] ‘Ready Or Not,’ it was the title track and it did okay. Then the third single disappeared after two weeks. They didn’t promote it because Mick told him that he was sure I would come back to the band if the album didn’t do well, but if it did really good that I’d be gone forever. So after a big promotion for ‘Midnight Blue,’ suddenly there was less and less and less.”
Gramm then recalled how he found out something was wrong:
“In 1997 I called Atlantic Records I just wanted to see what the sales numbers were for the ‘Ready or Not’ album and they said it was 991,000 copies okay so I was 9,000 away from being platinum. 10 years later I called again. It was 996,000. So in 10 years, it sold 5,000 and I said ‘I’m getting a pile of sh*t here this is not right.’ So I didn’t look anymore, I didn’t ask anymore. I knew that I wasn’t getting the truth from anybody.”
Gramm Wasn’t ‘Treated Right’
The two have been in bad blood since the dispute about the credits of their hit song ‘I Want To Know What Love Is.’
Gramm earlier pointed out that everyone predicted the song would be a massive hit, and indeed it was. The song became Foreigner’s only No. 1 track. However, the singer has always argued that he played a major role in shaping the song, but received no acknowledgment because of Jones’ ‘greed.’ He also later confessed he was still bitter toward Jones about the song credits.
Then, in another interview, Gramm explained he wasn’t treated right in the band:
“I don’t dislike the guy — I like the guy — but I was not treated the way I thought I should be treated. And that’s not to say I’m a prima donna or anything. I just did not get my worth in particular songs to the point where not only my songwriting contributions, but my vocal contributions count as nothing. And there’s more than one song that that’s happened to… I’m not even gonna mention [what the other tracks are, besides ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’]. Honest to God, I don’t wanna mention [them]. But there’s a few.”
You can watch the interview below.