Lou Gramm accused the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame of misleading Foreigner ahead of their induction ceremony last month.
Gramm said during an interview he, along with co-founders keyboardist Al Greenwood and bassist Rick Wills, thought they would play a big part in the night’s performance. But he claimed they only found out hours before the event that others would be performing shortened Foreigner songs instead.
“The thing for me is I am first and foremost a rock singer, and it’s the Rock Hall of Fame,” Gramm told in an interview with SiriusXM. “And somehow I couldn’t sing a rock song at the Rock Hall of Fame when I’m being inducted? It doesn’t make any sense to me, and it sticks in my craw.”
Gramm wasn’t aware that the original Foreigner wouldn’t perform at the ceremony. “As soon as Dennis found out that we weren’t performing on our night, he decided he wasn’t gonna come. And we’re just going, ‘Dennis, come on… We’re gonna play.’ … And then we found out the afternoon of the show that we weren’t performing.”
“We thought we were gonna be performing, and Dennis was gonna be there, and we’d have the guitar player from the new Foreigner play mixed parts and play a couple songs. And then we found out at the last minute that it was the new Foreigner who was gonna be playing and Rick and Al would be standing there singing background vocals,” he added.
Gramm also earlier talked about his bandmates’ absences from the ceremony. While the singer is upset that the original lineup couldn’t perform together, he clarified that it was a very special show. “Rick Wills, Al Greenwood, and I were there representing the band. It was unfortunate, but Mick Jones could not be there; he’s not in the best of health,” the singer explained. “Dennis Elliott couldn’t be there either, for one reason or another. But the three of us represented, and it was an incredible honor. The show was one highlight after another, and the others being inducted were very special too.”
Elliott said in a Facebook statement that the last-minute schedule provided by the event organizers was ‘totally unacceptable,’ and he decided to stay home even though he was getting ready to attend. In addition to Elliott, Foreigner also revealed in a separate statement that Mick Jones wouldn’t be joining the ceremony either.
Still, the ceremony went on and it included performances by Slash, Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith, Demi Lovato, and Kelly Clarkson to honor the band.