Ex-FOREIGNER Singer LOU GRAMM Says He Will Get Together With MICK JONES In September To Work On New Music

Co-founding FOREIGNER frontman Lou Gramm says that he will get together with the band's leader, guitarist Mick Jones, later in the year to write new songs that will be made available on the two musicians' upcoming solo albums, both of which are expected to surface in 2015.

"Sometime in September, Mick and I are gonna get together and write some music," Gramm revealed during a June 17 appearance on "The Wease Show" (web site) on 95.1 The Brew, a classic rock station in Rochester, New York. "I'm excited about it and very much looking forward to it. I'm actually helping him with a couple of songs on a solo album that he's gonna be releasing, and he's gonna help me with a couple of songs on an album that I'll be releasing next year."

Jones and Gramm's June 2013 performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is" and "Juke Box Hero" at the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in New York City marked the first time the pair has performed together in a decade after Gramm left FOREIGNER for a second time. According to Gramm, "There's always the possibility that we'll perform together again — that's been mentioned between the two of us, and we kind of said, 'Yeah, that would be fun' — but there's nothing going on between our respective managements about, 'Oh, let's make sure we put that together.'"

The singer also commented on the recent interview with Jones in Classic Rock magazine in which the guitarist revealed that the duo, who wrote most of FOREIGNER's classic hits together, might be revisiting some of the tunes they were "writing in the '80s, but never quite finished." Jones added: "We might take time next year to bring a couple of those out of the vaults. . . It's a question of wading through them and finding a cassette machine to play them on."

Said Gramm: "It's actually the songs we were writing, working on together when we split up in 2003, so those were songs that were done at the end of the '90s and early 2000s, and they're really good. I have the demos."

When asked if a FOREIGNER reunion — which would sideline current lead singer Kelly Hansen — would be unfair, Jones told Classic Rock: "Kelly has dedicated everything to the band. He's phenomenal. So anything I do will be sensitive to that. If Lou and I do something, it'll be inclusive. No way will he replace Kelly.”

Jones was asked what shape a Lou Gramm / Kelly HansenFOREIGNER show might take, and he explained, "Something special where the old members can be involved. That would be cool. But nothing in the immediate future."

Mick Jones told The Pulse Of Radio that upon forming FOREIGNER in 1976, he knew that Lou Gramm would prove to be invaluable with a signature voice — with the songwriting chops to match. "I knew he had written, he was a writer too, and always felt that, y'know, it was important that the singer in any band had something to do with, [laughs] obviously, creating the songs, 'cause they're gonna sing them," he said. "Lou came up with some great titles; I think 'Head Games', I think 'Hot Blooded', too. And he developed into a really good writer."

FOREIGNER kicked off its joint tour with STYX and special guest, former EAGLES guitarist Don Felder, on May 14, in Wichita, Kansas at the Intrust Bank Arena.