LOU GRAMM Is Planning To Release Six New Songs This Year

Former FOREIGNER singer Lou Gramm has told RockBandReviews.com that he is planning to release some new solo material later this year. "I'm working on some things now that were extra songs on my solo albums," he said. "If there's 10 songs on the album, you usually record 13 and pick the best 10, or the 10 that are finished. So the other three have been siting around for 25, 30 years, and I went back recently and listened to them, and they sounded so good that I finished them. Starting in about two months, maybe three months, I'm gonna be releasing three songs on downloads and see how that works out. So those songs will be heard for the first time. And then in another three or four months, there's gonna be three more new songs released. So that could be going on for six or eight months, and we'll see what happens."

Gramm also said that he is "thinking about" releasing a greatest-hits package of his non-FOREIGNER works.

"I know the 'Ready Or Not' [1987] album was released on Rhino a few years back, but they never released 'Long Hard Look' [1989]," he said. "So I'm speaking with them recently and currently and wondering if that's an option that they're exploring, and the possibility of a greatest-hits album, between the singles from my first two albums and something from SHADOW KING, and maybe a couple of the movie songs, 'Lost In The Shadows' and things like that that I have a few of. So I think there's enough for a greatest-hits album, and that would be a lot of fun to release."

This past December, Gramm announced that he was retiring from performing as a solo artist. But he later clarified that he wasn't completely walking away from performing live.

SHADOW KING was a collaboration between Gramm and current DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell. The group released a self-titled album in 1991 and performed live only once, at the Astoria Theatre in London, England on December 13, 1991.

By the time Gramm left FOREIGNER for the first time in 1990, he had already released two successful solo albums: the aforementioned "Ready Or Not" and "Long Hard Look". He went on to launch LOU GRAMM BAND, which released an all-Christian rock album in 2009. He followed it up with "My Baby" in 2015.

The 68-year-old Gramm left FOREIGNER for good in 2002 and has battled health issues in recent years, including the removal of a non-cancerous tumor. He told the Democrat & Chronicle last year that he was planning to retire, but still reunited with FOREIGNER for several shows in 2018 to celebrate the band's 40th anniversary.

Gramm was the voice on FOREIGNER's biggest hits, including "Feels Like The First Time" and "Cold as Ice" from the band's eponymous debut in 1977, and later songs like "Hot Blooded" and "I Want to Know What Love Is".

FOREIGNER replaced Gramm with Kelly Hansen in 2005. Guitarist Mick Jones, the only remaining original member, suffered from some health issues beginning in 2011, eventually resulting in heart surgery in 2012.