Patiently awaiting the recognition of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the decades of music he and his band had created, Foreigner founder/guitarist/songwriter Mick Jones had endured far more than double vision. Jones experienced both heart surgery in 2012 and currently Parkinson’s Disease, which all but render it impossible for Jones to tour with the current band. Foreigner original lead singer/co-writer Lou Gramm had his own serious bout with a non-malignant yet debilitative brain tumor, which sidelined Gramm’s solo career as well until very recently, and original Foreigner multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald was inducted with the band posthumously after dying in 2022.
Yet through technology and sheer luck, a cassette work tape of a previously unreleased Mick Jones- Lou Gramm song called “Turning Back the Time” surfaced, replete with call and response vocals in the chorus which are simply unmistakable. It was a nice gem to find among the many diamonds on Turning Back the Time and which we included here along with “Feels Like the First Time”, “Cold as Ice”, “Hot Blooded”, “Double Vision”, “Head Games”, “Urgent”, “Waiting for a Girl Like You”, “Jukebox Hero”, and the sublime “I Want to Know What Love Is”. Mick Jones and Lou Gramm are my guests In the Studio as Foreigner finally has been awarded full citizenship in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! –Redbeard