![]() ![]() In 2005, you said you didn't know whether you wanted to continue making music. Yeah, I train 'em well! On this new CD, you'll know it's a Foreigner album but I think it's also got quite a contemporary touch. It is remarkable how much the current group sounds like the old records even though it's a totally different lineup except for you. And I think, whatever the changes have been, the band retains its identity. I don't rule out working with Lou but I've really embarked on a new chapter of the band. That's a reason the band was very unsettled during that time-all the changes in personnel. We had a number of battles and usually in those battles some member of the band would suffer. That came down through the dynamics between me and the lead singer at that time, Lou Gramm. Things about the lifestyle had started to take their toll. And during the '90s, there were problems within the band. ![]() Well, the music changed in that period and for a while any classic rock band was regarded as a bad word. Our first album sold four-and-a-half million.Īnd why do you think your subsequent releases sold disappointingly? We were on Atlantic Records in the company of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Genesis, and none of those bands had sold over a million at that time. It was as big a surprise to me at the time as it was to everybody else. What do you think made your first six albums such big sellers? If we're in California where she's based, she'll come fly us around. ![]() She checks out the safety records and the crew and all that stuff. We call her Captain Babe but her name is actually Lisa Johnson. I'm looking into the possibility of a King Air next year for part or full ownership. Have you considered moving to a fractional share or even full ownership? And sometimes they're five miles from the gig instead of 15. Sometimes there's a little municipal airfield that the Citation can't get into but the King Air can. The advantage of the King Air is that it gets us into most any field we want to go to. We generally move eight people, so the Citation works well for us. If it's less and there's a King Air 350 available, we go with that. We've used a Legacy 600 or GIV when we have to move the whole crew and some equipment, but we generally use a Citation V if it's over 500 miles. We'll use charter for trips over about 300 miles. We'll probably end up doing about 150 shows this year. Because it's very tiring-the touring, the whole business, day by day, checking into hotels. Even if we do just one extra show a month, we'll be able to afford to fly to all the inconvenient places and take opportunities to arrive in time to rest. If you drive, you get there at like six in the morning, but it's a 55-minute flight. Tomorrow, there's a road trip of about 400 miles from Atlantic City to Williamsburg. Well, the buses are quite comfortable, but I just can't sleep in those things. And then later, when the record business was in full swing, everybody had private jets. In those days, we used the GI, which is a turboprop. Today, Jones is Foreigner's sole original member and the only musician to have played on all of its albums. The band counts 30 present and former members, including four lead vocalists and seven drummers. Such hits stopped coming after 1987, however, and by the time lead vocalist Lou Gramm quit the group in 2003, he was just one of many players in a big game of musical chairs. Jones also has a habit of embellishing tracks with surprises, most notably the legendary Junior Walker's sax solo on "Urgent" and the gospel choir that enlivens "I Want to Know What Love Is," the group's chart-topping biggest single. The band's frequently guitar-driven music, which he has described as "powerful but sentimental," employs high-energy vocals, arena-shaking percussion, indelible melodies and hooks, and lyrics that almost inevitably talk about love or lust. Jones-who wrote or cowrote every one of those songs and coproduced all the group's studio albums-developed Foreigner's signature sound early on and has never strayed far from it. Last year's two-disc No End In Sight: The Very Best of Foreigner includes 32 tracks, many of which were major hits. ![]() The group scored five consecutive top-10 albums between 19 and produced a long list of singles that became radio staples-"Feels Like the First Time," "Cold As Ice," "Hot Blooded," "Double Vision" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You," to name a few. But he and his cohorts have sold lots of records-70 million of them, in fact. Because the founder and guitarist of the rock group Foreigner rarely sings lead vocals and also because the band touts its brand name rather than its individual members, the UK native has never become particularly well known in his own right. You might never have heard Mick Jones' name, but if you've spent any time near a radio since the late 1970s, you've probably heard plenty of his music. ![]()
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