Foreigner – “Urgent,” circa ‘81

A friend of mine once observed that you know you’re getting older when most of your favorite bands are touring without their original singers. Thankfully, of course, my favorite band (Cheap Trick, for anyone who hasn’t figured that out yet) is one of the few bands from my youth with complete line-up intact. Even more reason to dig them!

This same friend is actually a writer for a Midwest newspaper and, this past summer, he found himself scheduled to interview members of two of his favorite bands from his teenage years: Foreigner and Styx. The only problem was that neither guy was actually a member of their respective band at the time. Thus, he approached the idea of interviewing Foreigner singer Kelly Hansen and Styx singer/keyboardist Lawrence Gowan with some trepidation.

What on earth would he ask mere hired guns whose job it was to help a couple original members hustle a revamped version of a once-great band on the nostalgia and casino circuit? (more…)