Foreigner brings 'Greatest Hits' Tour to Tucson

Officially, the 1970s classic rock band Foreigner doesn’t kick off its farewell tour until July.

But when the band with lone founding member Mick Jones plays Linda Ronstadt Music Hall on Monday, April 3, it very well could be their last Tucson show.

The so-called “Greatest Hits” Tour coming our way is a run-up to the “Farewell Tour” that kicks off July 6 in Atlanta and runs through the end of September. That trek, with Loverboy opening, stops at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre — formerly Ak-Chin Pavilion — in Phoenix on Aug. 20.

“We’re going to go out and do our best to really service this legacy and let the world know that even though Foreigner may not be touring any more, the Foreigner music will live on,” longtime bassist Jeff Pilson said during an early February phone call. “What we want to do is we want to get everywhere we can and when we’re done we’re done.”

The farewell tour comes 47 years after British songwriter/guitarist Jones and American vocalist Lou Gramm joined forces in New York City with Brit rockers Ian McDonald and Dennis Elliott and American musicians Al Greenwood and Ed Gagliardi.

The band released its eponymous debut in 1977, the first of five consecutive five-time platinum albums (5 million-plus in sales). The debut was the band’s introduction, and what an intro it was: the album made it to No. 4 on the U.S. album charts and landed a pair of songs (“Feels Like the First Time” and “Cold As Ice”) in the Top 10.

They racked up 16 Top 30 hits over the years, including “Hot Blooded,” “Head Games,” “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Juke Box Hero,” and the anthemic ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

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Pilson, who joined the band 20 years ago, said they will try to pack as many of those hits on their Tucson setlist as possible, but “sometimes we have to leave out some popular songs, and that’s bizarre but that’s the curse of having a catalogue of great material.”

“Making a setlist for this band is cheating because there are so many hits,” added Pilson, who is on a lineup that includes lead vocalist Kelly Hansen, whose father retired to Tucson years ago.

“You’re going to get Foreigner firing on all cylinders, playing their hits, and rocking out in Tucson will be Kelly’s dad,” he said.

As the band winds down its tenure, Pilson said many nights on stage remind him of when he joined Foreigner after playing bass with glam rockers Dokken and the heavy metal band Dio in the 1980s and ’90s. He thought back then that he was signing up for a weekends-only gig, until Foreigner recruited Hansen in 2005.

“At the time, I was producing bands and I was thinking well, I guess I can go out on weekends,” Pilson recalled. “I just love the band and Mick is a wonderful human being and so I wanted to do it. And they were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s just going to be weekend work.’ Of course, once Kelly joined the band, that ended quickly and we went very full-time. But I never would have guessed it would have lasted this long.”

“I think we are all very grateful for what we have and for this great catalogue of material and this great band,” he said. “We love each other. We love to play together. None of that is ever lost. I think it makes for the feeling of the first time if not the actual first time.”