Ex-Foreigner singer Lou Gramm has been reflecting on the brain surgery he once had on a tumour that left him struggling to perform live.
This was – it must be pointed out – nearly 30 years ago. But as Gramm related to Pete Ganbarg on his Rock N’ Roll High School podcast, it was a seriously traumatic episode in his long career.
It was 1997 and Foreigner were still touring all over the world. "(It was) not a cancerous brain tumour,” Gramm explained. “But a large brain tumour that had tentacles that were wrapped around my optic nerve and pituitary gland and made my adrenals defunct."
"I had to re-learn how to talk. My surgeon told me, 'I'd like you to, to take a year and a half off to make sure everything is as good as we hope it is.’ The doctor wanted me to not perform or travel for at least a year and a half because traveling with the air pressure in an airplane and just exerting myself when I've been through such a traumatic experience. But Foreigner’s management had booked the shows all over again about a month after I got outta the hospital."
Ganbarg remarked that that must have been challenging, to which Gramm spluttered: "Challenging? I couldn't remember the words to the songs. I used to dance around a lot on stage.
"I planted my mic stand in one place and had the beginnings of the first three or four words of every verse written out in a semicircle around me. And we toured the world like that."
Somehow, Gramm got through that tour and remained in the band until 2003. With Foreigner now on an extended farewell tour celebrating their fiftieth anniversary, Gramm has been making guest appearances with his old bandmates. Indeed, he’s billed alongside the group as 'Foreigner 4 With Lou Gramm' for six special shows in April this year – all in Florida – during which they’ll presumably perform the Foreigner 4 album in full.
A European tour follows in the summer, with a show at London’s O2 on June 19, though Gramm is not expected to make those dates.
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