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Foreigner founder Mick Jones says he sometimes has to do a double take when he looks into the crowd and sees young people singing along with Foreigner songs.

"You think, 'Wait a minute. What year is this?'" Jones laughs.

Indeed, Foreigner has crossed generations well. The band's hits - including "Urgent," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "Head Games" and "Hot Blooded" - continue to be classic rock radio favorites and some have turned up on videogames, including "Guitar Hero."

Foreigner shot to success in 1977 with a self-titled debut album that contained the hits "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold As Ice." The album sold more than 5 million copies, and the follow up, "Double Vision," sold 7 million. With British-born Jones as guitarist and lead songwriter and American Lou Gramm on vocals, the group spent a decade at the top of the charts.

Jones says the band's instant success brought on charges that the group had been formed by committee.

"We didn't have a history," he says. "Plus, it was the dawn of punk, so there was resistance from critics."

Jones says he has since learned that both Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten and music critic Lester Bangs were closet Foreigner fans, although the latter "used to assassinate us in print."

"I found out that at the end of parties he would be playing air guitar to Foreigner songs," says Jones.

Jones gives much of the credit to Gramm for the band's success, although he says Gramm's style took time to develop.

"When he joined he was a rough diamond," says Jones. "I took him into the writing process ... but if anybody had a good idea we'd use it. We kept it as democratic as possible, but there always has to be a captain to steer the ship."

The band's hits stopped coming at the end of 1980s and Gramm left the group in 1990. He rejoined the band in 1994 and left again in 2002.

"The band ground to a halt," says Jones. "My relationship with Lou, well, we had hit the end of the road together."

Still, Jones says he was unhappy with the way the band ended.

"It didn't deserve to go out that way. I had the idea to start up again and see what happened."

In 2005, he recruited Kelly Hansen to take over lead vocals and began touring and writing new songs. The album "Can't Slow Down" was released in 2009 and found the band sounding surprisingly energetic.

"I didn't put this together with the aim of creating some nostalgia trip," says Jones. "I put the band together with the aim of recording a new album. I think it shows off the band's talent and retains the integrity of the band. These songs have stood the test of time and people love the old stuff, but we're integrating new stuff into the shows and we're getting a great reception."

Jones says some fans have said the new album sounds as if it should have been the follow-up to "4," the band's most successful album.

He says he's a long way from retirement.

"I could sit back and vegetate into old age, but I don't feel like doing that. Besides, the experience with this new band has injected me with a whole new enthusiasm. I'm rediscovering feelings that I had in the very beginning and getting up on stage is fun every night."

© 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel
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