With Foreigner relations repaired and the double vision working again

David Renzi

Friday, June 25, 1999 | 3:23 a.m.

With Lou Gramm and Mick Jones unavailable for comment, Bruce Turgon was the obvious choice to relay the reasons for the breakup and subsequent reunion of Foreigner's heart and head.

After all, he and Gramm hail from the same town (Rochester, N.Y.), played together in the same band (Black Sheep) and Turgon was Gramm's bassist for the singer's solo career.

That two-album excursion ended in 1992 when Gramm rejoined Jones in a retooled Foreigner, three years after he departed.

Turgon went with him and cut the new "Mr. Moonlight," Foreigner's first album with its two principal members since 1987.

The way Turgon explains it, Gramm's decision to reunite with Jones wasn't so much his own as it was the will of Atlantic Records, Foreigner's and Gramm's former record company.

Despite "Midnight Blue," a hit single on Gramm's self-titled debut album, Turgon says the solo effort could never capture the full attention of the record company, which still had Foreigner on the brain.

"Foreigner had such a huge legacy for such a long time, and their only real desire was to cater to Lou long enough for him to go back and do a Foreigner record," Turgon says. "His effort was really hampered by that. It wasn't as fulfilling as it could have been if you have the full machinery of a record company who believes in you."

But, Turgon says, Gramm isn't unhappy, calling the reunion a "very satisfying next, logical step."

This Foreigner incarnation, going on three years, "is going great. The growth professionally in this has been really strong," he says. "There's a lot of creative input from all of the pertinent members. It's been a constantly upward cycle and a labor of love. It's a completely creative outlet for everybody here."

Turgon wasn't around for the Jones-Gramm split, but from his long association with Gramm, he was privy to the reason.

"There needed to be more of a common vision (a 'Double Vision?') between them," he says. "They were growing apart musically. ... Success at that level can be pretty heavy. There were factions pulling them apart. They had a chance to get a little distance and get a fresh perspective."

Turgon says the turning point came when Atlantic released a Foreigner greatest hits compilation, "The Very Best of and Beyond," causing Gramm and Jones to re-evaluate their estrangement.

According to press material, Gramm called Jones in May 1992, at the height of the Los Angeles riots, and the two met in a West Hollywood hotel, hashing out their differences.

"It (the greatest hits album) gave them new insight into what they were capable of and a whole new lease on this thing," Turgon says.

Foreigner reunited, and what was supposed to be a six-week tour in support of "The Very Best of and Beyond" ended up going 11 months.

"The band was just unbelievable at that point," Turgon says. "Everyone was saying it was the best Foreigner. There was such a tension to the dates. I thought we'd do six weeks and go on to doing Lou's solo career.

"That wasn't the case, but it's been good. I've known Mick almost as long as Lou has. It's been gratifying and satisfying to collaborate with him on this record and have it be as well received as it is."

"Mr. Moonlight" was released on the band's own Generama label and is regarded as a throwback to early Foreigner, which recorded a series of radio-friendly rock albums, beginning with the 5-million-selling "Foreigner" in 1977.

The band followed that with a pair of double platinum albums, "Double Vision" (1978) and "Head Games" (1979). Its total albums sales: more than 40 million.

"It's a little bit more of the element that originally brought Foreigner to the forefront," Turgon says.

"People's perception of the band over the last eight years is 'I Want to Know What Love Is' and 'Waiting For A Girl Like You.' The ballads were so huge. They forget that the basis of the band was rock songs -- 'Feels Like the First Time,' 'Double Vision,' 'Head Games,' 'Urgent.'"

Although the album's first single is a ballad, Turgon says much of "Mr. Moonlight" is a return to the band's rock roots.

"There was a real focus to put that excitement back in."

And Lou and Mick?

"They're getting along fine," Turgon says.

JuneFest III

FEATURING: Bad Company, Foreigner, Ted Nugent and Eddie Money.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: Silver Bowl Park.

TICKETS: $15.96, available at Smith's Food and Drug Centers. Call 798-7544.

LOU GRAMM, second from right, and Mick Jones, right, have put the excitement back in Foreigner.