In an interview with Darren Burgfeld of the Missouri radio station 93.9 Mike FM, FOREIGNER bassist Jeff Pilson was asked if there are any plans for the band to release new music in the not-too-distant future. Jeff responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yes, to answer your question. And there’s different batches of it. We are working on totally brand new songs, which are… The standard’s very high, so we’re working very hard to make sure that those are all up to that standard. But yes, there’s several new songs that we’re working on from scratch. There’s unfinished songs or unreleased or unrecorded songs that [FOREIGNER‘s founding guitarist and main songwriter] Mick [Jones] and [original FOREIGNER singer] Lou [Gramm] wrote years ago that they have asked us to look at. So we’re looking at those. There’s some really good ones in there. And then — here’s the other thing that’s really cool. We have found unfinished songs in the files and tracks that we got from all the older albums. For instance, last year we, we re-released [the] FOREIGNER ‘4’ [album, which originally came out in 1981], and when we did, we found a song that was unfinished on there, and Lou had sung one verse and he had sung the chorus, but he obviously hadn’t written any other verses yet. But the song itself was there. So we called Lou and we said, ‘Would you be into writing a couple more verses and singing them?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely.’ So he did. It’s a song called ‘Fool If You Love Him’. It came out great. We had a great time doing it. And so there you’re getting ‘new old’ FOREIGNER, which is great. We’re re-releasing [1979’s] ‘Head Games’ [album] in October. Well, we found two tracks from that, and one of them was a song where Lou‘s vocal’s great, everything was great, there’s background vocals, the whole thing. But there was no guitar solo. They just didn’t finish the song, so they never put a guitar solo on it. So, we decided, ‘Let’s call Mick‘s very dear friend Peter Frampton, and see what he would think.’ So we called Peter. Peter said, ‘I’d love to put a guitar solo on it.’ So he put a great solo on. It’s a song called ‘Trouble’. It came out fantastic. And so that’s another example of things that we’re doing, where we’re finding stuff from the older records. There’s even stuff from the first two records, and there’s stuff from [1984’s] ‘Agent Provocateur’ [album]. So we’ll also be releasing songs like that. So, yes, plenty of new material over the years. I wish I could give you a date of when, but it’s coming.”
Pilson added: “It’s a different world now. It’s a different world. It’s about quality, certainly not quantity. So we wanna do it right. And the release mechanisms aren’t the same. You don’t have these big campaigns for a brand-new record kind of thing like you used to. So it’s really more about a song at a time. And so with regards to brand-new material, we’re gonna just take it very slow and make sure that we have the right song for the right moment, and that’s when we’ll put it out.”
FOREIGNER‘s current lineup consists of Luis Carlos Maldonado on lead vocals and guitar, noted DOKKEN bassist Jeff Pilson, Michael Bluestein on keyboards, lead guitarist Bruce Watson, Chris Frazier on drums and John Roth on guitar.
In May 2025, FOREIGNER lead singer Kelly Hansen announced during the band’s performance on the season finale of NBC singing competition “The Voice”, that he would be leaving the group at the end of the legendary rockers’ summer 2025 tour. In a moving segment that aired nationally, Hansen introduced then-FOREIGNER guitarist Luis Maldonado as his official successor — a moment that symbolized both an end and a bold new beginning for the powerhouse group.
Before Luis joined FOREIGNER, he was best known as the guitarist for TRAIN and for his work with Lisa Marie Presley.
FOREIGNER replaced original singer Lou Gramm with Hansen in 2005. Jones, the only remaining original member of FOREIGNER, suffered from some health issues beginning in 2011, eventually resulting in heart surgery in 2012. In February 2024, Jones revealed on social media that he was battling Parkinson’s disease, which explained his absence from FOREIGNER‘s live shows since 2022.
Known for their explosive live shows and era-defining anthems, FOREIGNER have sold over 80 million albums worldwide, cementing their place as one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Their catalogue includes timeless hits like “Hot Blooded”, “Juke Box Hero”, “Waiting For A Girl Like You”, “Cold As Ice”, “Urgent”, “Feels Like The First Time” and the global No. 1 hit “I Want To Know What Love Is”.
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