Foreigner, Lou Gramm to Release New Song This Fall

Foreigner On Stage — Source: Musicians Lou Gramm (left) and Rick Wills, of the group Foreigner, perform onstage at an unspecified venue, Chicago, Illinois, November 8, 1981. (Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

For a band and a singer set on retirement, Foreigner and Lou Gramm don’t appear to be slowing down just yet. The band and their former frontman announced on Friday that they’ve recorded and will be releasing a new song together as part of the “Foreigner” 4 reissue in September, according to Blabbermouth.

The news follows Gramm’s inclusion on Foreigner’s “2025 Latin America Tour,” which kicks off April 28 in Mexico City. The song is called Fool if You Love Him, which comes from a song file from around the time 4 was recorded, according to bassist Jeff Pilson. According to Pilson, the Foreigner-Gramm collaborative reunion was fueled by the band’s 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction:

“Something happened at [Foreigner’s] Rock [and Roll] Hall [of Fame induction last fall] where something happened and we all kind of came together,” Pilson said. “There was almost like a meeting of the minds and we all kind of realized Foreigner is bigger than all of us. It’s a power bigger than all of us. It’s the music that we’ve all tapped into, we’re all a small part of it, but we’re all part of this greater whole. And the fact that [Gramm] coming down as a special guest to sing four songs with us is pretty amazing. And the other thing is, he loves [Luis Maldonado], and he’s been so supportive and so endorsing of [Maldonado] singing the rest of the set. It’s just been wonderful. We wanna pinch ourselves. We just feel so fortunate that we have this opportunity.”

The unfinished song file was found when the band was going through material for their 1981 album’s reissue. The file contained one verse and the chorus, sung by Gramm, with a mumbled second verse.

“We said, ‘What do you think about finishing and singing the song?’ So he said, ‘Absolutely,” Pilson said. “He wrote and finished two verses and sang them. He added cowbell. And we have now a new, old Foreigner song that will be on the Foreigner 4 release coming out in September.”

Gramm also talked about Fool if You Love Him in an interview with Billboard, explaining where the unused content comes from:

“For every Foreigner album, we always recorded three or four songs more than we needed, and we usually chose 10 songs and rest were either done or almost done but were excellent,” Gramm said. “They fall by the wayside on times like this. There doesn’t seem to ever be a lack of material.”

Last year the band released Turning Back the Time, and archived 1996 song featuring Gramm on lead vocals, as part of a compilation by the same name.

While Foreigner has been set on retiring, as the band announced their farewell tour in 2022, partly due to the last remaining founding member Mick Jones’ battle with Parkinson’s disease. The tour was set to end in 2024, but heading into the spring of 2025 the band is set to embark on a summer of touring by the end of the month. Band manager Phil Carson has stated that the band’s farewell tour could extend into 2026.

For Gramm’s part, he desired to retire from his own band by the end of 2024, playing down the possibly of a reunion with Foreigner back in November. Now the 74-year-old singer is on the road with the band he cofounded for at least the Latin America leg. While 4‘s reissue won’t be out until September, featuring Dolby Atmos remixing, don’t be surprised if there’s more to come from Gramm and Foreigner beyond 2025.