Jones reflects on glory years of Foreigner
Mick Jones is the lead guitarist, songwriter and last original member of Foreigner, which performs Saturday, Oct. 21 at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
In addition to his work with Foreigner, the Brit produced albums for Van Halen (5150), Billy Joel (Storm Front), Ben E. King and Bad Company, co-wrote a song with Eric Clapton and performed on the George Harrison single Ding Dong, Ding Dong.
He spoke, by phone, with Herald editor James Miller about Foreigner’s longevity, his friendship with The Beatles, and his band’s dubious record of holding the No. 2 spot on Billboard for 10 weeks straight.
HERALD: Did you know in your early years that Foreigner would be still around 40 years later and what do you credit the band’s incredible longevity to?
JONES: I had no idea. In those days people or bands came out pretty quick and disappeared pretty quick. There wasn’t a sense of heritage-style around. We were uncharted territory, just on the crest of a wave. As far as still being able to do this in my middle age, it was just not even imaginable.
HERALD: Was it a case of they were just great songs?
JONES: I have to think it is. People keep coming back to watch us all the time. We are coming off a big tour this summer with Cheap Trick and Jason Bonham which was very successful. It just won’t stop. I don’t mind if it keeps going because I’m having fun. We have one thing in particular and I do think it’s the quality of the songs and the ability to keep wanting to listen to them. Our music itself was definitely defined by a Foreigner-sound and our own identity.
HERALD: You hung out with The Beatles for a time during the mid-1960s and were on the same bill (with a different band) with them in France. How cool was that?
JONES: It couldn’t get much cooler. I was in total amazement. Being a Beatles fan, it was just mind-boggling. I sort ot had to keep pinching myself because I was really seeing how they lived and what went on behind the scenes. It was a great experience and I really think that’s what launched my career. I had certain feelings that I’d love to be in a band.
HERALD: Did you know “I Want to Know What Love Is” was something special when you wrote it? Did you predict a No. 1 hit?
JONES: I knew right from the very moment I started it that it was important. There was no great production. It was so simple, I thought it was too simple. But it was more. Anybody who heard it in my little group of friends who I’d share some ideas with immediately got it. There was something about the intro.
HERALD: Foreigner holds the U.S. Billboard record for most weeks at No. 2 without ever hitting No. 1. Was that discouraging that Waiting for a Girl Like You was never a No. 1 record?
JONES: We were frustrated. It would have been our first No. 1. We were pretty sure we were going to make it because every week we were teetering on the edge. Olivia Newton John (who held the spot with Physical for nine weeks), we had a few choice works for her at the time. In a funny way, it’s now a distinction to be holding at No. 2 for so long without reaching No. 1.
HERALD: What was it like working with Mutt Lange (of Shania Twain, Def Leppard and Bryan Adams fame) who produced Foreigner 4?
JONES: Mutt had approached me when we were starting to record the Double Vision album and we got on very well. He had some problems that he had to take care of and then we decided to go elsewhere for Head Games. He reapplied. We were both professionals, both very strongminded on ideas. We challenged each other. I don’t think Mutt had worked with musicians like myself before and I hadn’t worked with a producer like him. It was two people of equal strength facing off every day and it really worked. A great chemistry developed and the end result was our biggest album, I think a landmark album, and it all ended very well.
HERALD: You then got into producing with Billy Joel and Van Halen. Storm Front is my favourite Billy Joel album.
JONES: Thank you. Billy was kind of wondering what I could help him with. He was an accomplished songwriter, great musician, great piano player and we had similar tastes in women as well. I was the first new producer to work with Billy since he started, the same scenario for Van Halen. Ted Templeman had produced all their albums. Obviously it (success) was based on really good songs but I did play a part in the selection of songs and the performances. I did a lot of work and insisted in getting inside Billy’s head a little bit. It made me braoden my horizons and I learned a lot from sitting in the control room with Eddie Van Halen right in front of me, trying to show me how to do tap solos.
HERALD: What’s your favourite Foreigner song that wasn’t a single?
JONES: Woman in Black. I was very happy with that track. It was powerful and kind of a little different for us. To me that was a song that slipped through the cracks. I also love the song Spellbinder on the Double Vision album.
HERALD: What song were you surprised was a hit?
JONES: Urgent (No. 4, 1981). It was a quirky song and half of it was considered R&B at the time. It was just an odd sort of track that didn’t fall into any category. The main thing was the Junior Walker (saxophone) solo. To me it was one of those moments in life you think “wow!” I dreamed of meeting people like that.
HERALD: How did that come about?
JONES: It was my idea. I was in New York and thumbing through a newspaper and saw “Junior Walker and the All-Stars” and I thought, “was that the Junior Walker.” I went down to the Lone Star Cafe as it was known in those days and I had to sit through three sets before I could talk to him. He had no idea who I was but his son did. His son was playing with him and he said, “Dad, Dad, this is a great band, man, you should do this.” We invited him down and he had never played an overdub on a track. Everything he had done was live so it wasn’t something he was used to walking into. He did the solo and it took him a while but once he started whaling, it was a great experience.