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Issues between Lou Gramm and Foreigner — especially with band founder Mick Jones — have been well-documented over the years, especially after Gramm’s final departure in early 2003. But in the wake of Foreigner’s “life-changing” induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last October, Gramm has a new attitude.

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“Ever since (the induction) it felt like, personally, I had to find a way to let go of some of the things I’ve been holding onto for years — and, like the song says, let it be,” Gramm tells Billboard. Gramm, who was Foreigner’s original singer in 1976 and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame with Jones in 2013, has been making occasional guest appearances with Foreigner since 2017. After singing a pair of encore songs with the band on March 15 in Clearwater, Fla., it was announced that Gramm will be joining the group for an eight-date Historic Farewell Tour run through Mexico and South America that starts April 28 and includes shows in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

Kelly Hansen, Foreigner’s frontman since 2005, will not be part of those concerts, with guitarist Luis Maldonado taking his place and planning to sing some of the repertoire in Spanish. “It’s a hackneyed sentiment, but it’s true — life’s too short,” Gramm says of his latest return to the fold. “And a lot of the things that are blown up and made big deals about are easy enough to get over and humble yourself and reach out a little bit, ’cause what you’ve been mad about for the past 20 years is not a monumental thing.”

Gramm and Jones have both acknowledged a sometimes volatile relationship as a songwriting tandem and bandmates during the former’s three tenures with Foreigner, often related to the dynamic of Gramm as a junior partner in the equation. More recently there was a dustup over ownership of demo recordings the two made during the early 2000s. But the Rock Hall induction, which Jones missed due to his continuing battle with Parkinson’s disease, clearly softened Gramm’s outlook.

“I hope he was watching the show,” says Gramm, who’s not in touch with Jones directly anymore. “It was a great experience and…a real honor for what all of us, and especially Mick, have accomplished. Our creative partnership was really excellent. I think we were all very proud.” The new bonhomie extends to his relationship with Hansen as well. “We didn’t have a very good relationship before, either, but it’s good now,” Gramm confirms.

“I’m glad he feels that way,” Hansen says in a separate interview. “Hopefully we’re gonna be having a lot of the original guys come on stage here and coming out for our 50th anniversary, which is next year. That’s kind of full circle. We like that energy, and I think everyone understands of how fortunate we all are to have been part of this legacy and enjoy the commonality of this legacy.”

Gramm, for his part, says he’s up for joining Foreigner for more of its 2025 dates in North America and certainly plans to be part of the 2026 activities, which will also mark the 45th anniversary of 1981’s six-times platinum 4 album. “I don’t think there’s any contrivance or people questioning the reason why I would be up there with that band,” Gramm says, noting that the current edition, active since the mid-2000s, “is something Mick wanted to do after we parted company, and he did a great job and they’ve done a great job over the last two decades of keeping the name up there and flying the flag. They deserve a lot of credit.”

The current Foreigner performed during the Rock Hall induction ceremony, backing guest singers Demi Lovato (“Feels Like the First Time”), Sammy Hagar with Slash (“Hot Blooded”) and Kelly Clarkson, with Gramm, on their Billboard Hot 100 topper “I Want to Know What Love Is,” on which original keyboardist Al Greenwood and second bassist Rick Wills sang backup. “There was a lot of awesome talent that I enjoyed listening to,” Gramm recalls, though he acknowledges that, “I wasn’t crazy about the fact I was in the dressing room while ‘Hot Blooded’ and some rockers were sung by other singers — great singers, of course, but I made no bones about it that I wanted to sing a rock n’ roll song. While I really I like (‘I Want to Know What Love Is’), it wasn’t my favorite song to sing that night. But singing with Kelly Clarkson made it so special. She’s such an awesome singer, and we did a very good job together.”

Foreigner’s other big news during 2024 was the release of “Turning Back the Time,” an archived 1996 track, for a new compilation of the same name. Gramm says there’s more where that came from, including another unreleased song, “Fool If You Love Him,” that he recently recorded some fresh vocals for. “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 says. “They fall by the wayside on times like this. There doesn’t seem to ever be a lack of material.” Jones, who stopped touring with Foreigner some years ago, has been working with Marti Frederiksen on both existing and new material, and Hansen confirms that “there’s a bunch of stuff in several states of completion, it’s just a matter of having time. Maybe for me, being not on the road as much, might afford some more time to finish some of those.”

Hansen revealed his plan to dial down touring when the Historic Farewell Tour was announced in fall of 2022, and while he’ll be out with Foreigner through the summer he’ll also be sitting out a fall run in Canada, with Geordie Brown from the Foreigner stage musical Juke Box Hero joining. In a statement Hansen explained that “some residency issues have forced me to limit appearances outside of the USA this year,” and he’s not offering specifics beyond that cryptic explanation.

“I made the statement because that’s the statement I wanted to make,” he says. “I know what it might sound like…I don’t feel like I want to go into details about my residency issues, but that’s the reason.” Hansen adds that, “It’s fine, and I’m happy doing everything that I can do. But, yes, there will come a point in time eventually where I won’t’ be doing this.” At the moment, he intends for that to be after the 2026 dates.

“Plans sometimes change, but those are the plans,” Hansen notes. “Listen, I never say never, but I’ve been in this business just about 50 years. I’ve had my time in here, and in the business, and the entertainment business is not the easiest business in the world. I really want to be able to live my life outside of being on the road nine months a year. I want to be able to do other things in my wife, with my family, while I still can. And I don’t want to be out there doing these songs at less than the standard that we’ve set, ever.”

Foreigner is also setting up an Australian tour in addition to next year’s 50th anniversary shows. A documentary project is in the works to commemorate the landmark. The Juke Box Hero musical, which has been previewed in Alberta and Toronto, is slated to go into production during 2026 as well.

Anthony Raneri says the person least surprised that his band Bayside is still around to celebrate its 25th anniversary may be the teenage version of himself, the one from Queens, NY, who knew he wanted to be a rock star.

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“I was just so sure it was gonna happen,” Raneri, 42, tells Billboard. “You could ask me (at a different age) and I would be shocked there was a version of me still doing this. But at 15 or something, I was just so sure. I started this band so young that reality never factored in. I was a kid. I was a dreamer. Bills weren’t part of my life. It was all hopes and dreams at that point. I was too young to know better. And now fast forward…and it’s actually happened.”

Raneri and Bayside — which still includes first-album member Jack O’Shea on guitar, with Nick Ghanbarian on bass since 2004 and drummer Chris Guglielmo since 2006 — will be celebrating the group’s overall 25th anniversary this spring with The Errors Tour. The three-leg outing kicks off March 29 in Buffalo, NY, and all but one of its 23 stops will be two-night affairs with completely different setlists; the first show will feature songs from Bayside’s first four albums, and the second from the subsequent five titles, leading up to last year’s There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive.

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“We conceptualized this years ago, and we decided the 25th anniversary was the right time to put it into place,” Raneri explains. “Every tour we try to shake things up a little bit. It can’t just be the same show all the time. At this point in our career, with the back catalog we have, so many singles over the years, it’s hard to get songs into the setlist. That means track eight on our first record or track five on our fifth record, when do you ever get to that? So this way, if we can dedicate an hour and a half to just the first four records and then the next night to the next five, we get to those deeper cuts and songs that have been left out, which makes it more interesting for us and, I think, for the fans.”

Not surprisingly, Raneri says preparations for the tour have been “very intense” for the quartet. In addition to its own choices Bayside solicited fan requests via social media, which yielded surprises such as “Indiana,” a B-side from 2014’s Cult that also appeared as a bonus track on a deluxe edition of the album.

“We’ve bought into the concept,” Raneri says. “The cool thing about our band, and something we’re so insanely lucky with, is that we can pull something like this off. There’s a lot of bands that exist that have as many records as we do that couldn’t dedicate nights of a tour to newer albums. But we’re lucky that people like and buy and still enjoy our new albums. Our anniversary doesn’t mean we have to go out and just play old records.”

Bayside has, of course, scored some must-play hits from its nine albums as well as EPs, including “Devotion and Desire” from its self-titled 2005 set and “Sick, Sick, Sick,” a top 40 Alternative Airplay chart hit from 2010’s Killing Time. “The second night might not have ‘Devotion and Desire,’” Raneri notes, “but ‘Sick, Sick, Sick,’ it’s crazy to think that’s in the second half of our career, and ‘Already Gone’ and ‘Go To Hell.’ I think there’s plenty to keep people happy either night, if you don’t come for both.”

Raneri feels he and his bandmates have become “more proficient” players during the intervening years, while diving deep into the catalog has given him a perspective on why Bayside has been able to maintain a loyal following for all this time.

“I just think there is an honesty in what bands from our world have always done that’s different than other genres,” he explains. “What we do, it’s not image stuff. With other genres, there’s a lot of things that are of their time. You look at A Flock of Seagulls or something like that, and it’s just so ’80s; they look like the time, they sound like the time, the lyrics are of the time. Same thing with hair metal: [Cinderella’s] ‘Hot and Bothered’ is a bad-ass song when you’re in high school, but when you’re 40 or 50 does it still connect like that? Do you still wear your hair like that? Do you still dress like that? Of course not. I think our scene, it’s earnest as a pillar of its identity. The emotions are more timeless and not as much about the moment the (songs) were made in.”

Raneri and company plan on adding to Bayside’s catalog soon. The group is concentrating on The Errors Tour for the time being, but the frontman promises that “the day after our big, final 25th anniversary show on Long Island (Sept. 26), I’m writing the new record, and that will be our main focus. All of next year we’ll be working on a new record.

“I always start with finding influences,” Raneri explains, “so I’m just listening to a lot of music, and I’m writing down ideas. When I hear a song that I think would be a cool inspiration for something, I write it down. I have notepads around my house with my ideas, notes apps in my phone, playlists that I’ve made of songs I want to take inspiration from for the next record. I’m not at a stage where I know what that inspiration turns into, but I’m shaping. It’s almost like I’m making this very large Pinterest board in my head, and then when it comes time to actually put pen to paper, I’ll have that board to reference.”

Bayside

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Bayside’s The Errors Tour itinerary includes:

(with Sincere Engineer)3/29 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom3/30 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom4/1 – Toronto, ON @ The Opera House4/2– Toronto, ON @ The Opera House4/4 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues4/5 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues4/6 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues4/7 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues4/9 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre4/10 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre

(with Smoking Popes)6/6 – Denver, CO @ Summit Theater6/7 – Denver, CO @ Summit Theater6/8 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot6/9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot6/11 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox6/12 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox6/13 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall6/14 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall6/16 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall6/17 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall6/19 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues6/20 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues6/21 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club6/22 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club6/24 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile6/25 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile6/27 -Austin, TX @ Emo’s6/28 -Austin, TX @ Emo’s

(with The Sleeping)9/6 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues9/7 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues9/8 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell)9/9 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell)9/11 – Nashville, TN @ Main Stage at Eastside Bowl9/12 – Nashville, TN @ Main Stage at Eastside Bowl9/13 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground9/14 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground9/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Brooklyn Bowl9/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Brooklyn Bowl9/19 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza9/20 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza9/21 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club9/22 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club9/24 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony9/25 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony9/26 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount