Kelly Hansen of Foreigner, clarified the duration of their farewell tour in an interview with Guy Favazza from KSHE 95, a radio station in Missouri. On the rumors that the tour has been extended to include dates with Styx, Hansen emphasized that it was always planned as a two-year farewell tour. Echoing his honesty, he expressed that he is not someone who falsely extends tour times. He said:
“I’ve been saying constantly, in every interview, on stage during the show, at the meet-and-greets, everywhere I can, that this has always been a two-year farewell, because we couldn’t get everywhere in one year. I’ve been saying it all over the place. Listen, of course, I can’t exactly repeat everything, every day, everywhere, all the time, but I’ve been saying it constantly. So if someone has not looked more than one inch in front of their face, then I can’t help them. I’ve been saying it, so it’s always been the plan to do this for 2023 and 2024. The days of touring nine months a year is over after 2024… And that is over, and I’m sure there’s gonna be certain appearances or shows or something maybe along the way after that, but the days of doing this nine-months-a-year thing is over.”
It is not unusual in the rock world for bands to return to the stage after their so-called farewell tour. Hansen’s insistence on the planned duration of Foreigner’s farewell tour is likely a response to this trend.
Michael Bluestein Believes Kelly is the Main Reason They Are Quitting
Michael Bluestein says they are ‘going out on top.’ Michael gave a clear explanation of the reason for the farewell of the 47-year-old Foreigner band. He told Music Life Magazine earlier this year that the main reason they are saying farewell is that Foreigner songs were getting too challenging for Kelly. He said:
“I think that there’s a sense, particularly with Kelly, our vocalist, that it’s getting increasingly more difficult to sing these tunes. I mean, they’re stratospherically, high tenor songs, and for a guy that’s 62 years old and has been doing it straight for 18 years, I think it’s getting more challenging. He’s still killing it, and he still sounds great, but he kind of has the idea of going out on top as they say, while the form is still really good and there isn’t too much degradation of the performance, keeping the level at that high level. We’ve been at it for a while.”
The only remaining original member of Foreigner, 79-year-old Mick Jones, is unable to perform on this tour due to health problems.
You can listen to Kelly Hansen’s full interview with KSHE95’s ‘Favazz’ below.
