Foreigner’s Lou Gramm appeared on Monsters, Madness And Magic where he discussed the band’s 1984 hit, ‘I Want To Know What Love Is,’ and its credits. During the discussion about the song, the rocker accused his former bandmate Mick Jones of royalty fraud for trying to get almost all the income from the track. Jones shared the story of how Jones got all the credits with the interviewer:
“When we were recording that album, at the end of completion of every song, Mick and I would sit down at a table, and on a little piece of paper, we would write out what we thought the split was for the song between the two of us as writers, and we’d done that from album one. So, like, ‘Hot Blooded’ was 50-50, ‘Double Vision’ was 60 for Mick, 40 for me. And other songs had different, different splits.”
Apparently, Gramm wanted only a little lower than the half of the song, but Jones wanted him to have even less. He shared how much he initially wanted to have from the song and what Jones wanted:
“And I wrote 60 for Mick, 40 for me, and I slid that piece of paper over to him, and he slid one over to me. Do you know what he had on it? 95-5 for him. We had worked on that song since it was just a little tiny idea for weeks and weeks and weeks until it became a song. I was involved in the melody in the arrangement of the song, and I sang the ad-libs, and I sang the hell out of the song. And his best offer was 95-5. I was insulted, I was angry, and I knew right away why it was.”
The rocker shared why his former bandmate wanted to take most of the credit for the song:
“Because he knew that song was gonna be number one, and he wanted it all for himself. But he would sacrifice five percent. I tore the piece of paper up, and I said, ‘Mick, I know why you’re doing this.’ I said, ‘You want the song for yourself, so it just says Jones under ‘writers.’ I said, ‘You do that.’ I said, ‘I don’t want any part of it.'”
He concluded with his regret of giving the song away that ultimately sold millions:
“So he did. The song went to number one. The song itself sold millions — millions and millions of songs. I think it went two and a half times platinum just for the single. It was immediately re-recorded by Wynonna Judd. She re-recorded it and had a worldwide hit with it. So it was a number-one hit for three other artists. He made millions and millions of dollars off just that song. I didn’t see a nickel.”
The argument-causing track was eventually credited to Jones, topping the charts and selling over three million dollars.
Despite the disagreements and arguments, the rocker still reunited with the band for several shows to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary. After the shows, he stated that he would be retiring but has toured this year with his band, Lou Gramm All Stars.
You can see the interview below.
