Lou Gramm recently made a confession about the difficulties he encountered performing with Foreigner following his brain tumor surgery. He shared his experience on the Rock & Roll High School podcast.
The former Foreigner frontman detailed the specific challenges he faced when returning to the stage after his major medical procedure.
“Challenging? I couldn’t remember the words to the songs,” Gramm said. “I used to dance around a lot on stage. I planted my mic stand in one place and had the beginnings of the first three or four words of every verse written out in a semicircle around me. And we toured the world like that.”
Gramm also revealed the extensive recovery process his surgeon recommended and the complications that arose with tour scheduling.
“I had to re-learn how to talk,” he continued. “My surgeon told me, he says, ‘Lou,’ he says, ‘do you know the operation took 19 hours?’ And he said, ‘Lou,’ he says, ‘I’d like you to, to take a year and a half off to make sure everything is as good as we hope it is. ‘That way,’ he says, ‘you’ll be near enough. If there’s any problems, you come back right away and we’ll work on it.'”
The singer explained how the band’s management decisions conflicted with his doctor’s medical advice.
“So Foreigner’s management had to cancel the first leg of our tour so that I could have my operation,” Gramm said. “Strangely enough, they rescheduled the tour about three weeks after I got outta surgery. And the doctor wanted me to not perform or travel for at least a year and a half because traveling with the air pressure in an airplane and just exerting myself when I’ve been through such a traumatic experience, he wanted to make sure everything was in order and running smoothly before I started performing again. But Foreigner’s management had had booked the shows all over again about a month after I got outta the hospital.”
Gramm’s health crisis occurred at a critical time in Foreigner’s career. This added complexity to an already challenging medical situation.
Wikipedia reported that the diagnosis came in April 1997, just as the band was preparing for a Japan tour. The tumor was identified as a benign craniopharyngioma located in his frontal lobe, wrapped around his optical nerve and pituitary gland. What made the situation particularly difficult was that several U.S. specialists had initially deemed the tumor inoperable.
The breakthrough came when Gramm saw a television segment about laser surgery expert Dr. Peter Black in Boston. Classic Rock Music Writer noted that this discovery led to the life-saving procedure that lasted eighteen hours. The recovery would prove long and arduous.
The surgery’s aftermath brought additional complications beyond memory loss. Blabbermouth revealed that post-surgery steroids caused weight gain, low stamina, and further memory issues. These complications compounded his struggles to return to performing at his previous level.
Despite the medical challenges and his doctor’s recommendations for extended recovery time, Gramm continued touring with Foreigner until his final departure from the band. Remind Magazine confirmed that Lou officially left Foreigner for good in 2003, shortly after his recovery period. This marked the end of an era for the legendary rock band.
