Former Foreigner singer Lou Gramm joined an interview with The Sessions and targeted his ex-bandmate and guitarist Mick Jones who claimed ownership while they finished working on a classic song. Gramm emphasized that Jones’ behavior toward him wasn’t fair because of greed.
Foreigner released their fifth studio album entitled ‘Agent Provocateur’ on December 7, 1984, and it received very positive reviews from their fans and music critics. The record, especially its lead single ‘I Want to Know What Love Is,’ a power ballad, became very popular by hitting the charts. Despite the considerable success, the song’s creation process wasn’t a happy memory for Gramm, considering his problems with Jones.
Gramm stated that he helped Jones a lot while writing and composing the song, but the guitarist didn’t appreciate his effort when it was time to share the rights. While the singer thought he deserved %35, Jones wanted him to take %5, which Gramm found unfair and greedy.
Therefore, Gramm couldn’t believe this and said Jones took all of them without thinking about his contribution. Jones did like that, and the singer didn’t get credit for ‘I Want to Know What Love Is.’ The former Foreigners vocalist drew attention to the song’s being an iconic song of them and the millions that it brought to Jones.
Here’s what Gramm said in his interview:
“I didn’t get any credit for ‘I Want to Know What Love Is.’ Jones’ home was about 15 minutes from my home. So I would drive over to his house, and we would work on that song. There’d be moments when it was just magic, and then we’d hit our heads on something creatively that we couldn’t get to the next point. So we almost had to put the song away for a couple of weeks and come back to it again.
I felt we had worked our tails off to make that song what it is. When it was time to decide what the percentages were, I wrote down what I thought it should be, and he wrote down what he thought it should be. I think I wrote down 65-35, 35 for me, and 65 for him. I opened the little piece of paper that had what he thought the correct split was, and he wrote down 95-5. I was so stunned and crushed that he’d think I contributed next to nothing to that song.”
He continued:
“I should get 25 percent just for the vocal performance. All I could think of was greed. It was an awesome song. We all knew it was going to be a smash. This was his chance to step on me. Do you know what I told him after 95-5? I said, ‘Five, Mick?’ I said, ‘You should just keep it all.’ He did. He didn’t say, ‘No, Lou. Please. Let’s work it out.’ I said, ‘Five percent for me after all the work I did on the song?’ I said, ‘You should just keep it all.’ He didn’t say anything. He kept it all. You know the millions and millions that that song has brought in?”
Moreover, a short time after this issue between the two musicians, Gramm announced that he decided to leave the band because of personal and creative differences between him and Jones. One could be this disagreement on the hit’s rights, which disappointed Gramm.
You can check out the interview and song below.
