Trevor Rabin recently appeared as a guest on 101 WRIF and reflected on his decision to pass on Mick Jones’ offer to become a member of Foreigner.
After explaining that he had used all the earnings he earned from producing Manfred Mann’s Earth Band several years ago to build a studio back in the early ’80s, the musician said:
“I’ve got a mortgage, so what do I do now? And Mutt Lange, who’s a good friend of mine and producer, said to me, ‘Foreigner is looking for a keyboard player.’ And I thought I got to do something, so I flew and rehearsed with Foreigner for a while.”
He then recalled the phone call he received from Jones:
“Mick Jones called me and said, ‘Look, if you want this, let me know, but I’ve just listened to your album, and you should be playing guitar, and you ain’t doing it in my band,’ which was the sweetest compliment and he’s been a friend ever since, but I didn’t do that, and then I sent tapes out trying to get a record deal.”
Rabin went on to reveal how it went afterward:
“I only had two offers; one was from RCA, and a guy called Ron Fair who thought ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ was a smash. He’s the first person who said to me, ‘That’s a smash song.’ One other company was interested, but I had a lot of rejections. I got a letter from Clive Davis long before emails and stuff.”
The rocker also opened up about Davis’ initial response to ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ with the following words:
“[It was] saying, ‘While we feel your voice has Top 40 appeal, we feel the song, ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart,’ is far too left-field for the marketplace today.’ So three years later, I took a Polaroid and sent a picture of the Billboard to Clive, not that he has to worry. He said, ‘Pretty good success.'”
Following the success of ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart,’ Rabin stayed as a member of Yes until the end of the ‘Talk’ tour. He then became a successful film composer with over forty movie scores to his name, often working closely with producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
You can watch the full interview below.
