Foreigner's Bluestein talks upcoming show at Ryman

Foreigner is on an urgent mission to bring their energy to both the hot-blooded concert junkies of Nashville and those imbibers who might have double-vision at the Ryman Auditorium in August.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, Foreigner spent some of their last non-quarantined days performing with the Nashville Symphony at Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

And now that they’re back on the road for a 121-show, 16-country trek across the globe, they’ve set their sites on Music City once more.

“There’s a lot of pent-up enthusiasm, demand for the band. People have been waiting. They’re psyched. We can see it when we do these shows. People are just thrilled,” said keyboard player Michael Bluestein.

“It’s always an enthusiastic crowd when we play, but it seems like it’s even up a notch now because nobody’s been able to get out... It’s great to be able to deliver again for the fans, do what we do and get out and rock again.”

The band has been making its way through the Midwest on the initial leg of the massive tour, one-third of which is comprised of makeup shows from 2020. Nashville will mark the first major market stop of the tour.

And it will see the band revisit a locale with which they are quite familiar.

“I’ve definitely gotten into some trouble there on Broadway. That gets a little crazy,” said Bluestein with a laugh. “... I think I’m going to plead the fifth on that one.”

But not even Broadway’s chaotic vibe could hold a candle to the upheaval of the pandemic, which forced Bluestein to take a 14-month break from the bandmates he’d been playing with since 2008.

“It was the camaraderie I missed more than anything with the guys, because we’re all good friends,” said Bluestein. “There’s definitely a real camaraderie there.”

At the core of that bond is guitarist Mick Jones, the last active original member of the group.

Due to health issues, Jones’ touring commitments have been somewhat fluid in recent years. Bluestein was non-committal when asked whether Jones will have joined up on to the tour by the time the Ryman show rolls around in about a month.

“It varies, there will be times when he comes out and does a bunch of shows and then there’s others other when he has something medical that’s gone wrong that needs to be taken care of,” said Jones. “It varies. It’s a hard one to answer. It can be months at a time where we don’t see him, but then we’ll go to Europe and he’ll be the whole time with us.”

For those moments Jones is with the band, Bluestein and his fellow younger bandmates are happy to be in his presence. When each new generation member joined up, they met an idol.

“It was serendipity kind of,” remembered Bluestein of being directly invited to audition with the band by then keyboard player Jeff Jacobs as he prepared his departure. “... It was pretty cool. I did have a gig at the time touring with Enrique Iglesias ... but this was sort of something that took me back to my childhood and music I grew up with and, in that sense, it was kind of hard to refuse.”

Bluestein described life on the road with a fence-swinging hit maker of Jones’ caliber.

“... Mick is a living legend for sure, the guy that created these tunes. He’s a great dude, a really nice guy. He’s hung out with the Beatles in Paris in the 60s, Jimi Hendrix,” said Bluestein. “He’s got this incredible wealth of experiences that he’s had as a musician, a songwriter and producer and getting to be around that is awesome.

“He’s cool, he’s chill. He likes to read his New York Times, do the crossword puzzle, have a good cup of tea, hang out. We’ll talk current events, current music, politics. He’s an intelligent dude, thoughtful and well-spoken. We have some good laughs too.”

But come August 18, the idea of playing an iconic institution like the Ryman will present an opportunity that is no laughing matter, even for a group that’s done it before.

Some might say it will feel like first time.

“Pretty psyched about that,” said Bluestein. “You’re looking around backstage before this show and you see all the pictures of all the legends. It’s just sort of an honor and nice to be part of that legacy. It’s sort of more confirmation that ‘Yeah, I guess I am supposed to be a musician, I’m supposed to be doing this.’ It’s nice to be part of the equation, part of the history of it.”

Bluestein and company are now a part of Foreigner’s history as well, a timeline which dates back to 1976, to a nearly totally different group of men.

And while some stalwarts will undoubtedly only yearn for those days, Bluestein hopes everyone can take away the same thing from the upcoming show.

“I do find that songs kind of speak for themselves and our performance of them seems to really make an impression. There’s always going to be a few haters that don’t really want to get on board no matter what, so we don’t worry about them too much,” said Bluestein.

“We definitely have had people say ‘I wasn’t sure about all you guys who weren’t there in 1977 being on stage,’ there was a skepticism, but I do find that over and over that we have people say ‘You do the songs justice. You bring a lot of energy, a lot of swagger and performance chops, as well as the actual tunes themselves, delivering those in a faithful way. People tend to say ‘I get it now.’”

And even if Jones, now 76 years young, decides to eventually call it a day when it comes to touring life, there may be a whole new age of Foreigner to come, if and when the torch is passed.

“My feeling is that as long as the fans still want to hear it, are still enthusiastic and still want to show up, let’s keep it going,” said Bluestein. “The desire of the band is there and we’re going to keep it going as long as that’s there.”