‘Close to what it used to be.’ Foreigner on road again, bringing Greatest Hits tour to Fresno

It took 15 minutes on a tour bus for Kelly Hansen to feel like a performer again — even less once he hit the stage.

“It instantly felt like we were never off the road,” says Hansen, the lead vocalist for the iconic ‘70s rock band Foreigner. The band has played a dozen shows since coming off a year-plus hiatus forced by the coronavirus pandemic and kicks off the first leg of its “Greatest Hits” tour Tuesday, July 27 in Fresno.

The band was in the midst of a tour when the pandemic first hit, and it took several month before the severity of the crisis set in.

“It happened incrementally,” Hansen says. “We’d have six weeks of a tour canceled at a time.”

It wasn’t until mid-summer 2020 that the band realized it wasn’t going back out anytime soon. It would become the longest break Hansen has had since joining Foreigner in 2005.

“There wasn’t anything else on the agenda,” he says.

And it wasn’t without its benefits, he says. For the first time in his life, Hansen actually got to see the seasons change from his home in Los Angeles. He also got married.

When it finally came time to get back playing, Hansen readied himself by reviewing clips from previous shows to get reacquainted with all of the things he has to do on stage. He upped his exercise regimen to get into shape.

And he spent time with the catalog of songs.

“I have to know every word, every line all the time and have to do it in the moment,” he says.

Maybe that sounds simple enough, but “you can’t just walk about there and start back up at the same place.”

And, yes, things are different now. The band has strict internal protocols in place to deal with the coronavirus threat while touring and Hansen is keenly aware that if he gets sicks, things get canceled, people are out of work and fans will be without that show for the night.

Still, “it’s as close to what it used to be as it can be,” Hansen says.

Fans still get treated to a night of Foreigner’s best, played by a band that, while short on original members (only guitarist Mick Jones remains) doesn’t lack any of the talent. Hansen had a full career as a heavy metal vocalist before replacing Foreigner’s original vocalist, Lou Gramm. The band’s bassist, Jeffrey Pilson, played with Dokken and Dio and stared in the 2001 film “Rock Star.”

“I really enjoy how we do this together,” Hansen says.

“This show is basically all hits.”

Hence the name of the tour, which Hansen realizes might be a bit on the nose.

For those who didn’t grow up near a radio or jukebox (or karaoke night) there are the usual suspects: “I Wanna Know What Love Is,” “Cold As Ice,” “Jukebox Hero,” “Hot Blooded.” Then there are songs like “Girl on the Moon,” “Break it Up” and “At War with the World.”

Hansen says there isn’t one he looks forward to more than the others and, in fact, there’s no way the band could ever play every song on his wish list.

“The set,” he says, “would be way too long to survive touring.”