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Reports from HPR's Dave Lawrence

Foreigner's Jeff Pilson - Off The Road with Dave Lawrence

Karsten Staiger

Browse and hear the complete Off the Road series at hawaiipublicradio.org/offtheroad.

Today Off The Road welcomes classic rockers Foreigner for a conversation with All Things Considered Honolulu Host Dave Lawrence. Dave continues the interview series, which features hours of interviews and exclusive musical performances connecting with artists around the world during the pandemic, welcoming Foreigner bassist, background vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Pilson.

 

Credit Jeff Pilson Live courtesy of Foreigner

Foreigner are a classic rock band with an arsenal of hits, since emerging in the late 1970’s. Original member, guitarist and background vocalist Mick Jones has steered the group through the decades, with our guest Jeff Pilson on bass since 2004. Jeff also has quite a bit of notable experience prior to joining the group, including working with both Dio and being a longtime member of Dokken.

 

Credit courtesy of Foreigner

With their primary source of income, touring, curtailed almost a year now due to the pandemic, Foreigner have been trying something unusual to help support their road crew, equally sidelined by the virus and suffering serious financial insecurity due to the cratering of the entire touring entertainment industry. The band are selling merchandise and auctioning musical instruments through their website, and funneling all the proceeds to ten out of work crew members, Jeff explains in our feature.

Making the segment special was Jeff’s generosity, as he grabbed a 12-string acoustic to bang out an exclusive unplugged version of one of Foreigner’s huge hits… just for us.

 

Credit Karsten Staiger

The full interview is also included, and includes stories from his Dokken days, experience filming the movie Rock Star with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston, endearing stories of his time with the late Ronnie James Dio, and fun stories of perhaps Foreigner’s biggest ever gig, opening for Led Zeppelin at their 2007 London reunion.

MORE:

Hear the full interview:

See pro-shot video of Foreigner's in 2018 with an orchestra:

Hear Dave's 2007 and 2008 interviews with Mick Jones, and two 2007 interviews with then-member Jason Bonham: an advance phoner and a follow-up studio visit also featuring singer Kelly Hanson.

Browse and hear the complete Off the Road series at hawaiipublicradio.org/offtheroad.

Dave Lawrence is the local host of All Things Considered, Road Stories (formerly Off the Road) and Stargazer.
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