Jeff talks Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Foreigner's Rick Wills

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens. You're listening tomy Eighties Show podcast. So excited to
talk to Rick Wills, bass playerfor Foreigner for so many years. Hey,
Rick, Hi, Hi Jeff.How's it going, Rick? Oh,
it's gone right man. Well,first of all, I want to
say congratulations from all of us hereat the radio station and pretty much the
entire Foreigner nation. Congratulations on gettingnominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of

(00:23):
Fame class at twenty twenty four.It's only about forty years overdue. But
we're very happy. Well, we'resuper excited and very honored to be,
you know, being nominated for this. And right now we're looking good.
We're in second place, Peter Bramptersin third. Who's you know, a
very dear friend of mine because Iplayed it as band. Yeah. Well,
we're just super excited. So ifyou can go to vote dot Rockhall

(00:48):
dot com and you can vote Foreignerthere, and you could also vote for
online com. Well, and letme just say that, Rick, this
has been something we've talked about,I know, here on this radio station
for at least twenty years. Everytime the nominees come out, I go
and where's Foreigner And it's so itis so long overdue and and uh,

(01:08):
you know, we just got thegot the news a couple of days ago.
I follow Foreigner on Instagram about aboutMick and uh, you know,
hoping for his for his health.But my goodness, this is long overdue,
and I really hope he and youand the rest of the guys get
to see this thing happen. Well, we we hope so too. We're
you know, we're just praying thatMick can make it, and so can

(01:29):
Loo. I mean Al Green withDennis Elliott and myself will definitely be doing
it. But you know, it'sup it's up to the guys who if
they feel they could actually physically doit a show that they'll be there.
But I think for this occasion wewill make that happen. And Mount Robson
has been tremendous, mixed steps upand you know, making this video with
Dave Grawl and lack of people inthe flash, I mean, it's been

(01:53):
just it's just been one thing afteranother. It's been super exciting and we're
just really given a big lift andwe hope everyone gets behind this and votes
for us. Yeah. Absolutely,And I saw that video we posted it
on our radio station website, andit's such a cool video. I mean,
obviously everybody is a huge Foreigner fan. I love with Dave Grohl plays

(02:15):
plays the drum fill before it feelslike the first time and then it cuts
to you guys. It's like socool. Yeah, sorry, I mean
Dave grow is one of our oldtime heroes anyway, because we love what
he's done I'm doing, and Ithink he will be part of that show
with us. Actually, ooh,hey, there's some scoop. I love
to hear that. That's awesome.Yeah, well, I know he wants

(02:36):
to do something. I think hewatched The Thing's Hot bloody. I'm not
shown, but I think so.Oh see. Rick Wills given us the
scoop right now on the Rock andRoll Hall of Fame and maybe a little
little Foreigner supergroup, which I love. And you know, the cool thing
is, you know Kelly Hanson.Everybody says, oh, Kelly's a new
singer. I mean, Kelly's beendoing it for over twenty years. And

(02:58):
you know, you can't find youcan't just go out and find somebody to
ever replace Lou Graham. But ifthere's somebody who has done it, and
nailed it and owned it and justdoes a fantastic job. I think Kelly
has has been an amazing addition tothe band and has carried it very very
well the last twenty years. Yeah, and without a doubt, he's also
one of the best front men inthe business too, and one of the

(03:21):
nicest people you'll ever meet. Andall the guys in the back, Jeff
Pills and Bruce Wattson, Michael Bluestein, you know, Chris Fraser and Louis
Carlos now the new member, They'reall excellent, excellent musicians. I mean,
they really do our songs proud It'sgood. Yeah, they're really good
well. And I love that overthe last couple of years that you know

(03:43):
that you have shown up at someof the shows that lou Graham has come
out a couple So are you goingto be doing that as the as the
tour continues? Will there be willthere be sometimes this summer where you're gonna
come out. We're going to tryand do as much as we can.
Al Green would and I would definitelytry and do more shows this year.
And I know in the full themanagement of planning for us to do at
least ten shows, whether Al Greenwould Rick Wills would definitely be there with

(04:08):
that nice. So we're planning thesethings because, you know, the support
has been so tremendous over the years. It's been incredible, the that of
airplay, we get, streaming weget, it's just been so joyful to
be part of Foreigner. It reallyhas. Well, that's cool, Rick,
and you've had such a great career. I remember seeing you in all

(04:29):
the videos back in the eighties.You know, that's when I when I
really got into Foregner. Actually,Mike one of my I think we were
in middle school and my girlfriend gaveme a forty five of Foreigner. It
was the first time I heard youguys, and it was head Games and
then I thought, well, hey, why are you giving me this song?
I mean, am I playing headGames here? What's going on?
So I didn't know if I shouldlook into that or not. But she

(04:53):
introduced me to Foreigner and that's tothis day still one of my favorite Foreigner
songs. Well, I love thatbecause the first thing I ever cup with
Foreigner was Dirty White Boy, actuallyNice and Headgates, you know, on
that album. Yeah, it wassomewhat disappointed. It didn't sound as well
as the first two albums, butthat's what made us so determined to make
the Foreigner four album outstanding. Imean, we really worked our butts up

(05:17):
on that one with Lang because youknow, it was it became a huge,
huge album again, and we hadthose great anthems of jukebox hero,
urgent waiting for a girl like youon it, so you know, we
got it right again, We gotwe got right back into it. Yeah.
And and Foreigner four is an absoluteclassic rock legend album. I mean

(05:39):
it's it's just it's so good.And and to think that, uh,
you know, you guys had allthose songs before that album and then you
went on and of course I wantto Know what Love is and and that
was Yesterday and some of the greatsongs in the in the mid eighties as
well, say you Will the InsideInformation album later in the in the eighties.

(06:00):
I mean, you guys, Imean that is that's fifteen or twenty
years of just solidly being on thecharts. Yeah, it's been. It's
been an outstanding I mean, LouGraham, Nick Jones came up with some
fantastic songs. There's no doubt aboutit. That's what's kept it guard for
so long, you know, isthe music and the song is the strength
of the songs. That was brilliant. Well, Rick, well we've got
another minute or two. What elseis going on with you right now outside

(06:24):
of maybe doing some shows with Foreigner? Well, I know, I've been
kind of busy all last year becausewe just bought a home up in New
Hampshire and we've taken it earlier year. My wife and I you know,
make make a lovely home up there. We love New Hampshire as a state.
It really is pretty. Yeah.And now we also haven't placed down
here in Florida for the winter monthsbecause it's damn cold up there right now.

(06:45):
So we're down here where we're enjoyingthe sunshine. And I'll try to
do as much, you know,promotion as I can for this Hall of
Fame to get the band inducted.You know, we won't know until probably
the end of April if we havebeen, but it looks very good at
the moment to getting the votes,that's for sure, But we need more
and more and more. Please allright, go vote for Foreigner. And

(07:06):
we've talked about the Rock and RollHall of Fame website over and over here.
We want to get Foreigner in onthe first nomination year. So we
don't want this to be something whereyou know, it's a couple more years
and you get nominated and then youfinally get in. Let's get Foreigner in
this year. And Rick Wills,bass player for Foreigner. So great to
talk to you and get to reminiscea little bit and look forward to seeing

(07:27):
you hopefully playing those shows later inthe summer. Okay, Jeff, thank
you so much. I really enjoyedtalking to you. Yeah, you too,
Rick, good luck go Foreigner.Okay, bye bye.