Lou Gramm was born in Rochester, New York, and began his musical career in his
mid-teens, playing in local Rochester bands, including St. James Infirmary (later
The Infirmary), and PHFFT. He later sang harmony vocals in another local band,
Poor Heart. Gramm then went on to sing and play drums, and to eventually
become front man for the band Black Sheep. Black Sheep had the distinction of
being the first American band signed to the Chrysalis label, which released their
first single, "Stick Around" (1973). Black Sheep played in niteclubs in Rochester
and Buffalo, NY including McVan's, formerly at Niagara Street and Hertel
Avenue. Soon after this initial bit of success, Black Sheep signed with Capitol
Records, releasing two albums in succession [Black Sheep (1974) and
Encouraging Words (1975)]. They were the opening act for KISS when an icy
accident with their equipment truck on the New York State Thruway suddenly
ended the band's tour on Christmas Eve, 1975. Unable to support its albums with
live performances, Black Sheep came prematurely to a screeching halt.
A year earlier, Lou Gramm had the opportunity to meet his future bandmate Mick
Jones. Jones was in Rochester performing with the band Spooky Tooth, and
Gramm had given Jones a copy of Black Sheep's first album (S/T). It was early in
1976, not long after Black Sheep's truck accident, when Jones, in search of a
lead vocalist for a new band he was assembling, expressed his interest in
Gramm and invited him in a phone call to audition for the job of lead singer.
With the blessings of his Black Sheep bandmates, Gramm flew down to New
York to audition for the still-unnamed band. With his powerful vocals, he got the
job. Lou Grammatico then became Lou Gramm, and, with the band initially
known as "Trigger," and later renamed Foreigner, became one of the most
successful rock vocalists of the late 1970s and 1980s. Circus magazine in 1978
upon release of "Hot Blooded" commented that Lou Gramm had a voice that
Robert Plant might envy. His unique vocals have made Foreigner one of
Billboard's Top 100 Artists of All Time in hit songs history.
Gramm was the lead vocalist on all of Foreigner's hit songs, including "Feels Like
the First Time", "Cold as Ice", "Long, Long Way from Home", "Hot Blooded",
"Double Vision", "Blue Morning, Blue Day", "Head Games", "Dirty White Boy",
"Urgent", "Juke Box Hero", "Break It Up" and "Say You Will". He co-wrote most of
the songs for the band, which achieved two of its biggest hits with the ballads
"Waiting for a Girl Like You", which spent ten weeks at #2 on the 1981-82
American Hot 100, and "I Want to Know What Love Is", which was a #1 hit
internationally (US & UK) in 1985. Their first 8 singles cracked the Billboard Top
20,(4 went Top 10) making them the first group since the Beatles to achieve this
in 1980.
