Kelly Hansen: The Bumpy Road Of Musical Beginnings | E73

Welcome to another episode of In Search of Excellence! My guest today is Kelly Hansen, the lead singer of the legendary rock band Foreigner, which has had five platinum records and sold more than 80 million albums. He was also a lead singer of the heavy metal band Hurricane, popular in the 80s. Kelly is a great musician with an amazing life story.


Time stamps:
00:00 Kelly’s Family and Growing Up

- A vivid picture from his childhood of his parents carrying albums under their arms
- Mom had a GTO convertible
- Later on, he realized that there is a concept of a group
- At school, he sang in the school choir – a part of the curriculum
- Greatest influences - James Brown, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, and later on, Robert Plant
- Discovered that he can sing almost accidentally
- Spent a day on the beach with his family and some family friends
- One of the kids played the guitar
- Invited him to sing in his band
- Didn’t know how to use his voice, took some singing lessons
- Started singing, getting fans, and earning money
- Realized he could do that as his job


09:55 The Beginnings of Kelly’s Singing Career

- The first gig was at teen dance night
- He was a part of a cover band
- Later, they played at high school dances
- Ended up playing all over Southern California
- Played a military base in Yuma, Arizona
- Music requires a lot of sacrifices and hard work
- The band Hurricane
- It's harder to start a band now than it was back in the day
- Parents were supportive


18:00 After High School

- Left the high school band
- Had his own bands - Kelly Hansen band, The Last Tango
- Played around LA
- His father was his manager
- Had a fan club and informed fans regularly where they played
- Also started doing sessions
- Played in a couple of cover bands
- Played 5-6 days a week
- Tried to connect to the audience
- Played with Ross Bolton, a great guitarist
- The Guitar Institute of Technology - GIT
- Didn’t have a band but hired people to play in the band


23:39 The Rise and Success of Hurricane

- Saw an ad for a band looking for a singer in Music Connection magazine
- Met the drummer of the band
- Later on, met bassist Tony Cavazo and guitarist Robert Sarzo
- Started making music together
- Found a new drummer - Jay Shelton
- That's when they really became Hurricane
- Did some demos with the producer called Kevin Beamish
- Didn't like the mixes
- Left the contract, but still had the tracks
- Mixed them themselves
- Sent them around to record labels
- Everybody turned them down
- Made an EP with the producer Max Norman
- Started selling EP’s on their shows with success
- The record label noticed them
- Ended up signing a P&D deal
- Remixed and repackaged the EP and distributed it
- Went on a tour
- Then in the studio to make their first record
- Take What You Want (1985)
- Went on the road
- Made their second record
- Over the Edge (1988)
- It had a hit - I'm on to you
- The third record
- Slave to the Thrill (1990)
- Continued doing shows and making songs
- Doug Aldrich came to the band
- Going on a tour and living on advance money from the record label
- Enigma records
- The controversy around the cover of the Slave to the Thrill album
- Featured a nude female model lying on a machine
- Had to make two versions of the album cover
- Doing shows on the road, trying to sell records
- Canceling the rest of the tour
- No word from the record label
- Started selling their equipment to pay the rent


41:48 Becoming a Foreigner’s Lead Singer

- In the early 90s, a new style of music was coming in
- A paradigm shift in popular music
- Metal was no longer a thing
- Tackled the other aspects of the recording business that he loved
- The very beginning of home studio technology
- Started doing engineering, producing, artist development
- Album production started to slowly sank down as technology advanced
- It became really hard around the end of the 90s
- Realized he had to go back to what he does best - being the lead singer
- Foreigner was trying to get back together
- Foreigner band members
- Set up a meeting with Tom Gimbel of Foreigner
- Gave him some of his music
- Back and forth conversation with management of Foreigner
- Received 5 Foreigner tracks - the original recordings, but without any vocals
- Mick Jones got to hear that CD in New York
- Kelly was one of the first ones to jam with the guys
- Jammed for about an hour and a half
- He got into the band
- Printed lyrics of songs and was memorizing 24/7



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