Lou Gramm has been forced to bow out of Foreigner’s reunion tour due to illness.
“I'm very disappointed about not being able to perform at the Foreigner Double Vision: Then & Now shows for all the fans,” the 69-year-old musician said, in a statement. “My doctor insists if I pushed myself to perform, I would be in big trouble.
“So doctor's orders, I ride the bench. Rock on.”
Gramm was hospitalized in his native Rochester, New York last week with a “severe respiratory infection, dehydration and fatigue,” according to a statement from the band.
The original lead singer of Foreigner, Gramm fronted the band from 1976 to 1991, again from 1992 to 2003, and then beginning in 2017. Surgery to remove a benign brain tumour in 1997 caused damage to his pituitary gland and affected his voice.
Foreigner’s next scheduled show is Oct. 3 in Connecticut. The band is known for hits like “Cold As Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Hot Blooded,” “Juke Box Hero” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You.”