Foreigner's Lou Gramm; Christianity & Adversity

Let's talk about the conversion of a rockstar. Lou Gramm spent 26 years as the front man of the famous rock band “Foreigner”. He is the voice behind the great classics “I wanna know what love is” (1984) and “Waiting for a girl like you” (1981), two of the most succesful singles in the 80's, which respectively ranked the #1 and #2 in the chart music position all around the world. 

But there's more than meets the eye, and not everyhting was sucess for this amazing singer. As years went by, his life would experince ups and downs, but more deeply than many of us. It's so true that in his life "there's been heartache and pain", but there's also been hope and faith that he eventually found in Christianity.

This time, I'm sharing the transcription of a conversation that Scott Ross from CBN held in an interview with Lou Gramm, in which he shares the experiences that changed him radically. He openly talks about his struggles, and he speaks sincerely about his feelings, telling us how he got this new faith that helped him to overcame the most difficult and troubled times of his life.

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Scott: At a point of your life, when you were extremely succesful, did you bind to the whole rock n'roll scene... you know, sex, drugs and rock n'roll? Were you living that stuff?

Lou Gramm: “Yes, I was... all of it. Thought I grew up in a good solid family background, I honestly felt that drugs and alcohol were changing me into a person ― or had changed me into a person ― that I didn’t recognize anymore”.

Scott: How did that happen?

Lou Gramm: “I think it was more like when I came to New York. It was prevalent. And most of the guys of the band kept different hours. I was used to be operating in the morning and in bed by midnight. When we would record, a lot of times we would begin recording at about 5 or near 6 pm, and work until 4 or 5 of the next morning. At that time my sensibilities were not clear anymore, and just would begin to... be one of the guys.”

Scott: How were you feeling?

Lou Gramm: “I could feel myself changing inside in a negative way. It was just party after party and it became very habitual. When I tried to stop, I was very surprised that what was fun before, became something that I absolutely needed, and at that point I knew that it was way past the recreational and I began to really dislike the person that I had become.” 

Scott: Did you had all the trappings of success and what you wanted?

Lou Gramm: “What I thought I needed. And I needed more of the same.”

Scott: More success?

Lou Gramm: “And everyhting I was in.”

Scott: So how did you finally realize that this reality wasn't really for you...?

Foreigner performed in the Madison Square Garden,
at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary
a 13-hours New York concert on May 14, 1988.

Lou: “I think it was a night after we had played in Madison Square Garden and I lived about sixty miles at north in Manhattan and I was not in the condition to drive myself home.

Scott: You were high?

Lou [nodding his head]: “At the end of an afterparty, after a showparty, and I knew my wife and children would be expecting me, but, at number one, I could't drive myself, nor did I wanna have them see me like that. So I stayed the night in Manhattan and grappled with the person I had become.” 

Scott: What did you see?

Lou: “Something that I didn't like, I didn't like and didn't respect and I saw the possibility of my own demise. It was in this huge, posh hotel room that I got down on my knees asking for God’s help to heal me and help me to get rid myself of this horrible addiction. I just started praying, because I knew there wasn't anybody in the world that could help me.” 

Scott: Did you know how to pray?

Lou: “I think I just started talking to God, it wasn't necessary a prayer in a pre-fabicated form. It was a conversation.” 

Scott: Saying...? 

Lou Gramm: “That I didn't want to be in this position and that I really believed that that lifestyle had the better of me and that I couldn't walk away from it on my own, that I needed it, more than it needed me; and I prayed for the strenght and the sense to break the chains.”

The Hazelden Foundation in Minessota

Scott: What happened?

Lou: “The next morning I called a place that a friend have told me about, called 'Hazelden' in Minnesota, and went to rehab. I didn't know for what was it but it was a good facility and there was a pastor as part of the rehab to re-connect with God. That's where I became a Christian. I received Jesus that moment.”

Scott: Did you prayed, "Jesus Christ, come into my life"?

Lou: “Yes, I was asked if I was sure about it. I definitely did it because that's what I wanted for a long time and it was an option that He was offering to me.”

Scott: Did you tell your bandmates?

Lou: “Not right away, but when I returned in the next tour months later, nothing in the band had changed. They said they were all thrilled that I had cleaned myself up. After a show, as usual, we were driving on the bus to the next city, and the cocaine lines and the joints came out, and I let them know that I wouldn't be doing that with them anymore.”

Scott: And the response was?

Lou: “ ―'What in the world’s wrong with you?'―”

Scott: About your relationship with Jesus, how did your bandmates received that?

Lou: “Most of them were pretty angry, because making the desition changed me from the old. It kept for, I'm saying, about another seven or eight years, but there were more and more breaks between tours and the next album, in which I was heavily involved in the melody and the lyrics, started having inferences to God.”

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In 1990, Lou had departed from the band (which is one of the "breaks between" tours he talks about). Later he rejoined and in the next Foreigner album, "Mr. Moonlight", he clearly expressed some glimpses of a new faith who was putting down roots in his music composition:

An excerpt from the song "I Keep Hoping":

"Now I make my new beginnings

 I'll start again at any cost

 I've learned a lot from losing you

 But I've got nothing if I'm lost

 And I keep hoping 

and I still believe in love

 If I wait long enough, 

I know I'll be strong enough

 Yeah, I keep hoping,

I believe in faith and trust

 I'm gonna find a way

there are better days still ahead of us

 I keep hoping

 Now this candle burns low it won't last through the night

 But I've found peace and I know it's all right

 I try to understand what's been missing in my life

 Between the darkness and the daylight. . .

I keep hoping, hoping and praying

 And I still believe in love

 I keep hoping, I keep hoping, hey hey hey

 I keep hoping"

An excerpt from the song "Rain" :

" Tell me why, oh why?

 Why don't you open up your heart?

 Let the light from inside

 Show us who you are"

An excerpt from the song "Until The End Of Time" :

"When I was young and the world belonged to me

 I thought that love meant pain and jealousy

 It was a cross on my shoulder

 Oh Lord, now I feel so much older"

An excerpt from the song "Real World" :

"In the world we were born into, we're alone, ooh

 And it brings me to my knees our father lay me down to sleep

 Father please, pray the Lord my soul to keep

 Keep us in the real world, keep us in the real world"

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Scott: “Did the song 'I wanna know what love is' take a new meaning for you?

Lou: “Totally. We had a young girl who was a singer, and whenever we would have shows coming up, we would have at end of each show about one week, and she would find a real talented and soulfull choir; and when we would perform alive, the choir would come on stage and sing that song with us. And it would bring the house down every time. 

They were always Christian choirs, baptist, sometimes white, sometimes black, sometimes mixed, but the point is that they would sing the song with a soulfull feeling, to me there was no doubt what the song was about. 

I remember when we were recording the song a friend of Mick Jones came in, and he was a representative for a small gospel group of New Jersey. He suggested that we should use a choir for that song, and suggested a choir that he was involved in, the 'New Jersey Mass Choir'. They came in, and before they sang, they made a big circle and hold their hands and said the Lord's prayer while we were in the control room. When they started singing, it was just changed!, it changed the meaning of the song. The song was big enough in its lyrics, that when the choir was put on it, kind of got a double meaning, so that it could be about a person and his God, you know.”

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Just after collaborating in Petra's album "Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus", in 1997, some juncture hit when Gramm was diagnosed with a rare type of brain tumor called a “craniopharyngioma”. Fortunately, it was benign, but the complex surgery to remove it actually threatened, not only the singer's career, but his very life as well.

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Scott: What were the first signs of your tumor?

Lou: “I got intense headaches when I would wake up in the morning. I didn't know why that was coming. Also I would call my mom and dad who have had the same phone number over 20 years and I couldn't remember the last four numbers. That started to really scare me. I would see people at the grocery store who I had known for 10 or 15 years and couldn't remember their name. The doctor recommended that I would go for an MRI [Magnetic resonance imaging], and they found a tumor in the frontal lobe of my brain about the size of an egg that had tentacles wrapped around my optic nerve and my pituitary glandand. They determined that it had been growing in me since birth. I thought I was in a bad dream, really. I just couldn’t figure out”

Scott: Was it operable?

Lou: “Some told that it was so big that they knew they couldn’t operate, other said that it'd be extremely difficult and they didn't hope a lot of hope of success. I went back to home, thinking that I was going to die. 

One night I was watching a segment about a doctor in Boston, who is provider of laser surgery that he was using to operate brain tumors that were considered “inappropriate”. They gave a phone number, and I was on the phone early the next morning, I talked to his assistant and told her what my prognostic was and she told me that there was a cancellation on Thursday and that I should come to Boston that very day. It was Tuesday.”

Scott: They didn't give you so much time to think a lot...

Lou: “And I did. Thursday morning about 4:30 am, they were wheeling me into the operating room and they had the drip in my to put me under. I was praying to God that if He wanted to take me, I was ready. I didn’t pray for Him to let me live; I prayed that He may do His will. The operation took 19 hours but the tumor was successfully removed. I was very happy to be alive.”

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The operation’s effects and the heavy medication caused Lou's weight to balloon from 145

pounds to 260 in a year. He would lose his train of thought, fall asleep in the middle of conversations and get aptia. He had three car crashes after falling asleep at the wheel.

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Scott: How long did it take you to get back on stage?

Lou: “The operation was in April and I was performing in August. I shouldn’t have been anywhere near a stage, however, I was told by management that Foreigner had commitments and that I needed to get on the road. I knew it was way to early. I couldn’t remember the words to any of the songs. They all had to be written down in big marker pens and taped to the floor because I couldn't figured out all the words, I lost key words. When the band would take the stage, I could see people gone and the reviews were like 'what happened to Lou?, it's like he's taking too much pasta'”

Scott: In the middle of all that, was there desilutionment?

Lou: “A little bit. I thought that when the operation was over, there would be a recovering, but it took at least 4 and half or 5 years to start feeling any better. I felt that God was testing me. At 2001 and 2002 , I would wake up in the morning feeling more tired that I went to bed at night.”

Scott: What happened to the marriage?

Lou: “Over. Lost. She told I wasn’t the man she fell in love with. When the mariage ended and we went to court, it was really obvious that I was uncapable of seeing my two little twins much, cause I could barely take care of myself.”

Scott: What happened to your brothers and friends?

Lou: “My brothers and friends were good, I had a lot of people visiting me and helping me, cooking for me as a child in bed.” 

Scott: When did it change?

Lou: “About 2002, I just noticed that litle by little my conciousness and my thoughts were coming to me more naturally and I was feeling better. I was told that maybe my creativity would have been damaged by the operation, but I realized that I was still able to create and compose music.”

Lou's faith in God, not only has endured after his battle with the brain tumour and his troubled times;
It also has kept him hopeful, and it has been growing as a mustard tree,
even to the extent that he has decided to dedicate an essential part of his carreer
to compose praises to The Lord

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Lou remained with Foreigner for years, but he finally parted ways in 2003. Since leaving Foreigner, Gramm’s health would continue to improve. He has lost half the weight he gained after the operation, and in 2009, he decided to start a new Christian musical project called “The Lou Gramm Band”.

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Scott: Tell us about “The Lou Gramm Band” 

Lou: “I had thought a lot about making a Christian rock album, not a trade back to payback the Lord for letting me live, but I have a God-given talent, and I felt and wanted to honour Him by using it for Him. 

Right before my dad passed away in 2002, he had just got the three Gramm brothers in the room, and said that it was mom's and his hope that someday the boys would do something together. 

Even though my brothers and my friends believe in God they were not sure about what I wanted to do. But they jumped on board and as soon as we started writing songs and they heard the lyrics and the powerful music, they were moved. They really loved it now."

Scott: So Lou Gramm is back!?

Lou: "Yes."

Scott: With the Lou Graham Brothers together?

Lou: "You better believe it."

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During the late and early decade 2000, Lou has been performing Foreigner songs with his new band. 

Though it has not became famous in the market due to the lack of advertising, his Christian music album remains as one of the most powerful testimonies of his commitment and faith. 

The God-given talent of this rock-legend is very strong and alive, and his music continues to be promising. With electric guitars, rhythmic drumming, fresh melodies, complex guitar solos, keyboard accompaniment, soothing backing vocals, and sense of conviction in the high-pitched voice behind; the songs in the album "The Lou Gramma Band" is conveys high-quality music, great compositions, and powerful Christian messages. Take the lyrics of this, his latest album, into account:

In "You Saved Me", Lou recapitulates the moment of his conversion:

"With my feet firmly planted on the shores of sin

I was lost, and afraid

For into the sorrow I was livin' in

I felt down, and I prayed

I found trouble, and sorrow

had taken hold on me

Trouble and anguish 

Please deliver me!

YOU saved me!

I was all alone, and the time was right

YOU saved me!

Shine the light of the day in the darkest night

YOU saved me!

I was all alone, and the time was right

YOU saved me!

I can close my eyes, but I still see the light

Free ourselves from who we are

I can't do it alone

I let you know how I feel

...

I never lose heart

I pray for, my Lord, to give me hope 

Cos' dark days and winding roads

It's all I've known

YOU saved me!

I was all alone, and the time was right

YOU saved me!

Shine the light of the day in the darkest night

YOU saved me!

I was all alone, and the time was right

YOU saved me!

I can close my eyes, but I still see the light

and when I lost myself

You took my hand

I found trouble, and sorrow

had taken hold on me

Trouble, and anguish 

Please, deliver me!

...

I live by my faith

my faith

Now I call upon my Lord

To save me

To save me"

In "Willing To Forgive"  (a powerful, precious and inspiring song!), Lou celebrates God's forviness:

"Called me out from my darkness, to learn the secrets of my soul

Uncertain of my first step, I’ve gotta search until I know

In my desperation, it’s the life that I have lived

I can feel my vindication, but You’re willing to forgive!

You're willing to forgive! 
You're willing to forgive! 

You're willing to forgive! 

Rise up and follow, my faith is not in vain!

In my time of reflection, please be standing in the rain

You give understanding!
And I get what I deserve!

Oh LORD!
It's YOU!
that I serve!

You're willing to forgive! 
You're willing to forgive! 

You're willing to forgive! 

In "I Wanna Testify", Lou raises up his voice saying that "he just want to testify" what God's love has made in his life:

"Friends, inquisitive friends, are asking what's come over me

 A change, there's been a change, it's so plain for everyone to see

 Love won't get on me and it took me by surprise

 Happiness is all around me

 You can even see it in my eyes, 

yeah, yeah, yeah

 I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!

 I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me,

 yeah, yeah, yeah!

 It might be... a mighty long way 

a mighty long way, a mighty long way

 Once I was a halo man, and with your lonely heart it dwell

 The love came sneaking up on me, and brought a light to an empty shell

 Well, I heard so many times before that love can't be so bad

 I just got to tell you now!

 That it's the best LOVE I've ever had, 

hey, yeah, yeah!

I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!

I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!

 yeah, yeah, yeah!

hmmm... Precious!

 sure been precious to me!

hhhhmmm... Precious! 

sure been precious to me,
yeah, yeah, yeah!

 I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!

 I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!

 yeah, yeah, yeah!

In "Made to be broken" (a very vigorous song), Lou declares

"I'm a man with a mission, in the very heart of darkness

at the edge of existance...

I've got a heart, that's made to be broken

The harder I try, to hold on to my Lord
Oh yeah!...

You gave me resistance...
Can we still make from his to be
at the edge of existance...

I've got a heart, that's made to be broken

The harder I try, to hold on to my Lord

I've got a heart, that's made to be broken

The harder I try, to hold on to my Lord

I cast all my chains
until nothing remains
Only my Faith in You Lord
Now You know where I've been
Lost in the every end
But it's all in Your hands, my Lord..."

The album also includes an excellent and sweet version of Billy Preston's "That's The Way God Planned It", in which Lou sings at the top of his lungs and with a strong voice:

"Why can't we be humble, like the good Lord said?

 He promised to exalt us! for love is the way!

 How men be so greedy when there's so much left?

 All things are God given! and they all have been blessed!

 That's the way!
God planned it!

 That's the way!
 God wants it to be!
Didn't He?

 Well, that's the way!
 God planned it

 That's the way!
God wants it to be!
 for you and me!

 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Let not your heart be troubled,

 Let mourning sobbing cease;

Learn to help one another!

 And live in perfect peace!

 If we just be humble, like the Good Lord said!

 He promised to exalt us, for LOVE is the way!

That's the way!
God planned it!

 That's the way!
God wants it to be!
doesn't He?

 You better believe me!: that's the way!
God planned it!

 That's the way!
 God wants it to be,
 for you and me

that's the way, all right, 

come on! come on! come on!

I hope you get this message! 
and where you won't others will

 You don't understand me, but I'll love you still!

 That's the way!
 God planned it!

 That's the way!
 God wants it to be!

 You better believe me!: that's the way!
God planned it!

 That's the way!
 God wants it to be!

In "Baptized by Fire" (a very rockish song), Lou sings:

"All the things I cannot see, when no one is watching me
I caught site Heaven, and the streets of Gold

It's gonna take some time, it won't happen over night;

but the hearts of darkness, will appear in plain sight, plain sight!

The voice of my prayers...!
He can hear me anywhere!

Baptized by fire,
caught up on this high wire

Now feel my blood run cold,
Oh Lord heal my wounded soul!

...

There will be no dispair!
He can hear me anywhere!"

In "Redeemer" (another rockish song)

"I don't look at things the way I used to

 My whole desires have lost their gains

 Through the doorway of love

 There's a threshold of pain

Redeemer, gotta get it in the light

 Redeemer, now You better put yourself in the fight"

In "Rattle Yer Bones", he shouts:

"Something's missing in our day

I've got a heart and a spirit

...

The circumstances out of control

I was a fugitive, a vagabond,

and I walked this salty earth

I'm not a held slave of this world

I've got to get the strength that I need

Rattle Yer Bones

Walk on stone

...

I've been redeemed,

this new life in me

and you will see The Truth

when You look in His eyes

Rattle Yer Bones

Walk on stone...

Rattle Yer Bones

Seven times a day"

In "Single Vision", Lou call his nation to turn to God again:

"Is the way of this cold world
I keep my distance

and the days full of darkness

I give my resistance

Any kept secret, will come to light

Just because I feel it, It don't make it right

But I know who'll be there!

In the light of a single vision

One nation under God

In the light of a single vision

In the visible,

Our country will have gone

Turn my eyes from the darkness

and those that seek my soul

Let, my Lord, mighty Truth

Shine, light, more than than gold

In my desperation, and the end of my pride

even if it's painful, it's always on my side

And I know You'll be there

In the light of a single vision

One nation under God

In the light of a single vision

In the visible, 

Our country will have gone...

Don't take our Lord from the classrooms

Please let us say our prayers of thanks

And when we pledge to our country

I know that without Him

we will never be free

In the light of a single vision

One nation under God

In the light of a single vision

In the visible,

Our country will have gone"

In the track "Our Lord Never Fails", Lou sings about God's fidelity:

"Our Lord never fails,

He heals the broken hearted

Our Lord never fails

now that's His only way 

Our Lord never fails,

He's Truth and He's wisdom,

Our Lord never fails

Lights up our darkest day

My heart is wounded withn me,

Love is just beyond my reach

I come out from the darkness

I hear the words that You teach

Our Lord never fails,

He heals the broken hearted

Our Lord never fails

now that's His only way 

Our Lord never fails,

He's Truth and He's wisdom,

Our Lord never fails

Lights up our darkest day

Our Lord never fails,

He will liberate your soul

Our Lord never fails

If you walk by faith alone,

Our Lord never fails

He's got this single vision,

Our Lord never fails

Our Lord never fails"

Lou composed a hard-rock worship song called "So Great!":

“SO great, SO great, is Our LORD!

SO great, SO great, is Our LORD!

The fire in my heart, is already kindled and burning

I take hold of His words, that God sends me,
His truth and His mercy!

SO great, SO great, is Our LORD!

SO great, SO great, is Our LORD!
(My faith is my Lord)

When there is no way, to satisfy the longing of my soul

Well, it’s then that I pray to my Lord

my rock and my fortress!

...Well I've made my decision
And that's all I need!

(Just then, after a guitar solo in the same song,
a chorus of children voices retake verses from Foreigner's song "Real World"):

...lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

and If I die before I wakeI pray The LORD my soul to take

I pray The LORD my soul to take!

SO great, SO great! SO great is Our LORD!

SO great, SO great! SO great is Our LORD!
My LORD!..."

In an interview on july 2013, Lou remembers the time where he passed through health problem. He reflects and says it was a nightmare, but one that "I guess it was in God's time that he was gonna bring me some glimpse of normalcy and little peace in my llife, you know, and the fog did lifted and I started thinking a lot clear and I actually that I was getting better. " He discusses how it was an honor to be inducted to the "Songwriters Hall of Fame" in 2013, and the possibility of performing again together with Mick Jones; something that --at this time-- have already happened a couple of times. Wearing a cross on his neck, he told with a smile that he is now on his third marriage and his wife is expecting.

May God bless Lou and his family,

We love you much Lou!