When Foreigner announced its farewell tour back in 2022, the primary reason was singer Kelly Hansen's concern about continuing to sound good as he aged.

“This catalog of songs, it’s extremely challenging for a rock tenor vocalist like myself to sing,” he explained at the time. “I never thought in a million years I’d be singing these songs in the [original] keys at this age [then 61], and I don’t know how much longer I can do that at the level I need to…If I’m not doing it for real, I shouldn’t be doing it.”

However, when "residency issues" hindered Hansen from touring with the band earlier this year, guitarist Luis Maldonado stepped in on vocals and was so impressive that last month Hansen announced he was quitting the band after their US run and would pass the torch on to Maldonado. That change sparked a new life in Foreigner, and in an interview withe Billboard, bassist Jeff Pilson admitted the band is no longer on a farewell tour and will be performing for the foreseeable future.

“There’s just a lot of forward movement, and the band is incredibly excited,” Pilson said. “What started off as being a farewell tour now ended up being Kelly’s last tour and (the band) moving forward.”

Hansen's last shows with Foreigner are set to be October 11 and 12 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. “I’ve had my time in here, and in the business, and the entertainment business is not the easiest business in the world,” he confessed. “I really want to be able to live my life outside of being on the road nine months a year. I want to be able to do other things in my life, with my family, while I still can. And I don’t want to be out there doing these songs at less than the standard that we’ve set, ever.”

Pilson spoke for the band, assuring there are no hard feelings because of Hansen's departure, saying: “We’ve had a great run together, and he deserves to have a wonderful life.”

He also revealed that the band's decision to continue with Maldonado on vocals was a surprise to everyone. “Luis really had no intention of this,” Pilson divulged. “He was trying to talk Kelly into staying. And when it became clear Kelly really wants to live a life now…Luis just stepped up and, oh my God, that voice came through."

"We knew he could sing really well, but we were never thinking in terms of him replacing Kelly — so I would say no, we didn’t know exactly how well he could sing," he added. "But we knew he was great. He started doing shows with Michael (Bluestein, keyboardist) and Bruce (Watson, guitarist), acoustically, and once people started hearing him sing the Foreigner songs, it was like, ‘Wait a minute; what do we have here?!’ It happened organically, which is beautiful.”

Foreigner currently have tour dates running through March 2026. See a full list of dates on their official website.

Todd Matthews