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Kelly Hansen: Foreigner And The Life Of A Rock Star | E74 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Kelly Hansen: I learned a really huge lesson. When I was in hurricane, we were starting to do well, selling out clubs. And I was pretty cool. You know, like, Hey, um, you know, we're rocking it. We're rock stars, we're getting it done and learned a lesson about that this business and what IT projects to you and your art in front of your eyes is not reality. I want to be thinking about what the words mean, are they touching me and motivating moving me? If I can steal Frank Sinatra's voice in AI to make a tick tock clip that gets me 100,000 followers or likes or listens, and it makes me ad money? What the hell what's going on? What is Frank Sinatra's estate say about that?
• 0:41
  Kelly Hansen: I could be aI tomorrow, no one would need me.
• 0:46
  Randall Kaplan: Thanks for listening. It's part two of my incredible interview with Kelly Hanson, the lead singer of the legendary rock band forerunner, which has sold more than 80 million albums and his hits include hot blooded jukebox hero and feels like the first time if you haven't yet listened to part one of my amazing interview with Kelly, be sure to check that one out. First, I want to go back to something really important that you said and I do a lot of coaching a lot of mentoring. But I have a saying do it now. And you mentioned being the first to do something, you can miss something by a millisecond I in in my own personal life. I like to tell the story that I had met my wife three and a half years before going on our first date.
• 1:25
  Randall Kaplan: And she was most amazing, beautiful on the outside, more importantly beautiful on the inside. And she loves sports and football and is laid back just a very cool person and a great human being. And I learned on a vacation that she had made a Facebook post, I'm going on vacation with my boyfriend and I said I was just the engagement trip. And she wrote back to me hardly. And she was going to Hawaii, I've been in the resort about 10 times. So this is gonna be a great, great trip for you.
• 1:59
  Randall Kaplan: In the Facebook post was the first communication we've had in a couple of years. Maybe actually the first that we had had period after the night that I had met her with a friend three years before. And I texted her I said Is this the I said How was the trip going when she got there? And she said, we broke up. So I thought all right, this is great. I said can I take you to dinner? She's still live with my boyfriend.
• 2:23
  Randall Kaplan: There's there's no way. I got a lot to do. She said maybe when my my sister is getting married in California, and in mid California, maybe maybe we can get together then. And I hate babies. I don't believe in babies. And so when she got back, I said to her. I'm coming out for this art fair call frieze Art Fair this weekend.
• 2:45
  Randall Kaplan: Can we go to dinner? I made it happen. And I was the only one who knew that they'd broken up.
• 2:53
  Randall Kaplan: And I remember being at dinner the night before with a famous movie director. I was a group of eight people very interesting crowd and he said, What are you doing tomorrow? I said, I'm flying to New York. What are you there for work? I said, No, I'm going to take a girl out to dinner. And he said, You're a desperate guy for going to New York and can't get a date here.
• 3:13
  Randall Kaplan: And I went out and we got engaged three months later, we've been together now a little over nine years to have two beautiful kids. But I tell the story often because you can miss it by a millisecond had someone learned about that she was broken up, she would have gone on a date with somebody else, I'm sure right immediately and it would have been over there would have been no, no shot there. But in business, it's the same way we chase deals on a regular basis. Sometimes it is the first person there who gets the deal. Talk to us about the importance of being proactive and the importance of being reactive. Here you are, you're sitting there, you're producing, you're working with different musicians and bands and doing background vocals. But at some point, you said hey, I want to be a lead singer, you could have sat back and dreamed about it and done nothing. And so many people are sitting there today thinking I want to do something else I need to do something else. They're just not doing it.
• 4:11
  Randall Kaplan: What's your advice to them in terms of productivity versus reactivity?
• 4:17
  Kelly Hansen: Well, there's a lot of facets to this. Because I, I was frustrated where I was and and that made me unhappy.
• 4:34
  Kelly Hansen: And eventually I said, I this has to change. I can't continue to be this way. And when I realized that I wasn't getting called for gigs that I just accepted over the course of my life just fell in my lap. I said exactly what you said I had to I have to start being proactive.
• 4:48
  Kelly Hansen: That's where I said you know, I don't say no, I don't turn anything down. I'm just gonna go out there and I'm just going to gather gather and I know that it's going to move me forward and I I'm, and I guess somehow I had dumb just absorbed some of the philosophy that worked for me, like, as far as like, looking at a situation that's in front of me with the, with the call about, they're coming to rehearsals, and I just, I just went to myself, Oh, shit, they're gonna hear somebody else. And I said, Well, if I get there first they can't, you know, finding the solution.
• 5:28
  Kelly Hansen: There's always a solution, if you look for it. And then once you're in there, and you're doing it, let's say I got the gig. Well, then I said to myself, well, I need to make myself indispensable every day.
• 5:39
  Kelly Hansen: That's what I said to myself.
• 5:42
  Kelly Hansen: And, and in between those two things, right before I, I, when they called me and said, Can you start rehearsing tomorrow? I had to have another discussion with myself. I said, I said, Okay, not everyone's going to like this decision. And you're going to have to handle criticism. Can you do that? I said, Yeah, I can do that. And then the second question was, do you have the ability to do this. And I think it's really important to have faith in yourself to say, I believe in myself enough that I can jump off this cliff and take this risk. It's very, very scary. But oddly enough, everything I've done in my life, that's been really scary. And I did it. Were the most successful things in my life. Are, my stepson is getting going to college, he was reviewing colleges. And I was talking to my wife, I said, tell him to go to the college that scares him the most. Because I think it's worth it. Because if it's not scary, then you're too comfortable in it. And you're not going to be on guard to do your best you're going to be floating because it's not so hard. I think that's the only way as a as a shark in any business. That is you keep moving forward. And whatever you have to do to keep moving forward is what you need to do.
• 7:14
  Kelly Hansen: That's most of the times the solution, your problem is to don't get stuck and stand there and not make a decision. I was listening to Jordan Peterson and he said, If you don't know what you need to do, do something.
• 7:34
  Kelly Hansen: Start walking down a path, and maybe halfway down the road to that path. You might decide this is wrong for you. So okay, so you at least now you've move forward, you know, that's not the path. Maybe I need to shift over here and move this way.
• 7:52
  Kelly Hansen: You've progressed. But if you don't do something, you don't progress.
• 7:57
  Randall Kaplan: This fear, our greatest motivator to success?
• 8:01
  Kelly Hansen: Hmm. I'm not sure if it's fear, I think challenge might be a word I would use.
• 8:09
  Kelly Hansen: Because challenge questions, whether you have the ability to do it. And then that translates to faith in yourself that you can,
• 8:21
  Randall Kaplan: let's go back to something everyone wants to know about. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll isn't really the case that you're a rock star, and you're coming off of a stage. And if you're a male singer, and a famous singer, there are lines of women waiting for you. And you can essentially have lots of sexual experiences and have a large selection and people willing to be romantic with you that evening. And there's endless every single night on tour. I hear stories about this.
• 9:02
  Randall Kaplan: I know a couple of musicians who tell me the craziest stories about this. Is that what it was like for you? And what about the drugs and all the other things that go along with it, including the fame?
• 9:14
  Kelly Hansen: Obviously, today is not the same as when I was 24. And then it's a matter of degree of how what's your popularity level because that's going to directly translate to people who want to be around you. And I want to relate a story that's not necessarily but partly connected to what you said. on on on on the avenue of popularity. I learned a really huge lesson. When I was in hurricane we were starting to do well. selling out clubs. Do a little stuff on the road here and there and people starting to know who we were. And then eventually we could get into any club. We didn't have to pay the cover fee they would just buy we bypass the line, they own who we were, we were like, one of the hot bands out. And I was pretty cool. You know, like, Hey, um, you know, we're rocking it, we're rock stars, we're getting it done. And, you know, six months after the label went under, no one knew who I was, or cared who I was. And I learned a valuable lesson about that I learned a lesson about that this business. And what it projects to you, in your eyes in front of your eyes is not reality. You have to know who you are, as a person and value yourself and do things artistically for yourself. Because everything out there is a facade. And people like you, because they only know a fraction of anything about you. I used to get criticized sometimes because I'd be at an after show party. And I would talk to somebody and then after 10 seconds, my manager would tapped me on the shoulder and say, you have to go talk to this person. And the person I was talking to pretend seconds has now determined that they know me, and I'm a dick, because I only spent 10 seconds with them.
• 11:04
  Kelly Hansen: And so all of those things related to fame. And related to being a star is all external, and it's not real. And I think it's really important. I learned that lesson, I going through that kind of humiliation because I would go somewhere and all of a sudden, no one knew who the hell I was. It was kind of a humiliation lesson. And it showed me okay, you, you have to understand what's real and what's not real, this whole rock star thing. Don't ever get into your head that you're great. And it's all you know, and all that stuff is true. Because it's temporary perception based on your popularity. So that's our kind of connects to what I said.
• 11:46
  Kelly Hansen: But going back to your question when I was 24, and when we were pretty popular. There. I, you know, I did, I had my share of things happen, you know, and I can't say whether it was good or bad, but it was my existence to you know, I hopped around a fair amount and did those things and but then I think you get to a point where like, I was in I was in hurricane and I just, I couldn't I one night after the show, everyone was like rushing to get their clothes change and fix their hair, and they were gonna meet chicks. And I was just like, Oh, I just want to have a sandwich and Diet Coke.
• 12:31
  Kelly Hansen: And that's it. It just was over for me in that way. And a large part and, and the drugs I never did, because I never did cocaine ever because I was worried about messing up my voice. And in a way, having that excuse gave me an excuse to not indulge in those things that maybe I would have if I did something else. So I'm thankful for that. And I'm I'm thankful that I wanted to maintain my vocal quality at instead of doing something at the expense of that just to have fun or a good time or and so I so I never did the drug thing, but and I never was a super late hour out all night type of guy.
• 13:16
  Kelly Hansen: I mean, it did happen. But it also happened that I stayed up all night in the studio times times to working so. So it was there. I saw it there. I saw it with other people a lot. I saw all kinds of ridiculous things.
• 13:31
  Kelly Hansen: The first tour that we did, we opened for Rick Derringer. And we had a groupie backstage and I remember her I remember signing her underwear on the crotch while she was wearing them that's just his talent was you know and you know all the all those stories. There's a lot of real in those stories because it was a wild time. And yep, there was.
• 14:11
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• 15:19
  Randall Kaplan: We own a bunch of townhomes in Nashville. And as you know, it's just one hockey talk after the next and one venue, right. And there's an amazing band that Kid Rock, it's I don't know if you've been to Nashville or not, but it's the first big venue there, there's three floors, and there's just one band. That's incredible and super crowded every night and you're the band is playing at the top level, and there's no two levels. So I get to live out my rockstar fantasy because I tip the band $100. And they only play a song. And the first time you hit that boom, it's it's miked up, it's a whole different thing than playing in your bedroom. Sure, and it's fun. For me, the adrenaline was rushing. And I said, God, this is amazing. This is closest I'm ever going to get and it's super fun. I look forward to visiting there. What's it like singing in front of 50,000 people,
• 16:09
  Kelly Hansen: there are a lot of different types of audiences.
• 16:12
  Kelly Hansen: And my this is my perception of it, you have a small amphitheater or club, you have a casino, you have state fairs, you have sheds, you have stadiums, and you have festivals, right? kind of starts the ascent. So basically the ascending order of, of size. And you have to treat each different kind of audience differently. At least I do, I have to see them and read them in a different way. Plus, there's also the added element of what they call iMac. iMac is if you go to concert, you see two screens on both sides of the stage. And there's live cameras on you. And that camera is showing, you know different camera angles that fit different musicians during the show. That's an added element of the show. When we do festivals in Europe, and there's 50,000 people out there, it's great.
• 17:17
  Kelly Hansen: But there is responsibility about the performance in my mind, I'm responsible for converting this audience to loving what we're doing. And so that's foremost in my mind. And then I have to all of a sudden, you have to play a lot bigger than you are. It's like if you if you confront a grizzly bear, you have to make yourself as big as possible. Well, that's the same thing you do at a festival show, you have to be really, really big. If there's big I'm egg, you can do more with your face, because the IMAX going to project that expression to the audience, when your normal face on the stage from a half a mile away is not going to be seen. So you have to think about that, that I make that part of my puzzle when I'm going on stage.
• 18:07
  Kelly Hansen: And if you go to a casino, that's a completely different kind of audience, because people are there. They're gambling, they come from all different parts to come in one place, sometimes from all over the world. So it's a very diverse crowd. They're not the normal, like Detroit's a real rock crowd, you know, and they they know how to rock out of the show. But people that are coming to the scene are from coming from everywhere, where sometimes they don't really like to stand up too much or they're older or whatever it is. So you have to handle them a completely different way. It's a more intimate way that you have to handle them a more personal, intimate way. And so I'm always thinking about 100 I'm thinking about blocking where am I supposed to be on stage for this light cue and so I don't bump into you know, Jeff pilson on bass. And so I'm thinking about all that kind of stuff I'm thinking about do I need to readdress how I'm handling this?
• 19:08
  Kelly Hansen: Is the crowd moving in the direction that I want them to at the time I want them to? are they responding the way I want them to and all those things or on a minute to minute basis of readjustment for me and how I do the show. I'm always trying to sing the songs the best that I can sing them pretty much always the same every time because there's their set that set but but my body is not always set the same way sometimes my voice is a little bit more tired or maybe on a high altitude or so.
• 19:37
  Kelly Hansen: I'm so I'm constantly trying to keep my vocal in the same place like this my hands and even though the variables around me constantly change for me physically. So there's a lot going on in my head at the show.
• 19:49
  Kelly Hansen: I'm not just there are moments where I could just stand there in joy and go wow, this is awesome. But most of the time I'm busy doing the job you Elon, entertaining hopefully,
• 20:05
  Randall Kaplan: in some years, you've done 170 shows that's every other night. And there's not a lot of breaks in between.
• 20:12
  Randall Kaplan: How do you keep up this stamina in the energy night after night?
• 20:16
  Randall Kaplan: Because every night is a different night. There's different different groups, like you said, and they don't care what you did the next night or the previous night they care about this night. How do you keep it up? And do you ever say to yourself with the band members? God, we really fucked that up tonight. That was terrible. And do you ever say that was one of the best shows we've ever had?
• 20:34
  Kelly Hansen: Well, that's, that's up to personal perception, I might think this show was crap. But someone else might go, wow, I've really had a great time tonight. So it's not always the same collective voice on how show went. But as far as keeping up, it gets harder and harder every year to sing this catalog of songs, because it's a very difficult rock catalog to sing one of the most difficult commercial rock catalogs that there is. And so we have pared down. The Touring and the number of shows in a row are, we're we're usually trying to do ones and twos, one show day off two shows day off that kind of thing. There's once in a while there's a three. But you know, we have to make sure it's I have days on or off before and after that little Ron and but basically, for me, personally, what I have to do is, I have to give up a little something every year to maintain the status quo of my vocal quality. And, but I also have to, it's like, it's like my voice and me are two different beings. And this voice is a diva, and I'm not so but I have to pay attention to what the diva voice needs. So that means I have to make that show the show hours have to be the apex of my day, every day. But to do that, I have to think 24 hours a day, when I'm on the road for six or seven weeks at a time, I don't go to work at nine and come home at five. And I don't have to worry about anything in between, I have to do it 24 hours a day, every day.
• 22:16
  Kelly Hansen: For those all those weeks to go out. I can't smoke and tell stories late into the night some bar over cognac and I can't yell I can't laugh too much. I like to say there's only so much tread on the tires. And so I'm very conscious about trying to make that show time to be the apex of the day because I feel a responsibility. And I and I I know that people are spending their time and their money to come see a show and I want them to see the best foreigner show they possibly can. So I take that very, very seriously. And that's also part of being indispensable every day.
• 23:02
  Randall Kaplan: And it's been around 45 years, you've been in it. Around 19 years now you've done 1000s of shows and you're now on your farewell tour. you reprioritize your life at some point, what's your advice to people who want to keep going and say I just don't want this to end. And I'm going to keep going keep going until it doesn't work versus going out.
• 23:28
  Randall Kaplan: While things are great. And while you're on top before you do start slipping in performance or whatever you're measuring yourself by?
• 23:35
  Kelly Hansen: Well, there's different types of people, there are types of people who for whatever reason, will die on stage. They'll play till they die on stage. And and there are many reasons varied spectrum of reasons for the motivation that causes that. And then there's people who like, more like me who like I don't want to be one of those bands that we all know about. We can name them, we can whisper them into each other's ear about the bands that are out there that shouldn't be out there anymore. And they're faking it. And they're on tape.
• 24:18
  Kelly Hansen: And they're terrible. And everyone knows it. But they'll lie that sometimes the audience will lie to themselves go Oh, I love these guys for so long. I just had such an amazing time.
• 24:28
  Kelly Hansen: It's like, Yeah, but did they suck is like well, they weren't really like they used to be and that's, that's them being kind.
• 24:36
  Kelly Hansen: That's not the truth. Truth is band sucked. And I don't, I don't like going to see a band like that and certainly don't want to be in a band like that.
• 24:42
  Kelly Hansen: I don't want to be singing like that. That's a horrible blow to my vocal vanity I have to say.
• 24:53
  Kelly Hansen: And I have I also found out early on when I was in hurricane that you can have passions for a other things besides music, I accidentally found other passions besides music, and I'm quite certain that a lot of musicians never ever found other passions. So they're stuck with their one passion. And getting older than them is now a hindrance to that because the music business doesn't usually reward older musicians or vocalist with extended talent, or extended opportunity. So I feel I'm ready now to start a new chapter in my life. I got married three years ago for the first time at 59. And I want to spend time with my wife and my family. I love to cook, I love to motorcycle and work on things and work on the house. And I want to be able to do those things. While I can still do them, and not have to wait until I'm so old that I've spent most of my life serving this business instead of serving my life, you know. So that's where the decision comes in. For me,
• 26:03
  Randall Kaplan: it get prices are out of control. Fans today go to concerts to hear the favorite performers. And when bands have had as many hit songs, as you have everyone wants to hear the hits, they want to make sure you play every single hit. And when you don't, people get disappointed. What is going through a band's mind when they're playing the heads and they play what I call a bunch of bathroom songs, you must look out at the audience and you're playing a song no one really cares for likes, you've got 1000s of people streaming for the bathroom. What's the thought process there between playing everything the crowd wants to hear. And while they're paying lots of money to go see you versus these other songs that, frankly, no one else cares about, but you may care about?
• 27:45
  Kelly Hansen: Well, fortunately, this band has had 16, top 30s.
• 27:49
  Kelly Hansen: And amazing every single song we know, charted and did well. And there's a lot of bands that can't say that they have two songs that people know and they've got to drudge through the set until they get to the you know, the two songs that people know. I mean, from the very first song to the very last song, we can't even play all the hits two people know, we do two ballads in the show. And we had a third ballot, I don't want to live without you. That was like a number four, we can't put another ballot in the show. So Right. It's just, we're very, very, I'm very fortunate as a singer to be in a band where everybody knows every song. I mean, jukebox hero didn't chart that high. But it's become a, an explosive, quintessential Rock Anthem. That's more popular now than it was when it came out. So like, thank you. And that's really amazing. And I think the reason that this band has been around so long is because of the catalog. These songs are so great. And they were just omnipresent. They were ubiquitous, when they came out and they have been for decades are part of people's lives and knowledge and history. I hear stories daily about meeting meringue, deaths, breakups, and all associated with foreigner songs. So no one could be more lucky than me to sing a catalogue of songs like this.
• 29:21
  Randall Kaplan: One of the things that I've been teaching for years and been one of the hallmarks of my success is something I called extreme preparation. And what I'm talking about here is preparing more than anyone else has prepared for anything that we're doing. So someone spends one hour I may spend five, if someone spends 10, I may spend 80, on a corporate presentation as important to our company. Can you give examples of how extreme preparation has been critical to your success? And is there a difference? Would you have been successful if you had not practiced extreme preparation versus others that did not?
• 29:58
  Kelly Hansen: There's a truth in the fact that your 100% might be somebody else's 70%. And I had a problem with that working with people, because I thought that there, they weren't putting in their 100%. And I finally learned that if I looked over to this guy, his 100% is not my 100% but it's his 100%. And so you have to be compassionate when you're that driven because no one's going to live up to your expectation and your dedication to being prepared to do what you do. Second thing is when you over prepare, it's like muscle memory. So that when you go to do the actual thing that you prepare for, you can forget all the stuff that you prepared for and it will be in You. It's especially important in music like when you go into the studio, I can't think about technique and how to curl that note and be thinking about that.
• 31:00
  Kelly Hansen: I want to be thinking about what the words mean, and are they touching me and motivating moving me, I want the other stuff to be second nature. So that's where being over prepared really helps you because you can then forget it. Because a lot of times people don't. And they're, and they're, they're preparing in the moment when they're doing it. And that's definitely not what you want to do.
• 31:24
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• 32:31
  Kelly Hansen: lot of bands in the 70s. And the 80s, like I was it was, it was considered the proper thing to do to be this rebellious, unhappy young man kind of thing. So you were encouraged to look stern and give that cool rock Look, that's not smiling. And me being in a band. Now, after the band has been around 45 years, we're not trying to prove how dark and cool we are anymore. We're trying to enjoy ourselves and make the audience enjoy themselves. And so smiling is a huge part of that. It's an automatic relayer to the receiver, that there is happiness in the room being directed towards them. And it's communication without a single word, which is important for me because I might be singing different words. But if I can smile, I'm communicating simultaneously in a separate language. You know what I mean?
• 33:36
  Kelly Hansen: And, and the fact that I'm constantly behind a microphone and in front of people, it brings an ease, where you feel comfortable talking to people.
• 33:47
  Kelly Hansen: And I always look at in wonder and amazement, not amazing, but just wonder like, because I'll know someone who doesn't publicly publicly speak. And I can only imagine how difficult that must be to get up in front of people and be at ease. And I've become so at ease that although I have a skeleton of what I'm saying or doing, I have, I have a lot of leeway to just ad lib. And, and some ad libs are, are are already pre formulated ideas that maybe I've done part of or piece ever done it differently. But I can still take that ad lib and still shape it like clay and fit that audience for that moment. And I think if you practice doing whatever you do, volunteering, anywhere where you can be in front of a microphone, if you're announcing some name or someone's going to a stage or you know if someone's coming in the room for dinner, if you can get in front of a microphone in front of people, you will gain an E and easy, more ease that'll help you tremendously. So all of those things, all of those things together make a effortless performance.
• 35:06
  Randall Kaplan: You've been in the music business now. Coming up on five decades, maybe a little over five decades since you were in high school. Things have changed quite a bit used to make money selling the albums than there were CDs or no more CDs today. touring bands make most of the money on T shirts and concessions. There's all kinds of carve outs. Royalties have come down and then you got Taylor Swift the craziness and the monopoly by Live Nation and Ticketmaster. What in your mind is the current state of the music business and where is it going?
• 35:43
  Kelly Hansen: i I wish I wasn't as cynical as I am. Especially with AI now. I It's, I was sitting in a restaurant next to a very famous rapper. And I didn't know who he was. But we started up a conversation, we were right next to each other at the sushi bar. We started, you know, bought him a sock a and, you know, we started talking and and I was very curious about the, what's current artists are doing? And I said, Where? Where do your revenue streams come from? And he said, Live, I'm like, what I'm like, that's where we, the only place we make money. He goes, I use social media to direct alive. And we use, you know, years of people knowing the music and continuing to put on a great show, to drive people to live. Live is the only place you're making any money.
• 36:49
  Kelly Hansen: If you have a giant catalogue of hits, I would have suggested you sold it 10 years ago. Because I can't see a scenario where your catalog is going to make more, it's not going to have a growing a growth life to it unless something happens. But what I see now is everybody's stealing everything, and no one's paying anybody anything. And if I can steal Frank Sinatra's voice in AI to make a tick tock clip that gets me 100,000 followers or likes or listens, and it makes me add money. What the hell?
• 37:24
  Kelly Hansen: What's going on? You know, what is Frank Sinatra's estate say about that? You know, I've done so many interviews and sung so many songs, I could be aI tomorrow, no one would need me anymore. So I feel that I'm making a wise choice. I, I have a cynical view of what's going forward for the music that's I, I read a story and I very, I verified it with a playlist that there is a certain music platform out there. That's creating songs by computer. And the same song is by 40 different bands, and 40 different arrangements, 40 different titles. And it's the same song.
• 38:12
  Kelly Hansen: And because they know that if you have 15 songs in our in a playlist, they have to pay out their miniscule royalties to 15, songwriter, songwriting entities. But if a third of that, or 20% of that is computer created content, they don't have to pay anybody anything. So now they have a 20 or 30% saving on on the royalties, they have to pay out when they're already making billions of dollars on subscriptions. And the artist is getting absolutely nothing anymore. So how can I have a positive view of that?
• 38:45
  Randall Kaplan: You have all these hits, you've sold 80 million albums, you have five platinum albums, and you're not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because critics view you as corporate. I guess that's the word out there. How do you feel about that? And is it ever gonna happen and doesn't matter to you?
• 39:04
  Kelly Hansen: First, it doesn't matter to me. It's kind of like, it's kind of like a little clique. And if you if you know the people that make do the voting, and they like you you're in. And if they don't like you, for some reason you're not. And but I do want to say that one of their qualifications for being allowed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is something about the scope of your influence. And let me just say this. How many times has a person been inspired to pick up guitar and play hot blooded or jukebox hero? Because they love the song, it's really popular. To me, that's the definition of influence.
• 40:00
  Randall Kaplan: One of the things that's most important to me in my life, and I know you've done a lot of work on this as well as giving back to others and philanthropy. He tell us about the work you've done with the Grammy Foundation and some of the amazing letters you've received from charities and public schools about some of the amazing things that you've done.
• 40:19
  Kelly Hansen: Right we we started working with the Grammy Museum Grammy Foundation, maybe more than 10 years ago and and for years we've had choirs come on stage and sing on stage with us during one know what love is and and it's been to raise awareness about the lack of funding for school music programs. And I'm like I said I was a product of the school system and the first thing that gets cut when there's not enough money in the budget is our is the arts which is to me just criminal because that is that is the doorway, to the outside world outside of your small town, outside of your state outside of your timeline, you know, and you get to you get a different perspective on everything when you have exposure to everything. And if you limit that part because math and science and history, our history maybe somewhat, but it's not, it doesn't change too much in your small town math doesn't change. It's not extremely exotic, you know, but music in the arts can be so we've really enjoyed as especially Jeff and I have been, you know, product of the American school system.
• 41:37
  Kelly Hansen: Giving back a little bit you know, we we donate to the choir, so they have a little bit of money. And during the summer tour here, we're going to be having multiple choirs open the show before Loverboy. And they're going to be vote on a winner and the winner is going to win a Bose L one system PA system from our, our, our partners Bose. And so that will be a stage and I look at the faces of these kids. And this is probably the first time they've ever been in front of that many people. And there's a little piece of the song where I encourage everybody to turn on their cell phones that are lighter. So the whole audience has their lighters and cell phones come up. And I just know that that's just gonna blow their minds. So I'm really happy to see that it brings us I think more joy than it does to them.
• 42:21
  Kelly Hansen: And I'm like you said we've gotten really great letters from from choir directors and parents and saying, you know, this has encouraged their student in this direction or that direction and really had an effect on them had a change in them. And, and that's really great to hear, because that's the point. You know, that's what we wanted to accomplish. And we also do a lot of a lot of work with the Shriners for the Shriners Hospitals. And that's really a little bit of a give back to helping helping those kids where parents don't have to pay for anything that their child is sick.
• 42:58
  Randall Kaplan: stepdad, Henry Rollins, who passed away around nine years ago was involved with the Shriners for around 40 years. It's a great organization. And I encourage everyone to go look online and see what they do. Before we finish today, Kelly, I want to go ahead and ask you some more open ended questions. I call this part of my podcast, fill in the blank. Excellent. So you're ready to play? I'm ready. When I started my career, I wish I had known
• 43:22
  Kelly Hansen: more. Is that kind of answer you want?
• 43:28
  Randall Kaplan: No, that's too broad.
• 43:32
  Kelly Hansen: Okay, I if when I started my career, I wish I would have known and more about collaboration. I tended to be a all my eggs in one basket type of guy. But over the course of my career, I've had so many opportunities to work with an right with a record with other people. And I didn't take as much advantage of that as I should have.
• 43:58
  Randall Kaplan: The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is you are insignificant. I number one professional goal is
• 44:05
  Kelly Hansen: to leave a positive legacy.
• 44:11
  Randall Kaplan: My biggest regret is
• 44:13
  Kelly Hansen: while I don't have many. Maybe not not learning to cook sooner.
• 44:21
  Randall Kaplan: You make your own tortillas. I did I did just last night. Chicken Enchilada, one of your best dishes.
• 44:29
  Kelly Hansen: Last night was tacos. But yeah. Do you make the enchilada soup? Yeah.
• 44:33
  Randall Kaplan: If you could go back in time, what's the one piece of advice you would give to your 21 year old self?
• 44:42
  Kelly Hansen: I would say don't forget to enjoy what you're doing. 10 years are gonna pass and you're still going to be 10 years older.
• 44:54
  Kelly Hansen: So don't be so hard on yourself.
• 44:54
  Kelly Hansen: If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be?
• 44:59
  Kelly Hansen: Aretha Franklin. And she was I was right outside her dressing room door. And I didn't get the chance to meet her. But you know what I? I really think I would have only wanted to meet her if she knew who I was. Because otherwise it's just a fan.
• 45:15
  Randall Kaplan: That's an interesting answer. I would have never thought of that perspective before. What do you think she would have said if you told her I'm the lead singer, a foreigner and there's no doubt she would know 10 of your songs.
• 45:26
  Kelly Hansen: She'd probably know the songs and she would probably be thinking of Lou Gramm not me. But you know, the one thing that I've always wanted is to just have respect from my peers. Because anyone can be a listener, but someone who likes what you do and they know well enough, the difference between good and bad. That means something to me.
• 45:52
  Randall Kaplan: Who's your favorite musician in the world today? Who's alive?
• 45:58
  Kelly Hansen: Wow, that's, you know, I have a problem with the word favorites. I'm not a favorites type of person, because that causes you to judge one thing superior to another thing, when in fact they can be equal but different. So that's too broad of a question for you to answer.
• 46:16
  Randall Kaplan: For all the struggling musicians out there who are listening or watching this podcast, who know how difficult it is, they're playing in the dive bars, they're dying for their first gig, they're making 50 bucks a night or they're getting free drinks.
• 46:29
  Randall Kaplan: What's your advice to them?
• 46:33
  Kelly Hansen: I wish you the very, very best. And I hope that somewhere sometime, there will be an avenue that rewards you as you deserve to be rewarded for your ability, and it doesn't get stolen from you. Or overlooked or missed completely.
• 47:00
  Randall Kaplan: And one question that you wish I asked you but didn't is
• 47:05
  Kelly Hansen: what are you going to do after foreigner?
• 47:09
  Randall Kaplan: What are you going to do after?
• 47:11
  Kelly Hansen: What's not fair?
• 47:11
  Kelly Hansen: I'm doing your job now.
• 47:15
  Randall Kaplan: No, I'm aghast.
• 47:15
  Randall Kaplan: Thanks for having me on your show, Kelly?
• 47:20
  Kelly Hansen: Sure. I haven't 100% decided. My wife and I are looking at that on a daily basis. I don't know how much public music is in my future I could be or it might not be I haven't decided yet. There's a still a long way to go. Because this this farewell tour will go into 2024. And everybody's trying to get me to go longer.
• 47:49
  Kelly Hansen: But I have a fantasy vision of living in semi rural France and simplifying my life having less noise in my world. I don't I'm not someone who seeks attention or needs the spotlight. I think I'm growing to learn what's important to me. And so I hope that it turns out to be something like that. And and, you know, just be with my wife.
• 48:37
  Kelly Hansen: That'd be that'd be cool.
• 48:39
  Randall Kaplan: I am grateful for you to be on my show. I've been a huge fan of foreigner for ever since I was a little kid. I know all the words to all the songs on my playlist.
• 48:49
  Kelly Hansen: Since your hair was as dark as it was in your in your in your logo.
• 48:53
  Randall Kaplan: Picture My my hair. Well, the logo has streaks of white in it, but I I've never dyed my hair. So I don't know what was happening that day.
• 49:00
  Randall Kaplan: That's that photo has not been touched up. But there are photos in my office here of when I did have dark hair. And at one point I had a little bit of mullet when when I was in college.
• 49:09
  Randall Kaplan: Nice. I wanted to and I want to be a rapper back then. Right.
• 49:12
  Randall Kaplan: And I thought I was cool. And I was very much not cool. Right?
• 49:16
  Randall Kaplan: But I'm excited for you.
• 49:20
  Randall Kaplan: Congratulations on all your success. I want everyone to go out and catch your farewell tour. I'm hoping to catch it as well. I know you're playing in Seattle or outside of Spokane, and it's September so I'm going to try to make that show and if not, I'm going to catch another show. Oh, thanks for being here.
• 49:38
  Randall Kaplan: Appreciate you. Thanks for sharing your story with us.
• 49:40
  Randall Kaplan: Thank you