Foreigner's Mick Jones recovering from heart by-pass surgery
Mick Jones live at DTE, Clarkston, MI - June 2010. Photo Alun Williams
Last year suspicions were rife as to what was wrong with Foreigner's guitarist and sole original band member Mick Jones, after he was absent from a bunch of live shows.
It now appears that Mick was admitted to Mount Sinai hospital in Miami Beach last week and proceeded to undergo 'aortoiliac bypass surgery' but is said to now be recovering well.
Foreigner last year toured as special guests of Journey and Mick Jones was unable to perform at certain dates and the band called upon opening band Night Ranger guitarist Joel Hoekstra to cover for him.
During an an interview I did with Joel late last year, he was totally respectful of Mick when I asked the questions about Mick and what was wrong, Joel was very diplomatic.
Here's a snippet from that:
AW: So, you’ve had to step in for Mick (Jones – Foreigner) on a couple of shows too haven’t you, so what was that like …?
Joel: Totally an honour man! Mick’s a rock legend you know, he’s written some of the best songs that I’ve ever heard so … It went down real quickly. I basically had a day to learn it, you know it reminded me of when I learned the Night Ranger set, so I learned their set and it was like trial by fire man, it was right in and we played it down and once again, there was something about those gigs that you’re able to survive them, (Laughing) they feel so rewarding you know?! But you know really, it’s just like an amazing because I’m no one in the rock world compared to Mick Jones and so for somebody like me to get an opportunity to do that is just like a complete blessing and it’s like … I appreciate it and I just wanted to make sure that everything was exactly as he would play it, but the guys did encourage me to go ahead and be myself and have fun with it here and there as well, but I definitely want to thank whatever fans were at those shows for their support and their understanding and that Foreigner just felt that it was best to give them a show rather than totally 100% disappoint their fans and that’s really that.
AW: Right … So they probably changed the set around a little bit didn’t they right, because obviously there’s certain things Mick does and so on that …
Joel: Luckily Tommy Gimbel (Foreigner’s Keyboards / Guitars / Sax player) is like just so talented that he was able to hop over and cover Mick’s keyboard parts, so that was the only thing that was different that on like ‘Cold As Ice’ or ‘Waiting For a Girl Like You’ or ‘I Want To Know What Love Is,’ Tommy came over and covered Mick’s parts on keys, while I covered his guitar parts.
AW: Oh OK, well that’s cool, hopefully Mick’s back on track again soon … Sounds like maybe he needed a breather?
Joel: He’s going be cool, he’ll be fine ...
And that was really all I learned from Joel at that time ...
That full interview can be read here:
I also understand that during the summer Mick had undergone a bunch of tests and the story then was pretty much that he was suffering from a level of exhaustion.
The current situation of Mick needed bypass surgery and his subsequest recovery period, I hope work out well.
Story links:
Rhonda and I were fortunate to have met up with Mick backstage in 2010, here in Detroit and had a great chat, as brief as it was, about our shared home tome of Portsmouth, England, Foreigner and on the state of our favourite football team, Portsmouth Football Club, at the first time they went through administration and are sadly going through it again now.
We wish Mick nothing but the best for a speedy recovery period.
Get well soon mate!
No comments:
Post a Comment