Billy Joel welcomed Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and Mick Jones onstage at New York’s Madison Square Garden Thursday to perform a pair of the rock band’s hits, “Urgent” and “Cold as Ice.”
Before bringing the recently reunited Foreigner duo out, Joel told the audience that Jones co-produced his 1989 album Storm Front in addition to penning Foreigner’s hits. “Him and another guy who was the singer of all those great songs are here with us tonight,” Joel said.
Gramm and Jones then took the stage for “Urgent,” with Jones providing guitar and Joel’s longtime saxophonist Mark Rivera performing the solo originally laid down by Junior Walker.
After “Urgent,” Joel got up from his piano and left the stage as Gramm and Jones – the latter moving to piano – led Joel’s band through a rendition of “Cold as Ice.”
In 2013, Joel inducted Gramm and Jones into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. “Back when there were jukeboxes, these guys really were ‘Jukebox Heroes,'” Joel said in his induction speech. “Mick and Lou forged a legacy that resonates with generations of music fans.” That ceremony marked the first time Gramm and Jones performed together in eight years.
At a July 2017 show on Long Island, Gramm joined his Foreigner bandmates onstage for the first time since leaving the band in 2003. Multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and keyboardist Al Greenwood, both founding members of Foreigner who last performed with the group in 1980, were also on-hand to perform.
