Foreigner’s Hot-Blooded Rock Hall Campaign Paid Off

Update, April 21: They can finally know what lo — oh, excuse us, what an induction is. Foreigner is officially bound for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, alongside other performers such as Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Peter Frampton, and A Tribe Called Quest. “I think it means more to me now than perhaps 20 years ago,” Foreigner’s Mick Jones told Billboard of the accomplishment. “I’ve had a great career, and this is like the whipped cream and cherry on top. It’s something I will savor over the years. It’s a great honor to be included among all these great artists who have been inducted over the years.” Jones thanked his stepson Mark Ronson for leading the charge online. “I had a good laugh seeing Paul’s Instagram post,” he added. You know, everyone’s good pal, Paul.

Original story follows.

Where the hell was this enthusiasm when Warren Zevon got his inaugural nomination last year? That’s a rant for another time, but anyway, Foreigner has been the benefactor of an uncharacteristically blatant and thirsty campaign to get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with the jukebox heroes currently sitting on a shortlist of names that includes Peter Frampton, Cher, and Oasis. The latest recruit for the blitz is none other than Paul McCartney, an old pal of guitarist Mick Jones, who recorded a video to whip voters back into a single vision: “Foreigner, not in the Hall of Fame? What the fuck? Ah!”

Macca joins a robust crew of musicians organized by Mark Ronson to stump for Foreigner — Ronson is Jones’s stepson, placing him somewhere in our nepo-baby extended universe — which already included a longer video of Dave Grohl, Slash, Jack Black, and Flea verbalizing various states of disbelief that the band hasn’t already been inducted. Appearing on The Tonight Show on February 26, Ronson explained that the push has been due, in part, to Jones’s recent health struggles with Parkinson’s disease. “They’ve never been considered for it … we decided to go all out this year,” he explained. “I called in some favors. There’s some people I met along the way, making music myself, that I knew were fans of Foreigner.” Maybe they really were just waiting for a guy like him to get the ball rolling.