Foreigner Keyboardist on Farewell Tour and Christmas Album
Foreigner’s Jewish keyboardist honored to be part of the band headed for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Michael Bluestein, the keyboardist for Foreigner, is part of the band set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He joins other artists in recording songs of the season, including Irving Berlin, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and others. Foreigner's run includes worldwide record sales of over 80 million copies, nine studio albums, seven of them platinum or better between 1977-87, and 14 Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Bluesteins was not present at the recording time of these songs but feels the responsibility to maintain the band's legacy. He began studying classical and jazz in high school before moving to San Francisco and later joined Linda Perry's band.
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Foreigner’s Jewish keyboardist honored to be part of the band headed for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We catch Michael Bluestein today in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the keyboardist — best known as a member of the band Foreigner since 2008 — is in the studio working with some local musicians.
What kind of job is that for a nice Jewish boy? “It’s a long tradition,” says Bluestein, who joins the ranks of Irving Berlin, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and many more in recording songs of that season. “Mel Torme did OK with himself with ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire’ and all those songs, so I’m honored to be part of that lineage.”
Bluestein, 55, is, of course, part of another history as part of Foreigner.
Founded during 1976 by Mick Jones, the group is headed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during October, reflecting a legendary run that includes worldwide record sales of more than 80 million copies, nine studio albums — seven of them platinum or better between 1977-87 — and 14 Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Songs such as “Feels Like the First Time,” “Cold as Ice,” “Urgent,” “Juke Box Hero” and “I Want to Know What Love Is” defined an era and remain Classic Rock radio staples.
Like the rest of the current Foreigner lineup, Bluestein was not around when they were recorded, but he feels the weight of responsibility to maintain the band’s legacy.
“Performing these songs well and representing them the way we have ... these songs are part of people’s lives, and they want to come out and hear them,” explains Bluestein, who was referred to Foreigner by Paul Merkovich, who was a short-term fill-in with the group at the time. “When you play ‘Double Vision’ or ‘Head Games’ or ‘Cold as Ice,’ ‘Jukebox Hero,’ even after all this time, you’re treading on hallowed ground.
“There’s a humility that comes with that, wanting to do right by the music and the songs and how important they’ve been to everyone there.”
A focus on music “just kind of happened” for Bluestein while he was growing up in the northern suburbs of Boston.
“The previous owners had left this upright piano behind in the house we moved into in Haverhill,” he recalls. “I started tinkering with it and had a knack for picking out melodies. That’s how it started, and I got more and more serious about it over the years. It just seemed to want to come out of me.”
Bluestein began studying classical and jazz had a “sort of fusion, pop band in high school.” Uncertain about music as a career, he planned to attend New York University with an undecided major. “I had done some drama and theater in high school and was kinda interested in that, and I also thought about psychology,” he recalls, but at the last minute opted to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
“There was maybe some fear and self-doubt about diving into the music thing that kept me hedging a little bit and looking at other things,” Bluestein acknowledges. “I guess being 17, 18 years old, practicing as much as I was and getting into jazz the way I was, something flipped, and I was pretty sure that (music) was what it was gonna be.”
After graduating from Berklee, Bluestein moved to San Francisco, hanging up flyers to advertise his availability and becoming part of the Bay Area scene and releasing three solo CDs between 2000-2003. His big break came in 1996, when he joined former 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry as part of the band for her first solo tour. He’d subsequently play with Shelby Lynne but decided there would be more opportunity for him in Los Angeles, where he moved during 2003.
“In San Francisco, there was a bit of a ceiling to what you could do as far as bigger national and international touring,” says Bluestein, whose credits also include Boz Scaggs, Jacqui Naylor and Kitty Margolis. “I felt I had gotten maxed out in what I could do (in San Francisco) and, sure enough, being in L.A., I was touring the world.”
That was with the pop singer Anastacia, who had more success in Europe than in the U.S. That gave Bluestein a profile that led to subsequent work with Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson, Enrique Iglesias, Burt Bacharach and Stevie Nicks. With Foreigner, meanwhile, he recorded on the group’s last studio album, “Can’t Slow Down” in 2009, and has played on several live and compilation albums since.
He was a Foreigner fan before joining the band. “I always thought it was just irresistible rock — rocking and tight and carefully arranged and masterfully produced,” he says, adding that he knows a great deal more about the music now, after 16 years of playing the songs.
“I didn’t realize some of the (progressive rock) elements that are in there,” he says. “Al Greenwood, the original keyboardist, was really into Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, stuff like that. The way they fused some of those laments into rock and R&B was a really huge thing. The subtleties and nuance of that was lost on me as a kid, before I started playing it and really understood what was going on.”
His spotlight moment in the show, however, comes during “Urgent.” Since the departure of saxophonist-guitarist Thom Gimbel in 2021, Bluestein has been charged with recreating the saxophone solo played by Junior Walker on the 1981 Top 5 hit, but on a keytar rather than a horn.
“Thats super fun, I have to say,” Bluestein notes. “That saxophone thing is so iconic, so there was a little bit of trepidation about that. But right from the beginning, people have been really responsive, and it seems to go over quite well. Maybe enough time has passed since the ’80s clichés of keytar and skinny ties and buttoned-up shirts and mullets and stuff that people accept it more.”
And, as if he needs any validation, Bluestein recently saw the legendary Herbie Hancock play the exact same keytar he uses during a concert in Los Angeles.
Bluestein is anticipating that he and the other current members of Foreigner will be involved in some way in the band’s Rock Hall induction. And he anticipates being part of Foreigner for years to come, even though the group began what it’s calling a farewell tour last year.
“The big farewell is just a farewell to touring as extensively as we have been,” he says. “We’re just going to be more selective as far as doing shows. We already have shows in the books for next year, so we will be playing. It’s just not going to be as intense as it was.”
Foreigner performs with Styx and John Wait at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Pine Knob Music Theatre, 33 Bob Seger Drive, Independence Township. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.
Topik: Holidays, Christmas