Mick Jones

English guitarist and composer Mick Jones, born December 27, 1944, in Portsmouth, drove the platinum-selling hard rock outfit Foreigner from its inception. During the early 1960s he gained initial recognition playing in Nero and the Gladiators, whose singles “Hall of the Mountain King” and “Entry of the Gladiators” became their best-known recordings. He spent most of the following decade working as a songwriter and session musician, then in 1970 joined former Spooky Tooth vocalist Gary Wright in Wonderwheel. The pair reunited Spooky Tooth three years afterward, after which Jones moved to New York City to take an A&R position. Following a brief tenure with the Leslie West Band, he assembled Foreigner in 1976 alongside multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and recruited ex-Black Sheep frontman Lou Gramm as lead singer. Jones and Gramm quickly began writing together, supplying the hit “Cold as Ice” for the group’s chart-topping self-titled debut album released in 1977. In subsequent years Foreigner dominated radio with a string of singles that included “Hot Blooded,” “Double Vision,” “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” and the number-one power ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is.” During a 1986 break from the band Jones produced Van Halen’s blockbuster album 5150, and in 1989 he oversaw Billy Joel’s Storm Front; Joel in turn produced Jones’s self-titled solo debut that same year. Although Gramm departed for a solo career, Foreigner issued Unusual Heat in 1991, then welcomed Gramm back for the 1993 release Mr. Moonlight.