MercuryNews.com's Paul Freeman has issued an interview with FOREIGNER vocalist Kelly Hansen. An excerpt follows:

Joining Foreigner in 2005, Hansen realized he had big rock 'n' roll shoes to fill - those of the band's original vocalist, Lou Gramm.

"Lou had a great, emotive delivery. I knew that I was taking the place of someone who had made a huge contribution to rock music. But I had the confidence of Mick Jones and the support of the rest of the guys. At some point, you've just got to pull up your pants and go, 'OK, I'm going to try this.' If you fail, you fail. But at least you can say you tried. Fortunately, I was up to the task."

The task was breathing new life into hits Foreigner had been churning out since 1976, including 'Cold As Ice', 'Hot Blooded', 'Juke Box Hero' and 'I Want To Know What Love Is'.

"When I go to concerts, I always want to listen to the music the way I learned to love it on the radio. I've been to far too many concerts where people decide that, because they're bored or want to show how good they are, they don't play anything that's even close to the originals.' And that bums me out. These songs are so popular, because they were great songs with great melodies. And, if I try to do too much more than that, then it's just me messing up something that was really good. I sing them on stage as they were recorded. That's just the way I work, philosophically. Not everybody does."

Read the full interview at this location.

Foreigner released a new three disc set, Feels Like The First Time, on September 20th through Razor & Tie. The set includes two audio discs - CD One: Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged and CD Two: Juke Box Heroes: Brand New Digital Recordings of Foreigner’s Greatest Hits and one live concert DVD: Live in Chicago (full track lists available below). The three disc set is available exclusively at all Walmart stores, with additional various digital configurations available on digital service providers (iTunes, Amazon, etc.).

Disc One: Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged; New Digital Recording Of 'Juke Box Hero'

This unplugged set of studio recordings of Foreigner’s classic hits features Mick Jones, Kelly Hansen, Jeff Pilson and Tom Gimbel, and also pays tribute to Elvis Presley with a blistering version of 'That’s All Right'. A high point on the Acoustique disc is the never released song, 'The Flame Still Burns', which was co-written by Mick Jones for 1998 cult rock movie Still Crazy, where it was performed by Jimmy Nail. Mick won the prestigious English Ivor Novello songwriting award for this song.

Disc Two: Juke Box Heroes: Brand New Digital Recordings of Foreigner’s Greatest Hits

This collection of Foreigner’s greatest hits was digitally recorded this year by mastermind, composer and producer Mick Jones, sensational lead singer Kelly Hansen, bassist Jeff Pilson, multi-instrumentalist Tom Gimbel, keyboardist Michael Bluestein and drummer Mark Schulman. The set also includes a brand new song, 'Save Me', which was co-written with Mick Jones’ step-daughter and well-known DJ & musician, Samantha Ronson.

Check out the new digital recording of 'Juke Box Hero' below:

Where's Lou?

Disc Three: Live In Chicago

The 80 minute DVD features the band’s greatest hits in pristine high definition from their recent Chicago concert. It also features behind the scenes footage and bonus acoustic versions of some of the band’s classic hits. The concert will air on PBS through August and into the fall as part of the Public Television Rocks! series. Catch Foreigner on the road now with JOURNEY and NIGHT RANGER (tour dates below).

Founder Mick Jones says of Acoustique: “My feeling over the years is that if you can write a song on an acoustic instrument, and it sounds good, you know you have a good song,” Mick explains. “The first time we approached these songs this way I was flabbergasted about how well they adapted back to their nucleus. It’s been an eye opener how stripping the songs bare brings fresh meaning and emotion out of them."

Kelly Hansen say of Acoustique: "We were doing these live acoustic shows that were being broadcast," he recalls, "and we got a huge response. It was kind of shocking and surprising, and also something that was really new for us. We've never really done that, kind of laying yourself out naked, without lights and amps or anything. It was a real different feeling and a challenge, so we came back and decided to record it."

The tracklistings for the component parts of Foreigner's Feels Like The First Time package include:

Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged:

Long, Long Way From Home'

'Cold As Ice'

'The Flame Still Burns'

'Double Vision'

'Fool For You Anyway'

'Say You Will'

'Starrider'

'Waiting For A Girl Like You'

'Feels Like The First Time'

'Juke Box Hero'

'That's All Right'

Juke Box Heroes: Brand New Digital Recordings of Foreigner's Greatest Hits:

'Save Me'

'Feels Like The First Time'

'Cold As Ice'

'Long, Long Way From Home'

'Hot Blooded'

'Double Vision'

'Head Games'

'Dirty White Boy'

'Urgent; Waiting For A Girl Like You'

'I Want To Know What Love Is'

'Juke Box Hero'

Live in Chicago (DVD):

'Double Vision'

'Head Games'

'Cold As Ice'

'Waiting For A Girl Like You'

'When It Comes To Love'

'Blue Morning, Blue Day'

'Dirty White Boy'

'Starrider'

'Feels Like The First Time'

'Urgent; I Want To Know What Love Is'

'Hot Blooded'

'Juke Box Hero'

Foreigner tour dates with JOURNEY and NIGHT RANGER include:

October

14 - Sacramento, CA - Sleep Train Amphitheatre
15 - San Francisco, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre
19 - Portland, OR - Rose Garden Arena
21 - Seattle, WA - Key Arena