Rick Diamond/Getty Images for IEBALou Gramm has played his final solo concert.
The 68-year-old former Foreigner frontman made the announcement at the end of his show last Saturday night at Proctors in Schenectady, NY.
Following an encore, Gramm called the band back to the stage and told the crowd: “Tonight, right here in this theater, you listened to our last show.”
Gramm went on to tell the now-silent venue that he’d made the decision after “talking it over with my wife and some people in the business.”
“You get real excited when you start out in this business, but you’ve got to be smart enough to know when to walk away from it too,” said Gramm. “And I just feel it’s that time for me.”
He concluded: “It’s been a ball. I love you guys very much.”
Gramm briefly left Foreigner in 1990 for a solo career after years of butting heads with co-founder and guitarist Mick Jones. Gramm re-joined Foreigner soon after departing, but left again in 2003 following further friction with Jones. Gramm has since toured with a number of bands, while Jones continues on with Foreigner and a variety of different personnel. Their relationship has improved in the years since, with Gramm performing occasionally with Jones and Foreigner.
Gramm also underwent successful surgery for a brain tumor in 1997.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.