He’s been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, lives in New York City and hobnobs with some of the world’s hottest musicians.
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But Mick Jones thinks Canberra is the perfect place to spend a few days while he gears up for a major national tour with his band, Foreigner.
One of the best-selling bands of all time, Foreigner are about to kick off their 40th anniversary tour of Australia, playing some of the hits that are still on high rotation on most classic rock radio stations.
But they’ll also be playing with a full orchestra, courtesy of the Australian National University School of Music’s symphony orchestra.
It’s part of a first-time collaboration with the school’s director Kenneth Lampl, his wife Kirsten Lampl, and cellist and composer David Eggar, who composed and played the orchestra component of the band’s latest album.
Jones said the idea began in Switzerland, where the band was offered the use of a full orchestra for the first time, and grew into a the basis for their latest album.
“We started to form this sort of jungle telegraph between New York and here, and it was just organic, it just built from there,” he told Fairfax Media on Wednesday.
“I'd never really had a thought about it, but two things happened over the last couple of years. We discovered that we could really do a great acoustic show, and we went on tour with that. And then we sold out everywhere, and we thought - why didn't we think of this before?”
Jones, who co-founded the band in 1976, was speaking before being presented with the ANU’s inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Musical Achievement.
“It's another left-field sort of thing, and I'm very honoured to be awarded that, it means a lot,” he said.
He said in the lead-up to the band’s first concert of the tour, at the Royal Theatre on Friday, he planned to take in some exhibitions, go for some walks, and “think about relaxing”.
He admitted that, 40 years on from when the band was at its peak, much had changed.
“Where it used to be champagne bottles everywhere in the room, it's now spring water,” he said, laughing.
“I don't think I'd be able to do this if I were still drinking or partying.”
He said while he had seen his fair share of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery in his time, he had never really partaken enough to do any damage.
“I guess I spent a lot of time pretending I was debauched for the image,” he said.
“I had a few rough passages, but basically I was lucky enough be able to keep my feet on the ground, and lucky enough to realise before it became a problem.”
This is part of the secret to the band’s longevity and success; Foreigner has had nine Top 10 hits, and has sold more than 75 million albums.
“It’s amazing - we came out at the dawn of punk and the height of disco,” he said.
“We had a period when the band was unsettled during the 80s, grunge took over a lot, but then we survived through that.
I've discovered ever since that time that so many of the younger bands really looked up to us and respected us, and it's nice to feel that we actually influenced the generation that was to come”
While he has always kept up with new music - it helps that his stepson is the music producer Mark Ronson - he said he had noticed the band’s fan base growing younger, and had been amazed to see 15-year-olds singing along to some of their greatest hits.
“That's what keeps you going, seeing that energy you're creating, seeing people respond to it and seeing what it does to people,” he said.
Foreigner’s 40th anniversary concert is at the Royal Theatre on Friday, October 12.
