This weekend, Foreigner are getting inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, partly thanks to Mick Jones’ stepson Mark Ronson, who led an all-star campaign to get them in. However, Jones won’t be attending, and neither will drummer Dennis Elliott.
Jones’ absence is due to his current battle with Parkinson’s disease. On the other hand, Elliott, who played in the group from 1976 to 1993, gave a vague, angry explanation on Facebook:
Dear Foreigner Fans & Friends. Don’t look too hard, we will not be there. We were finally given the schedule last night, and it is not to our satisfaction. So we are staying home. We have been asking for weeks, and they have waited until the very last minute to send it knowing we were all packed and going to bed. Totally unacceptable to us. Hope you have a good time.
Sources told Billboard that an issue involved the red carpet before the ceremony, on which they were supposed to walk without their spouses.
On social media, the band shared a statement (and misspelled Elliott’s last name):
FOREIGNER is greatly looking forward to Saturday’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The band will be joined by Demi Lovato, Sammy Hagar, and Kelly Clarkson in a set celebrating the induction of the guys who started it all almost fifty years ago. Original members Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood, and Rick Wills will be there to accept the awards on behalf of the band’s leader and founder Mick Jones, drummer Dennis Elliot, and Ian McDonald and Ed Gagliardi who are no longer with us.