Saturday, September 28, 2013
Shadow King was a short-lived arena rock/hard rock band that was led by Foreigner vocalist Lou Gramm. When Gramm (born May 2, 1950, Rochester, NY) formed Shadow King in 1991, he was taking a leave of absence from the multi-platinum Foreigner. The singer had been doing well as a solo artist -- his 1989 solo outing Long Hard Look was a big hit -- and it was unclear whether or not he would be singing with Foreigner again. Sounding a lot like Foreigner, Shadow King consisted of Gramm on lead vocals, Vivian Campbell on guitar, Kevin Valentine on drums, and Bruce Turgon on bass. Shadow King was hardly the first time that Gramm and Turgon had worked with each other -- back in Gramm's pre-Foreigner days, they played together in a '70s band called Black Sheep (which shouldn't be confused with the East Coast rap group). Gramm was with Black Sheep until 1976, first as its drummer and then as its lead singer; that year, he left Black Sheep (which recorded a few albums for Capitol) to become Foreigner's lead singer. Reunited in Shadow King, Gramm and Turgon became songwriting partners -- together, they co-wrote most of the material on Shadow King's self-titled debut album, which Atlantic released in 1991. Shadow King's first album turned out to be its last; by 1994, Graham was back with Foreigner -- and Shadow King was history.
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