JUNE 13 • 2024 | 41

to attend New York University 
with an undecided major. “I 
had done some drama and 
theater in high school and was 
kinda interested in that, and I 
also thought about psychology,
” 
he recalls, but at the last minute 
opted to attend the Berklee 
College of Music in Boston. 
“There was maybe some 
fear and self-doubt about div-
ing into the music thing that 
kept me hedging a little bit 
and looking at other things,
” 
Bluestein acknowledges. “I 
guess being 17, 18 years old, 
practicing as much as I was and 
getting into jazz the way I was, 
something flipped, and I was 
pretty sure that (music) was 
what it was gonna be.
”
After graduating from 
Berklee, Bluestein moved to 
San Francisco, hanging up fly-
ers to advertise his availability 
and becoming part of the Bay 
Area scene and releasing three 
solo CDs between 2000-2003. 
His big break came in 1996, 

when he joined former 4 Non 
Blondes singer Linda Perry as 
part of the band for her first 
solo tour. He’
d subsequently 
play with Shelby Lynne but 
decided there would be more 
opportunity for him in Los 
Angeles, where he moved 
during 2003. 
“In San Francisco, there 
was a bit of a ceiling to what 
you could do as far as bigger 
national and internation-
al touring,
” says Bluestein, 
whose credits also include Boz 
Scaggs, Jacqui Naylor and Kitty 
Margolis. “I felt I had gotten 
maxed out in what I could do 
(in San Francisco) and, sure 
enough, being in L.A., I was 
touring the world.
”
That was with the pop sing-
er Anastacia, who had more 
success in Europe than in the 
U.S. That gave Bluestein a 
profile that led to subsequent 
work with Supertramp’s Roger 
Hodgson, Enrique Iglesias, Burt 
Bacharach and Stevie Nicks. 
With Foreigner, meanwhile, 
he recorded on the group’s 
last studio album, “Can’t Slow 
Down” in 2009, and has played 
on several live and compilation 
albums since. 
He was a Foreigner fan 

before joining the band. “I 
always thought it was just irre-
sistible rock — rocking and 
tight and carefully arranged 
and masterfully produced,
” 
he says, adding that he knows 
a great deal more about the 
music now, after 16 years of 
playing the songs.
“I didn’t realize some of the 
(progressive rock) elements 
that are in there,
” he says. 
“
Al Greenwood, the original 
keyboardist, was really into 
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, 
stuff like that. The way they 
fused some of those laments 
into rock and R&B was a really 
huge thing. The subtleties and 
nuance of that was lost on me 
as a kid, before I started playing 
it and really understood what 
was going on.
”
His spotlight moment in the 
show, however, comes during 
“Urgent.
” Since the departure 
of saxophonist-guitarist Thom 
Gimbel in 2021, Bluestein has 
been charged with recreating 
the saxophone solo played by 
Junior Walker on the 1981 Top 
5 hit, but on a keytar rather 
than a horn. 
“Thats super fun, I have to 
say,
” Bluestein notes. “That 
saxophone thing is so iconic, 

so there was a little bit of trep-
idation about that. But right 
from the beginning, people 
have been really responsive, 
and it seems to go over quite 
well. Maybe enough time has 
passed since the ’80s clichés 
of keytar and skinny ties and 
buttoned-up shirts and mullets 
and stuff that people accept it 
more.
”
And, as if he needs any val-
idation, Bluestein recently saw 
the legendary Herbie Hancock 
play the exact same keytar he 
uses during a concert in Los 
Angeles.
Bluestein is anticipating 
that he and the other current 
members of Foreigner will be 
involved in some way in the 
band’s Rock Hall induction. 
And he anticipates being part 
of Foreigner for years to come, 
even though the group began 
what it’s calling a farewell tour 
last year. 
“The big farewell is just a 
farewell to touring as exten-
sively as we have been,
” he says. 
“We’re just going to be more 
selective as far as doing shows. 
We already have shows in the 
books for next year, so we will 
be playing. It’s just not going to 
be as intense as it was.
” 

DETAILS

Foreigner performs with 
Styx and John Wait at 
6:45 p.m. Saturday, June 
15, at the Pine Knob Music 
Theatre, 33 Bob Seger 
Drive, Independence 
Township. 313-471-7000 or 
313Presents.com. 

Foreigner will be 
inducted into the 
Rock and Roll Hall 
of Fame in October.

