I recently spoke with Lou Gramm, originally the lead vocalist of Foreigner and today a solo artist. The piece will appear shortly on spinner.com, but I thought I’d share one of the questions here.

You may know that Lou, in 1997, was diagnosed with a rare form of brain tumor. His survival, and his musical comeback makes for one of the most inspirational stories in rock and roll history.

What was it like to come back after the surgery? How did it affect you creatively?

Well it affected me creatively, but beyond that, it affected how I live in general. When you go through something like that and you survive, you look at life differently. You appreciate every moment in new ways; you don’t anything for granted. But relatively, what was interesting was that they weren’t sure I’d even be able to create. They really didn’t know what the after effects would be until I sat down and tried to do something. They thought that even though I had survived, that maybe the part of the brain that allows for creativity was destroyed. But thankfully, that wasn’t the case. When I realized that, that I could in fact still make music, then I started approaching life from a whole new place as an artist. There was meaning in what I created that wasn’t there before.

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