The remarkable career of Foreigner has spanned nearly 50 years, but it could have ended much sooner if circumstances had been different.

In a recent appearance on the Life of the Record podcast, original singer Lou Gramm revealed that the band almost disbanded after their third studio album, Head Games.

In the late 1970s, Foreigner was enjoying an impressive early-career streak. Their self-titled debut album from 1977 and 1978’s Double Vision were both multi-platinum successes, producing hits like “Feels Like the First Time,” “Cold as Ice,” and “Hot Blooded.” For their third LP, the band brought in Roy Thomas Baker, known for his work with Queen. Expectations were high, but something didn’t resonate.

Lou Gramm Says ‘Head Games’ ‘Sounded Unfinished’

“Roy wasn’t contributing those important ideas, same kind of ideas that he gave Queen,” Gramm explained on the podcast. “I felt Roy, at his best, would have really made the most out of the room we left him to produce and try his oddball ideas and stuff, and do the things that he had done to The Cars and other albums like that. We left him room to do that. And when he didn’t really come up with those ideas, the album sounded unfinished.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Foreigner Songs

Released in September 1979, Head Games did not deliver the radio-friendly hits that its predecessors had achieved. To complicate matters, controversy surrounded the album cover artwork, which depicted a teenage girl erasing her phone number from a men’s bathroom stall.

Although Gramm argued that the image was meant to be “tongue-in-cheek and fun,” it faced backlash.

‘Head Games’ Cover Art Controversy

“In my own Rochester, New York newspaper, they showed pictures of people somewhere in the Midwest throwing all their Foreigner albums and T-shirts into a big bonfire,” Gramm recalled.

The sales of Head Games remained strong, but internal disappointment with the material, combined with the cover art controversy, left Gramm and Mick Jones questioning whether Foreigner’s time had come to an end.

“Mick and I started having talks on a regular basis about if we couldn’t come up with a really great album for our next album, that we should probably hang it up,” Gramm admitted. “As we look back on the Head Games album, it was a lot of the same bass riffs and things that were on Double Vision. And so Mick and I were thinking, if we don’t write a new album that’s going to knock people’s socks off, and we don’t get the type of playing that is innovative and different to suit these different types of songs, we’re still dead in the water.”

Lineup Change and New Producer Reinvigorates Foreigner

Before recording their next album, Gramm and Jones made the “very difficult” decision to fire guitarist Iain McDonald and keyboardist Al Greenwood.

“If you’re a band, you can’t expect to ride the same horse through every album,” Gramm explained regarding their decision. “If the style of the song is a little different, you should play a little different. You know? I’m not saying change your style completely, but use your creativeness and your professional innovation to make yourself sound a little different from album to album.”

READ MORE: When Foreigner Reached for Perfection on ‘4’

The remaining members of Foreigner, determined to “carve out a new characterization of the band and a new image,” enlisted producer Mutt Lange, along with session musicians like Junior Walker and Thomas Dolby, to enhance their sound by adding a more pop-friendly sheen to their rock style. These changes paid off as 1981’s 4 became a massive commercial success, elevating Foreigner into the upper echelon of rock acts.