Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foreigner — two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acts that look more like cover bands these days — will hit the road together next summer with an Aug. 16 stop planned at the new Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday via Ticketmaster.
Both bands had previously embarked on what they called farewell tours and neither feature any original members in the current touring lineups.
Formed in the summer of 1966 by teenage friends in Florida, Lynyrd Skynyrd adopted their memorable name as a dig at a high-school gym teacher named Leonard Skinner who hassled male students with long hair. The band later befriended Skinner after they began to find national success with a sound that blended blues, soul, country and rock. Throughout the early ’70s, Lynyrd Skynyrd established themselves as a must-see live act and scored radio hits with “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird.”
A 1977 airplane crash killed several band members and seriously injured the others, which led to the end of the group. The surviving members reunited in 1987 and hired Johnny Van Zandt, the younger brother of the late Ronnie Van Zant, to lead them. In the decades since, each of those surviving members died, leaving guitarist Gary Rossington the last original man standing when the band announced their farewell tour in 2018.
That final outing was scheduled to wrap in 2020, but the band ended up postponing or canceling shows due to the pandemic. Lynyrd Skynryd returned to the road in June 2021 and kept the farewell tour running through July 2023, even though Rossington died that March. Six days after the final farewell show, the group launched a joint tour with ZZ Top that continued into 2024.
Foreigner
Kelly Hansen, left, and Bruce Watson of Foreigner perform at Ameris Bank Amphitheater on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Atlanta. (Photo by Paul R. Giunta/Invision/AP)
English guitarist Mick Jones formed Foreigner in 1976 and landed 15 Top 20 hits with original vocalist Lou Gramm, including “Hot Blooded,” “Double Vision,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
Gramm left the group in 1990, but returned for another decade-long run two years later. After Gramm’s second departure in 2003, Jones briefly put the band on hiatus before returning to action with a new lineup featuring vocalist Kelly Hansen, who turned out to be an ideal fit for the band.
In late 2022, Foreigner announced they were mounting their final tour, which featured Gramm occasionally returning as a special guest. Jones, who had previously sat out tours due to health issues, stopped performing live with Foreigner altogether in 2023 and, the following year, announced he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the end turned out to be not the end at all. Earlier this year, Hansen officially left the group with guitarist Luis Maldonado, who joined in 2021, taking over as lead singer. In the current lineup, bassist Jeff Pilson is the longest tenured member of Foreigner, having joined in 2004.
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