Lou Gramm Says Record Label and Mick Jones Made Shadow King Fail

Lou Gramm has opened up about what went wrong with Shadow King, the super group she fronted in the early '90s.

Shadow King's lineup was impressive, with guitarist Vivian Campbelldrummer Kevin Valentine and bass player Bruce Turgon joining Gramm in the band.

“When I knew I wanted to do something else, Bruce Turgon and I spoke to Vivian and got together with him in California,” Gramm recalled during a recent conversation with Sirius XM's Eddie Trunk. “We started jamming on some song ideas and we mutually decided to start a band.”

“It was touted as a very hot new band,” Gramm continued, noting the excitement at the record label surrounding Shadow King. “We had hoped that when the album came out, that they would get behind it.”

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Still, when the band released their self-titled debut in 1991, it was met with disappointing sales. Gramm believes the group's record label dropped the ball.

“We recorded that album on Atlantic Records and we assumed that it would get a lot of promotion and that we would be promoted properly as a new band,” he explained. “And, the thing was, it was never promoted properly.”

“It never got the push from Atlantic Records that we hoped any new band would,” he continued. “And, the other thing was, I heard from a lot of people that they couldn't find any of the copies in the record store.”

Did Mick Jones Sabotage Shadow King?

Gramm further noted that Shadow King was ready to do a world tour in support of their debut, but things came to a grinding halt due to low album sales. The singer then theorized why Atlantic Records – which was also home to his former band, Foreigner – may have withdrawn their support.

“I was told that, just before the album came out, Mick [Jones] had a talk with (label co-founder) Ahmet Ertegun, the chairman of WEA (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic) and whoever at the time was the president of Atlantic, and told them that if Shadow King achieved success, then Lou will never come back with Foreigner.”

Shadow King disbanded at the end of 1991 and never released another album. Gramm returned to Foreigner the following year.