Foreigner Singer Decries ‘Very, Very Dangerous’ Concert Trend
Foreigner singer Kelly Hansen has decried the trend of fans throwing objects onstage during concerts, noting that it puts performers at risk.
"When you're standing on stage, and you have a spotlight on you, what it does is it blinds you," Hansen explained during an interview with Fox News. "You can't see the audience. So, you can't see anything that's coming at you. It's very, very dangerous."
Hansen further noted that the projectiles can often be large, with the potential to cause real harm.
“Over the course of time I’ve had many things thrown up on stage, including full, unopened cans of beer,” the rocker admitted. “And it’s tough because, at the best, I can see something right at the last minute when it crosses the spotlight.”
Fans throwing objects has seemingly seen an uptick in recent months, with Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Pink, Bebe Rexha and Lil Nas X among the notable artists who have had to stop concerts because fans have thrown things at them from the crowd. Hansen suggested the trend has been snowballing.
“Just like everything else, someone sees that and they go, ‘Oh, that’s a thing, a bandwagon to get on, let me do that. It’ll be funny and I’ll get some kind of TikTok out of it,’" the singer opined. "But they’re not thinking that they could hurt somebody.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Hansen detailed some of the strange and, at times, scary interactions he and his Foreigner bandmates have had with fans.
"With the internet, there's a lot of wackos and crazies out there," the singer explained. “I had a lot of people who were saying that I was their husband or that they were traveling to the United States because the imposter who said it was me told them to fly to L.A. to meet with me. And I just got so stressed out about that kind of stuff, it kind of freaked me out."
Foreigner is in the midst of their farewell tour, which is scheduled to run through 2024.