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"Urgent" announcement -- Theater in the Park along the Greenbelt in downtown Maryville will become something of a time machine next Friday night, when classic rock band Foreigner kicks off the Foothills Fall Festival.

The group, which headlines the Oct. 10 opening night festivities with a 9 p.m. performance, was one of the biggest bands of the late 1970s and early '80s, and those who grew up on such Foreigner hits as "Hot Blooded," "Cold As Ice," "Juke Box Hero" and "Dirty White Boy" will no doubt be transported back to a time when Camaros and eight-tracks and gasoline priced below $1 per gallon spoke of simpler times.

That nostalgia doesn't stop with the audience, however. Bass player Jeff Pilson, who spent the 1980s in metal bands Dokken and Dio, has reverence for the music he plays as both a fan and a performer.

"It's nostalgia, and it's right up there with friendship and family as far as things that matter to us," Pilson told The Daily Times this week. "I know from my personal experience that the songs from my youth are the songs that move me the most. Every generation has its own heroes, and we're just fortunate that Foreigner had some staying power."

Pilson joined the Foreigner fold in 2004, a year after original lead singer Lou Gramm left the band and founder/guitarist Mick Jones had taken some time off before assembling a new incarnation of Foreigner. One of Jones' first recruits was drummer Jason Bonham -- son of the late legendary Led Zeppelin pounder John Bonham -- and the younger Bonham brought along Pilson, with whom he'd worked on the 2001 Mark Wahlberg film "Rock Star."

"When we got together to play with Mick, the chemistry was immediate," Pilson said. "I was a Foreigner fan, and that's what drew me to say yes, but I wasn't really thinking about going on the road. I got together with him because I love the music, but then we played together, and the chemistry was so powerful that I couldn't help but get drawn in.

"Mick is a great person, a great bandleader and a very powerful presence to be in a band with. But when it comes down to it, it's about the music of Foreigner -- that's what made me want to sign on."

Foreigner first formed in 1976, when Jones, a British rock veteran, teamed up with former King Crimson member Ian McDonald and a relatively unknown singer (Gramm). The six-piece -- half Americans, half British and hence the group's name -- released a self-titled debut a year later at a time when fans were hungry for power ballads, rock anthems and lighter-flicking arena sing-alongs. The album, propelled by such singles as "Feels Like the First Time," "Cold As Ice" and "Long Long Way from Home," sold more than 4 million copies in the United States alone.

It was just the tip of the iceberg. "Double Vision" came out a year later, selling 5 million copies on the strength of the title track and the singles "Hot Blooded" and "Blue Morning Blue Day." In 1979, "Head Games" spawned a title track and the single "Dirty White Boy"; "4," released in 1981, only pushed Foreigner to greater heights with the singles "Urgent," "Juke Box Hero."

It was 1985's "Agent Provocateur," however, that gave the band its only No. 1 hit -- "I Want to Know What Love Is." Other minor hits followed, but by the late 1980s, Jones and Gramm had released solo efforts, and Gramm left the band in 1990. Jones soldiered on, bringing in another lead singer until Gramm's return in 1992. The band was never able to recapture its previous chart success, however, and in 2003, Gramm left again.

With Pilson and Bonham on board, all the band needed was a singer. A 2004 charity event included vocals by a fill-in singer, but Jones wasn't entirely sold, Pilson said. The band members poured over recent audition tapes and invited former Hurricane singer Kelly Hansen to come down and audition for the spot.

"The first thing we did was 'Double Vision,' and as soon as we did and started listening to him, we looked at each other and thought, 'That's it,'" Pilson said. "I remember we also taped it, and I remember listening back to the tape and thinking it was actually spooky, because he sang so much like Lou Gramm without being a clone. There are people who can imitate and imitate well, but there's something spiritually less satisfying about that.

"With Kelly, the whole thing was there, and he brought a unique, fresh quality to it, too. I think it gave us that boost we needed, and it cemented his place in the band right away. After that, he had only three days to learn the entire set and change his entire life."

Although Jones is the only remaining original member, Pilson added, the band is still very much Foreigner. Hansen's vocals, the band's playing -- everything is done with Foreigner v. 1.0 in mind.

"It comes very naturally, because we are such Foreigner fans," Pilson said. "We don't try to reinvent it. We play it with the spirit we want to infuse into it."

That spirit summons up ghosts of the past -- for the fans and the musicians alike, wallowing in memories of carefree youth and the primal power of rock 'n' roll.

"People come up sometimes and say, 'That was heavier than the original,' or this that and the other, and I always think, 'This is how I always heard it in my head. As a fan, this is how I perceived it to be,'" he said. "I think it works so well because we were fans. We're giving it a genuine interpretation, but at the same time we are who we are as musicians.

"Together, we've all progressed as musicians, and everyone brings an element to the band that makes it a very powerful unit. Over time, it's become a new version of Foreigner that's very true to the original."