Bruce Watson | Foreigner

Bruce Watson is a third generation Los Angeles Native whose love affair with the guitar and Rock and Roll was ignited at the age of 10 under a pair of headphones in front of the family turntable. “Up until then I’d heard music and I’d loved music but it was still just something I enjoyed like basketball and bike riding. And then I got Creedence Clearwater’s BORN ON THE BAYOU.  I vividly remember hearing for the first time, the intro to that song; that gritty guitar with tremolo and then the chug of the band coming in. And then his voice. I felt like my head expanded to about 5 times it’s normal size and there was this surge that went through my whole body. I could not BELIEVE how powerful it was.” From there it went to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers and Joni Mitchell.

These days, decades later, he feels that he’s following two paths; one where he continues to develop his own musical voice which emerged while playing, writing and singing in his own bands and that continued to develop through his years of doing session work in L.A. and the other path of trying to uncover the secrets of why his heroes sound the way they do. “It’s such a rush to get the right guitar with the right amp with the right effects, get into the right head space and then to hear and feel the results.” Bruce adds that, “It’s equally exhilarating to stand in front of thousands of people and begin a guitar solo where right up to the last nano second, I have NO idea what I’m going to play. And then there’s that bolt of lightening – just like the one when I first heard John Fogerty – and notes just start to assemble themselves right there – that instant.  It’s insanely stimulating.”

When asked to comment on the past, present and future for Bruce Watson in music he sums it up like this, “I’ve gotten to play a lot of incredible music with a lot of A+ musicians and every one of those experiences got me ready to play with Foreigner. Listen, I try not to live in the past or future so right now the present = Foreigner and I’m completely good with that!”