40 Fun Facts About Foghat

On Foghat's Fool for the City album cover, what is Roger Earl doing at an open New York manhole?

Fishing down a manhole on East 11th Street soon drew a police patrol car, and the officers posed for photos handcuffing him. The album's producer suggested the stunt because Earl loved to fish.

Foghat's 'Slow Ride' plays over the closing scene of which film about 1970s teenagers?

Dazed and Confused ends with freshman Mitch pulling on headphones to the song while the older kids drive off to buy Aerosmith tickets. The film's soundtrack album carries two Foghat recordings.

The name Foghat is a nonsense word Dave Peverett made up as a child while playing which game?

Scrabble with his brother John produced the word, and young Dave then dreamed up an imaginary playmate called Junior Foghat. A cartoon head wearing a 'foghat' sits on the back of the first album.

Foghat's 'Slow Ride' is in the opening tier of the career setlist of which 2007 music video game?

Guitar Hero III lists the 1975 hit in its opening tier, 'Starting Out Small'. Later tiers pit players against guitar bosses Slash and Tom Morello.

Foghat's founding singer Dave Peverett was billed on stage with which word in front of his first name?

Lonesome Dave carried the tag before the band existed, having toured with a Swiss blues group as 'Lonesome Dave Jaxx'. Album credits still listed him that way in 1994.

Roger Earl, the one Foghat founder still in the band at its 50th anniversary, plays which instrument?

Drums keep him at the back of the stage, yet he is the face of the band's best-known album cover, photographed on a Manhattan street. His brother Colin has guested on piano.

Foghat built its career in America, but the band formed in 1971 in which English city?

London is where the four founders came together in January 1971, three of them fresh from the same blues band. A record deal soon took them across the Atlantic for good.

Foghat's best-selling release, with more than two million copies sold, is what kind of record?

A live album from 1977 outsold every studio record the band made, capturing a single May show in Henrietta, New York. It holds just six songs, two of them longer than eight minutes.

Fool for the City, the Foghat album with 'Slow Ride', was the band's first to earn which sales award?

Platinum was a step up from the gold awards that earlier Foghat albums such as Energized had collected. The record holds only seven tracks, one of them more than eight minutes long.

Foghat guitarist Bryan Bassett first found fame in which 1970s funk band?

Wild Cherry took 'Play That Funky Music' to number one on both the pop and R&B charts in 1976, with Bassett on electric guitar. He stepped into Foghat in 1999 when Rod Price left.

Three of Foghat's four founders had played together in which British blues band until December 1970?

Savoy Brown made the 1970 album Looking In as a four-piece with all three of them, and it reached the American top 40. Within a month of quitting, the trio had started Foghat.

Foghat first charted with 'I Just Want to Make Love to You', a 1954 blues song by which writer?

Willie Dixon's song was first cut by Muddy Waters, and Foghat charted with it twice: a 1972 studio take, then an edit of an eight-minute concert version that climbed fifty places higher.

Foghat's debut album covers 'Maybellene', the 1955 first hit for which rock and roll pioneer?

Chuck Berry adapted the song in part from a western swing fiddle tune called 'Ida Red'. Foghat's sleeve spells the title 'Maybelline'.

Foghat's Night Shift album covers 'Take Me to the River', a 1974 song co-written by which soul singer?

Al Green wrote it with guitarist Teenie Hodges, and the song went on to give hits to Syl Johnson, Talking Heads and Delbert McClinton. Foghat revisited it on a 1994 album.

Foghat covered 'Terraplane Blues' and 'Sweet Home Chicago', both by which 1930s Delta blues legend?

Robert Johnson recorded 'Terraplane Blues' in San Antonio in 1936, and as his first release it sold as many as 10,000 copies. Foghat placed it right after 'Slow Ride' on Fool for the City.

Foghat's Fool for the City producer later acted as Russian president Yuri Suvarov in which TV thriller?

24 kept him on as Suvarov over three seasons, decades after he produced 'Slow Ride'. The Missouri-born musician is known for his command of accents and moved to Reykjavík in 2014.

Foghat's 'Slow Ride' was ranked 45th on a 2009 list of the best hard rock songs by which TV channel?

VH1 gave the late honour to a single that had peaked at number 20 in America in 1976. Its radio edit runs under four minutes, less than half the length of the album version.

Rod Price, nicknamed 'The Bottle', gave Foghat its trademark sound with which playing technique?

Slide guitar earned him the titles 'Magician of Slide' and 'Slide King of Rock and Roll'. His playing runs through 'Slow Ride' and 'Drivin' Wheel'.

Foghat's Rock and Roll Outlaws cover shows the band in the Mojave Desert beside which borrowed vehicle?

A Learjet wearing the band's logo makes them look like jet-setters, but the plane was not theirs: they borrowed it and stuck the logo on for the photograph.

Before Foghat, Roger Earl auditioned without success for which famous 1960s rock band?

The Jimi Hendrix Experience passed on him, so in 1968 he joined a British blues band instead and met his future Foghat partners there.

Foghat released all its 1972–1983 albums on which record label, founded in 1970 by Albert Grossman?

Bearsville shared its name with a hamlet in Woodstock, New York, where Grossman also ran a recording studio. Foghat's run on the label ended with Zig-Zag Walk in 1983.

Which producer of Foghat's Fool for the City also played bass on the album after Tony Stevens left?

Nick Jameson also played keyboards, engineered the sessions and co-wrote the closing track. He later made another record with the band under the pseudonym 'Franz Leipkin'.

Founding member Tony Stevens quit Foghat in the mid-1970s after tiring of what part of band life?

Constant touring kept him away from England, so he went home and took up session work, including music for the TV series Rock Follies. He rejoined for the 1994 reunion album.

The rock-and-bread-roll cover of Foghat's second album was the idea of which underground filmmaker?

Robert Downey Sr., a satirical director and the father of actor Robert Downey Jr., thought up the visual pun. Fans call the self-titled record 'Rock and Roll' because of it.

Foghat's longtime singer Charlie Huhn earlier sang lead on which guitarist's album Weekend Warriors?

Ted Nugent hired him in 1978, and Huhn stayed for three studio albums and a live one. He later fronted the German band Victory before stepping in for Dave Peverett in 2000.

Scott Holt, who became Foghat's lead singer in 2022, was formerly a guitarist for which blues great?

Buddy Guy's former sideman was no stranger to the band: he had sung on a Foghat album in 2016 and fronted its side project Earl & the Agitators.

Which star record producer urged Foghat's four original members to reunite in 1993?

Rick Rubin proved unavailable to produce the comeback himself, so the band made Return of the Boogie Men without him in 1994.

Which album gave Foghat its first Billboard chart-topper, debuting atop Top Blues Albums?

Sonic Mojo arrived 51 years after the debut album and mixes covers with new songs, some co-written by the leader of the founders' old blues band shortly before his death.

Foghat's 2016 album Under the Influence was paid for entirely through which modern funding method?

Fan crowdfunding through a PledgeMusic campaign covered the whole record, which went on to reach number 17 on Billboard's Hard Rock Albums chart.

Which 1979 Foghat single reached number 23 in America, the band's highest chart peak after 'Slow Ride'?

Third Time Lucky carries the subtitle '(First Time I Was a Fool)' and came from the album Boogie Motel. Only the 1975 signature hit took the band higher on the Hot 100.

Foghat's Stone Blue was produced by which studio veteran, engineer of five Led Zeppelin albums?

Eddie Kramer's sessions yielded a gold record whose title track reached the American top 40. Its second song is a cover of 'Sweet Home Chicago'.

Colin Earl, a guest pianist on Foghat's debut album, was a member of which chart-topping British band?

Mungo Jerry's original keyboard player was the brother of Foghat's Roger Earl. He guested on the debut album in 1972 and again on Last Train Home in 2010.

Which famous musician played piano on one track of Foghat's 1972 debut album?

Todd Rundgren plays on 'Trouble, Trouble', the album's second song. He was a natural guest, since he recorded for the same label as Foghat.

Foghat's Roger Earl was inspired to become a musician by seeing which rock and roll pianist as a boy?

Jerry Lee Lewis played the concert when Earl was 12 or 13. The boy in the audience grew up to co-found Foghat and was still on its stage five decades later.

Which 1982 Foghat album has only songs by outside writers, including James Brown and Smokey Robinson?

In the Mood for Something Rude is in effect a covers album of R&B and country tunes played in the band's blues-rock style. Its opening track reached number 12 on Billboard's rock airplay chart.

Which American blues harmonica star guests on 'Seven Day Weekend' from Foghat's 1983 album Zig-Zag Walk?

Paul Butterfield's cameo came on the band's last album for its original label, a record that scraped to number 192 on the Billboard chart.

Foghat's Energized opens with 'Honey Hush', a 1953 song by which blues shouter?

Big Joe Turner assigned the song's copyright to his wife, Lou Willie Turner. Foghat liked it enough to record it again for the band's 1977 concert set.

Rod Price replaced future Free guitarist Paul Kossoff in which British blues band before joining Foghat?

Black Cat Bones made just one album, Barbed Wire Sandwich, with Price on guitar. It failed commercially in 1970 and the group broke up, leaving him free to join Foghat.

Before Foghat, Bryan Bassett toured in the 1990s with which Southern rock band?

Molly Hatchet kept him on the road until 1999, by which time the group was performing without a single original member. He left to take over lead guitar in Foghat.

Foghat's album Energized includes a cover of 'That'll Be the Day', co-written by which 1950s rock and roll star?

Buddy Holly wrote it with bandmate Jerry Allison, and the Crickets' 1957 recording is regarded as a rock and roll classic. Foghat also issued its version as a single in 1974.