After three decades spent banging out songs such as "Hot Blooded" and "Urgent," former Foreigner drummer Dennis Elliott left rock'n'roll to pursue his real passion—woodworking

Art Business News, Nov, 2003 by Keith Pandolfi

After three decades spent banging our songs such as "Hot Blooded" and "Urgent," former Foreigner drummer Dennis Elliott left rock'n'roll to pursue his real passion--woodworking. In October, Elliott's turned wood sculptural vessels appeared at Function + Art--a Chicago gallery specializing in contemporary studio furniture, crafts and decorative arts--as part of its" Vessels, Boxes and Baskets" group exhibition.

Elliott said he has found several similarities between woodworking and drum-beating." In creating music, you're creating out of thin air," he said." There's no material that you're working with when you begin. When you're working with a solid object like a piece of a tree, you can only do it once. The responsibility is therefore greater than creating a new song, which can be wiped out and started again." Elliott's work has been collected by Boston's Museum of Fine Art, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian and the American Craft Museum in New York.