Dennis Leslie Elliott (born 18 August 1950,) is a British musician and artist who was the original drummer for the rock band
Foreigner. He played with the band from 1976 until leaving between 1991 and 1993. He went on to become a
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
.
Life and career
Dennis Leslie Elliott was born in
Peckham
Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720.
History
"Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...
, London. He played the drums with his family band at age five in shows around London. As a teenager, he joined The Tea Set with his older brother Raymond, who sang and played trumpet. After The Tea Set, he became a member of The Shevelles at age sixteen. At eighteen, he played in the band
Ferris Wheel
A Ferris wheel (also called a big wheel, giant wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondola ...
and on their album of the same name. When he was nineteen, Dennis joined the jazz/rock band
If and recorded four
LPs with the ensemble. They continually toured Europe and the US, where he met and later married Iona Elliott on 2 March 1972. Later that year, Dennis joined
The Roy Young Band, touring the UK and Europe and recording four singles with that band over the following year.

In 1974, Elliott toured and played on former
Mott the Hoople lead singer
Ian Hunter's first solo recording, ''
Ian Hunter''. After emigrating to the US in April 1975, he became a US Resident Alien.
He was the original drummer for Foreigner when the band started in 1976. He officially left in January 1993.
After leaving the
music industry
The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...
, Elliott turned to
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, working mainly in the
medium
Medium may refer to:
Aircraft
*Medium bomber, a class of warplane
* Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film
* ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...
of wood. Self-taught, many of his works have been vessels made of burlwood, sculpted wall mirrors, wall sculptures, and orbital sculptures.
["Biography for Dennis Elliott"]
Askart.com
On 2 June 1990, Elliott and his wife, Iona, were rescued by the
US Coast Guard after jumping from their yacht ''Charisma III'', which had caught fire. Elliott became a US
citizen
Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state.
Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...
in 1993.
[
On 9 January 2013, he joined Foreigner on stage at the Hard Rock Live in ]Hollywood, Florida
Hollywood is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb in the Miami metropolitan area. The population of Hollywood was 153,067 as of 2020, making it the Broward County#Communities, third-largest city in Broward County, th ...
to perform " Hot Blooded". On 12 January 2015, in Sarasota, Florida, Foreigner were joined on stage by original drummer Elliott and former bassist Rick Wills to play "Hot Blooded". Elliott joined his old mates for two songs at Foreigner's show on 2 August 2017, at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater in Tampa, Florida. A pair of '40th Anniversary Reunion Shows’ took place on 6–7 October 2017, at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where the current Foreigner group played one set and the original members consisting of the Head Games-era line-up: Mick Jones, Lou Gramm, Dennis Elliott, Al Greenwood, Ian McDonald and Rick Wills, played the second set and were rejoined at the end with all members. The concerts were filmed for future release.
On 4 August 2018, Elliott again joined a ‘Reunion Show’ at the Buffalo Chip in Sturgis, South Dakota, where the current Foreigner group played one set and the original members played the second and all joined together for the finale.
In 2024, Elliott was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
, as a member of Foreigner.
Discography
The Shevells
*1968: "Big City Lights"/"The Coffee Song" (single)
The Ferris Wheel
*1970: ''Ferris Wheel'' (album)
*1970: "Can't Stop Now"/"I Know You Well" (UK single)
*1970: "Ugly Duckling"/"I Know You Well" (US single)
IF
*1970: '' If''
*1970: '' If 2''
*1971: '' If 3''
*1972: '' If 4''
*1972: ''Waterfall
A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge
of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf.
Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...
''
*1995: '' Forgotten Roads: The Best of If''
*1997: ''Europe '72
''Europe '72'' is a live album, live triple album by the Grateful Dead, released in November 1972. It is the band's third live album and their eighth album overall. It covers the band's tour of Western Europe in April and May that year, and showc ...
''
*2010: '' Fibonacci's Number - More Live If''
*2012: '' If 2 + Live in Liverpool''
The Roy Young Band
*1973: " Back Up Train" (single)
*1973: "Devil's Daughter" (single)
*1973: "Dig a Hole" (single)
*1973: " If You Could Only See Me Now" (single)
*2009: ''The Best of 50 Years'' (album)
Tony Ashton and Jon Lord
*1974: '' First of the Big Bands''
Ian Hunter
*1975: '' Ian Hunter''
*1977: '' Overnight Angels''
Foreigner
*1977: '' Foreigner'' (#4 US)
*1978: ''Double Vision
Diplopia is the simultaneous perception of two images of a single object that may be displaced in relation to each other. Also called double vision, it is a loss of visual focus under regular conditions, and is often voluntary. However, when occ ...
'' (#3 US, #32 UK)
*1979: '' Head Games'' (#5 US)
*1981: '' 4'' (#1 US, #5 UK)
*1982: '' Records'' (#10 US, #58 UK)
*1984: ''Agent Provocateur
An is a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups.
In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a ...
'' (#4 US, #1 UK)
*1987: '' Inside Information'' (#15 US, #64 UK)
*1991: '' Unusual Heat''
*1992: '' The Very Best ... and Beyond'' (#123 US, #19 UK)
*1993: '' Classic Hits Live/Best of Live''
*1994: ''JukeBox Heroes: The Best Of''
*1998: ''The Best of Ballads– I Want to Know What Love Is''
*1999: ''The Platinum Collection''
*2000: ''Hot Blooded and Other Hits''
*2000: ''Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology''
*2002: '' Complete Greatest Hits'' (#80 US)
*2002: ''The Definitive'' (#33 UK)
*2004: ''Hot Blooded and Other Hits''
*2005: ''The Essentials''
*2008: '' No End in Sight: The Very Best of Foreigner'' (#132 US)
*2009: '' Can't Slow Down'' (#29 US) Note: A different drummer plays on original material (first disc)
*2014: ''The Complete Atlantic Studio Albums 1977-1991''
Ian Lloyd
*1980: ''Third Wave Civilization''
Mick Jones
*1989: "Just Wanna Hold" (single) (#19 US Rock)
*1989: '' Mick Jones'' (album)
Museum collections
* Arkansas Art Center, Decorative Arts Museum - Little Rock, Arkansas
*Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
*The Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts - Racine, Wisconsin
*Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ...
, Cincinnati, Ohio
*The Contemporary Museum of Art - Honolulu, Hawaii
* Craft & Folk Art Museum - Los Angeles, California
*The Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...
- Detroit, Michigan
* Fuller Craft Museum - Brockton, Massachusetts
*The Gregg Museum of Art & Design, NC State University - Raleigh, NC
*Honolulu Museum of Art
The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...
, Honolulu, HI
*Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum).
LACMA was founded in 1961 ...
- Los Angeles, California
*The Mabel Brady Garven Collection, Yale University Art Gallery - New Haven, Connecticut
*The Mint Museum of Craft & Design - Charlotte, North Carolina
* Mobile Museum of Art, (formerly, Fine Arts Museum of the South) - Mobile, Alabama
* Museum of Arts & Design, formerly The American Craft Museum - New York, New York
* Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, Massachusetts
* Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
* Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
* Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum - Washington, D.C.
*The Slater Museum - Norwich, Connecticut
*University of Michigan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with . Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alu ...
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
Special collections
*Columbia Pictures, Star Trek Voyager set - Wall Sculpture - Bleached Maple Burl
References
External links
Dennis Elliott's official website
Askart.com – reference site for Elliott's sculptures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Dennis
1950 births
Living people
British male drummers
English rock drummers
Foreigner (band) members
Musicians from the London Borough of Southwark
People from Peckham
English sculptors
English emigrants to the United States
Place of birth missing (living people)
If (band) members
Spooky Tooth members
The Ferris Wheel (band) members