Legendary rock band Foreigner is bringing nearly 50 years of hits to the Golden Nugget stage this month as part of the band’s farewell tour.

“My emotions are running high and they’re running both ways because the band is firing on all cylinders right now,” bassist Jeff Pilson said. “The band feels great, is playing great, singing great, performing great and the audiences have been amazing. Yet at the same time we’re coming to a slow farewell.”

Pilson said as the tour — which continues into late 2024 — gets closer to that last end date, the atmosphere is becoming more and more bittersweet.

“Of course, I’m not going to miss going to airports and climbing on a tour bus everyday but, boy, I’ll miss the shows and, boy, I’ll miss the fans,” Pilson said.

Though their touring life may be ending, Foreigner’s music is not.

“We’re not disappearing,” Pilson said. “There are some songs floating around that we would love to finish before we call it a day.”

But, he said, now is the right time for this farewell tour.

“How many times have you gone to see a band where you say, ‘Oh, they should have hung it up a long time ago?’ We don’t want to be that band,” he said. “We’re preemptively avoiding that by stopping while we’re at our peak. I think the songs deserve this, the legacy of the band deserves this and the fans deserve it.”

Pilson — who joined Foreigner in 2004 — said he was a fan of the band long before he was a member.

“I think the music, the recordings, the songs are all top-notch,” he said. “I love Lou Gramm’s voice, I love the guitar playing and I love all the bass playing on the records.”

Gramm was the voice on Foreigner’s biggest hits — including “Feels Like The First Time” and “Cold As Ice” from the band’s eponymous debut in 1977, and later songs like “Hot Blooded” and “I Want To Know What Love Is.”

“I just think Foreigner is a class act,” Pilson said. “It’s kind of a responsibility to be in a band like this because it does have such a detailed legacy — a legacy that we want to keep up at all costs.”

The bad has produced 16 Top 30 songs, a rare feat for any band.

“When we put our set list together, it’s cheating because we have so many songs to pick from,” Pilson said with a laugh.

As Foreigner’s time performing winds down, they’re also making sure a new generation of performers gets a chance to shine.

St. Louis Catholic High School choir will be singing with the band during the Lake Charles show on “I Want to Know What Love Is.” In return, Foreigner will donate $500 to the school’s choir program.

“A big cause of ours is helping school music programs because, let’s face it, the first thing that goes when there’s budget problems is the music program,” he said. “We’ve been working with the Grammy Foundation for several years now and what we do is we invite a local choir — generally they have to do an online contest because there is generally a couple of choirs in each city that want to audition for this — and they come sell CD’s for us and then they come up and sing with us. It’s a win for everybody involved and it’s a lot of fun. You really get to see the looks in their faces of excitement. It’s such a great experience — a great experience for them and, frankly, a great experience for us, as well.”

The 64-year-old — who does yoga, Pilates and meditation to keep himself focused — said he is sharing his love for meditation with online classes at hotforyogascv.com/jeff-pilson-meditation while the tour is ongoing.

“I do it from hotel rooms when necessary — I’ll do it wherever I have to,” he said. “It’s a passion of mine and a lifelong pursuit. It’s very important for me.”

When the tour ends, Pilson said he’ll also be busy doing another project with Black Swan, which includes Robin McAuley of Whitesnake. He’s also part Revolution Saints, which includes Deen Castronova from Journey and Joel Hoekstra Whitesnake.

Foreigner will perform at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at Golden Nugget’s Grand Event Center. Tickets start at $80.