Dennis Leslie Elliott (born 18 August 1950, in

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) 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.

Life and career

Dennis Leslie Elliott played the drums with his family band at age five in shows around

. 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 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, gondolas, capsules ...

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 March 2, 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. Dennis Elliott and his wood sculptures 1997

Dennis Elliott and his wood sculptures 1997

In 1974, Elliott toured and played on former

Mott the Hoople Mott the Hoople were an English rock band formed in Herefordshire. Originally known as the Doc Thomas Group, the group changed their name after signing with Island Records in 1969. The band released albums throughout the early 1970s but fail ...

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 consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

, 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: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

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 June 2, 1990, Elliott and his wife, Iona, were rescued by the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and maritime law enforcement, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

after jumping from their yacht ''Charisma III'', which had caught fire. Elliott became a US citizen in 1993. On January 9, 2013, he joined Foreigner on stage at the

Hard Rock Live The Hard Rock Live is an indoor amphitheater at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The theater opened on October 25, 2019, as part of a $1.5 billion property-wide expansion, which also included a new 450-foot guitar ...

Hollywood, Florida Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now ...

to perform "

Hot Blooded "Hot Blooded" is a song by the British-American rock band Foreigner, from their second studio album ''Double Vision''. It was released as a single in June 1978 and reached #3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart that September. The single was a ...

". On January 12, 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 August 2, 2017 at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater in Tampa, Florida. A pair of '40th Anniversary Reunion Shows’ took place on October 6–7, 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 lineup: 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 August 4, 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.

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 ''If 4'' is the fourth album released by the English jazz rock band If. It was first issued in 1972 and the last album to feature the original recording line-up. Capitol Records, the band's U.S. label, declined to issue this fourth album. Most ...

'' *1972: ''

Waterfall A waterfall is a 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 several wa ...

'' *1995: '' Forgotten Roads: The Best of If'' *1997: ''

Europe '72 ''Europe '72'' is a live triple album by the Grateful Dead, released in November 1972. It covers the band's tour of Western Europe in April and May that year, and showcases live favourites, extended improvisations and several new songs including ...

'' *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 "If You Could Only See Me Now" is a song written by Susan Longacre and Rick Giles, and recorded by American country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern ...

(single)'' *2009: ''The Best Of 50 years (album)''

Tony Ashton and Jon Lord

*1974: ''

First of the Big Bands ''First of the Big Bands'' is a studio album by Tony Ashton of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke and Jon Lord of Deep Purple, released in April 1974 by Purple Records in the UK and Europe and Warner Bros. Records in the US. The project was Ashton's and L ...

Ian Hunter

*1975: '' Ian Hunter'' *1977: ''

Overnight Angels ''Overnight Angels'' is the third studio album by Ian Hunter, released in May 1977 by Columbia Records. After the poor sales of his previous album, Hunter's apparent aim for this record was to re-emphasise faster songs with more of a rock fee ...

Foreigner

*1977: '' Foreigner'' (#4 US) *1978: ''

Double Vision Diplopia is the simultaneous perception of two images of a single object that may be displaced horizontally or vertically in relation to each other. Also called double vision, it is a loss of visual focus under regular conditions, and is often v ...

'' (#3 US, #32 UK) *1979: '' Head Games'' (#5 US) *1981: '' 4'' (#1 US, #5 UK) *1982: ''

Records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

'' (#10 US, #58 UK) *1984: ''

Agent Provocateur An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, th ...

'' (#4 US, #1 UK) *1987: ''

Inside Information Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider informatio ...

'' (#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 Can't Slow Down may refer to: * ''Can't Slow Down'' (Lionel Richie album) or its title song, 1983 * ''Can't Slow Down'' (Saves the Day album), 1998 * ''Can't Slow Down'' (Foreigner album), 2009 * "Can't Slow Down" (song), by Hedley from their a ...

'' (#29 US) *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 The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA), formerly known as the Arkansas Arts Center, is an art museum located in MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas. The museum is undergoing an expansion and renovation. During this time, it is closed to the ...

, 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 ov ...

, 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), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

- Detroit, Michigan *

Fuller Craft Museum Fuller Craft Museum is an arts and crafts museum in the city of Brockton, Massachusetts, 25 miles south of Boston. It receives 20,000 visitors a year. It contains contemporary craft-based art of many different genres and origins. It is the only ...

- 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. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

, 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, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

- Los Angeles, California *The Mabel Brady Garven Collection,

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

- New Haven, Connecticut *The Mint Museum of Craft & Design - Charlotte, North Carolina *

Mobile Museum of Art The Mobile Museum of Art (MMofA) is an art museum located in Mobile, Alabama. It features extensive art collections from the United States, Europe, and non-western art. The museum hosts exhibitions, multi-disciplinary programs (including film, po ...

, (formerly, Fine Arts Museum of the South) - Mobile, Alabama *

Museum of Arts & Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...

, formerly The American Craft Museum - New York, New York * Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, Massachusetts *

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

, Salem, Massachusetts *

Racine Art Museum The Racine Art Museum (RAM) and RAM's Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts are located in Racine, Wisconsin, U.S. The museum holds the largest and most significant contemporary craft collection in North America, with more than 9,500 objects fro ...

, 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 in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...

- Ann Arbor, Michigan

Special collections

*Columbia Pictures, Star Trek Voyager set - Wall Sculpture - Bleached Maple Burl

References

External links

Dennis Elliott's official websiteAskart.com – reference site for Elliott's sculptures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Dennis 1950 births Living people English rock drummers Foreigner (band) members People from Peckham English sculptors Place of birth missing (living people) If (band) members Spooky Tooth members