Dave Grohl has previously proclaimed that the biggest pop star on the planet sings on the new Foo Fighters album Concrete and Gold, but apparently it will not be Adele or Taylor Swist, though Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake remain possibilities. Grohl discussed recording the album in a new Rolling Stone article.
As they worked, Dave Grohl socialized with the other artists recording at EastWest, including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Shania Twain. He asked some people he met to sing on the record, but for the most part he won’t say who. “Neither Adele nor Taylor Swift sang on the record,” he says, clearing up rumors. But he did run into Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman in the parking lot and asked him to craft some 30 backing vocal tracks to emulate a choir on the song “Concrete and Gold,” blowing Grohl’s mind. “When he left the room, I turned to everybody and said, ‘The Boyz II Men dude just raised the fucking bar. Every song has to be that big.'” Other guests he is willing to reveal at press time include the Bird and the Bee’s Inara George, saxophonist Dave Koz and the Kills’ Alison Mosshart.
Once the tunes were in a decent place, Grohl was ready to record. “The last couple of albums had been made in ways that we were trying to get out of our comfort zone,” he says, referring to 2014’s Sonic Highways, which was recorded in different studios around the U.S., and 2011’s Wasting Light, which they did in his garage. “I thought, ‘What’s the strangest thing for this band to do at this point?’ And then I realized it was just to go into a studio and make a fucking album like a normal band.”
