bringing in Springfield, Virginia, and how
he felt “like an alien or freak as a teenager”
listening to “fucking crazy industrial music
and exploring the really darker sides of
human behaviour” in such a conservative
setting, it also addresses the oppression
he sees many of his gay friends suffering.
“They’re beautiful people who just want to
live a loving, compassionate life and there
are others that dictate their beliefs so much
that it affects their lives,” he says. “I’m very
passionate about that in my private life. It
normally doesn’t make its way into song,
but that one did.”
There is, he’s quick to point out, still
“something about [the album] that seems
fun to me, there’s still some boogie in it,
and there’s still love and there’s still that
tongue-in-cheek last sip of whiskey in the
jar”. There’s also hope, most notably in the
closing title track, which graduates from a
sludge-like dirge into a chorus of celestial
proportions. “I knew it would be the last
song on the record because it’s meant to
leave the listener with a sense of hope. Even
a broken heart can find hope somewhere,
and whether it’s our country or our plan-
et, there’s got to be some hope to live for. I
get dark enough that I just start thinking
about total extermination. But as I look
now, I’m standing in the parking lot of a
fuckin’ grocery store, watching the roots of
a tree grow up through the dirty concrete
of Los Angeles, and to me I feel like we as
people can do the same thing. We just need
to get up from under it.”
Earlier this year, Grohl made headlines
when he stated the album featured a cameo
from “probably the biggest pop star in the
world”. Today he won’t reveal who, though
he’ll happily admit to standing in the hall-
ways of EastWest “talk-
ingtoLadyGagaorJason
Bonham or fucking Tim-
baland or Shania Twain”,
andthatPaulMcCartney
plays drums on one of the
songs. A chance encoun-
terwithBoyzIIMen’s
ShawnStockmaninthe
parking lot resulted in
the singer recording 26
vocaltracksonthecho-
rusofthetitletrackafter
Grohl asked if there’s
“anywaywecanbuild
something that sounds
like an entire choir”. “It
soundedsohugethat
when he left the room I
looked at everybody and
said, ‘That’s what the re-
cord should sound like’,”
recallsGrohl.“‘Thisisthe
starting point right now,
this is what we need to
do.’Andsofortherestof
therecordwejuststart-ed stacking these choirs of vocals all over
these massive riffs. That was one of my fa-
vourite moments of the entire album.”
“Dave always wanted to make a weird
sounding record, and I think for the most
part he’s got as weird as we’ve ever got-
ten sonically speaking,” says Hawkins. “I
think it’s a challenging record, I think you
have to listen to it. ‘The Line’ is the only
song on the record that sounds like a Foo
Fighters song. Everything else, there’s el-
ements there, but then it goes, ok, that’s a
little strange. I like how heavy it is. When
we did ‘Run’ I was like, ‘Wow, that’s going
to be our first single?’ I’m proud to say we
put out maybe our heaviest single as our
first single at a time when it might be the
lightest, poppiest time in alternative rock,
for lack of a better term.”T
he release of ‘concrete
and Gold will, naturally, be
accompanied by a mam-
moth trek around the globe.
For Hawkins, staring out over
the Pacific Ocean from his Laguna Beach
hideaway, it’s a “daunting but exciting pros-
pect”. “The road is amazing and fun, but
it’s also a lot of work and a lot of time away
from your family. But at the end of the day,
every new album, every new tour, is a gift.
I know deep down that we’re so blessed to
have the opportunity to do it all.”
“The most important thing is we walk
onstage, do our job and get home safe,”
says Grohl. “It’s not very rock & roll, but I’ve
been around the block a couple times and
I’ve learned a few things. To me, the most
important thing is, we give you the night of
your life, and then we get home safe.”
The world is, of course, a different
place since the Foo Fighters
wrapped theirSonic High-
waystour, with terror-re-
latedeventssuchasthoseat
theBataclanin2015andat
Ariana Grande’s Manchester
concertinMaymeaningsafe
passage home from a show is
no longer quite the certainty
itoncewas.It’safactnotlost
on Grohl.
“The tour we just finished
[around Europe] was the
first time we’ve been on the
roadinaboutayearanda
half,” he starts. “And so much
has changed in that time
that before the first show
we actually had a meeting
totalkaboutwhattodoin
the event that anything hap-
pened.Anditwasaveryso-
bering conversation to take
thesethingsintoconsider-
ation that we’ve never had
to before. We had the meet-
ing,Ilookedatourteamandthe extent of the damage: “When this hap-
pened, my doctor basically said, ‘It’s a lot
worse than you think it is. If you do what I
tell you then you’ll be able to walk and run
around with your kids after you’re out of
here. If you don’t do what I tell you to do,
you’ll walk with a cane for the rest of your
life.’ Meaning I wouldn’t be able to play
drums... I messed it up so bad.”)
Six months into the hiatus, Grohl start-
ed penning some songs, and by midway
through last year was at Hawkins’ house
showing him the ideas for what would be-
come the first single off Concrete and Gold,
“Run”, and another song destined for the
record, “La Dee Da”.
To write the lyrics, Grohl spent a week
in an Airbnb rental in Ojai, just outside of
Los Angeles, “and brought a case of wine
and sat with a microphone and my gui-
tar and just spouted these stream of con-
sciousness ramblings into a tape machine.
A lot of it was phonetic, I didn’t even know
what I was saying. And I would listen back
and start to hear these words that were just
coming out.”
Those words comprised some of his
darkest musings to date. “Well, we’re liv-
ing in desperate times,” he says quietly.
“There’s not a lot of rest, and it seems like
we need some peace.”
The first line of album opener “T-shirt”
- “I don’t wanna be king/I just wanna
sing a love song/Pretend there’s noth-
ing wrong/You can sing along with me” - was inspired by a press conference held
by President Trump. “It just made me so
sad that there’s this gross, greedy ambi-
tion that’s happening where people are so
hungr y for power, it really flipped me out,”
sighs Grohl.
On “Run”, he “just wanted to escape. I
wanted to get away from the noise and get
away from that desperation, I just wanted
tofindsomesortofpeace.Andthere’sthat
feelingthatyouwanttograbthepersonthat
youloveandjustrunforyourlifetosome-
wherewherelifemeanssomethingmore
than just a desperate search for power.”
Harmony-laden rocker “The Sky Is a
Neighborhood”,whichwasalast-minute
addition to the album and has since be-
comeoneofGrohl’sfavouriteFooFight-
ers songs, was inspired by a trip to Hawaii,
wherehelayonhisbackoneeveninglook-
ingatthestars.“Iamoneofthosepeople
who believes we’re not the only life in this
universe,andsoasIlookedupatthestars
Ijustimaginedwhattheymightthinkstar-
ingbackatus.Thelastthingintheworld
youwantisanoisyneighbour,soweneedto
keep it down. Cool it out a little bit.”
Despiteitsflippanttitle,“LeDeeDa”
finds Grohl addressing the personal as
political, raging against “people dictat-
ing their beliefs to me to the point where
it becomes oppressive and perhaps against
something I believe in”. Inspired by his up-
“The other
thing that
really
affected me
about Chris
Cornell’s
passing was
thinking
about his
band
members,
because...
that’s a long,
hard road,
man.”56 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com October, 2017
Foo Fighters