Dave Grohl reveals the carpark sessions that got Justin Timberlake on the new Foo Fighters album

DAVE Grohl’s one degree of separation from every superstar on the planet resulted in an epic guest list for the new Foo Fighters record Concrete and Gold.

WHO do you call if you fall off stage in Sweden, break your leg and need a top surgeon in London? If you’re Dave Grohl, you speed dial Sir Paul McCartney.

And of all the musicians in the world, who might you ask to fill in on drums when your regular drummer Taylor Hawkins is performing lead vocal duties? Yep, the legendary Beatle again.

The man who inspired Grohl to pick up a guitar as a child has become a “dear friend” who collaborated with the Foos again on their ninth studio record Concrete and Gold.

Two mates hanging backstage at the Grammys. One’s a Beatle, the other a Foo. Picture: The GRAMMYS/Twitter

Hawkins lists off McCartney’s drumming credits for The Beatles (Back In the USSR, The Ballad Of John and Yoko) and Wings and speculates the legendary musician is a reluctant drummer because of “his love and respect for Ringo”.

Yet he acquiesced to the Foos request to play on Sunday Rain when Grohl called.

“He and his family basically set up my entire surgery in London after I broke my leg,” the frontman says. “It still blows my mind.

“I wouldn’t be playing music if it wasn’t for Paul McCartney because I learned how to play guitar with Beatles songbooks and playing along to Beatles records.

“But I also would not be not be walking right now if it was not for Paul McCartney. He knows some good f---ing doctors.”

Grohl and Taylor Hawkins from Foo Fighters did a secret show in Sydney last month. Picture: Richard Dobson

On his recent whirlwind visit to Sydney with Hawkins to play a secret gig with their covers band Chevy Metal, and spruik the upcoming record, Grohl was being mysterious about “the world’s biggest pop star” who guests on Concrete and Gold. He’s since confirmed the musical luminary is none other than Justin Timberlake, who he met at the iconic EastWest Studios in Los Angeles and sings backing “la la las” on Make It Right. They became buddies who would drink whiskey in the carpark.

“Said pop star was in there for a week recording and I think we had met before. And this person is wonderful and funny and great and charming and talented. We started playing each other our music,” he says.

“And at the end of that week, that person said ‘Can I sing on your record?’ We were almost done and the next day and I came back to this person and said ‘OK we’ve got a back-up vocal track we want you to do’.

“He said ‘you don’t even have to tell anybody I’m on the record, I just want to be able to tell my friends that I’m on it’.”

Concrete and Gold added new members to the Foos family. Picture: Supplied.

Grohl enlisted Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman to build a choir of the R&B legend’s voice after also bumping into him in the studio carpark. That is one star-studded carpark.

Others guests include The Kills’ Alison Mosshart and American saxophonist Dave Koz.

The story behind enlisting producer Greg Kurstin, the man who female pop stars adore from Adele to Pink, for Concrete and Gold proves yet again that Grohl may be the world’s biggest fanboy.

The pair have become friends who talk music over the past four years after the Fooeys frontman spotted him in a restaurant in Hawaii, recognising Kurstin as one half of the indie pop duo The Bird and the Bee.

“I ran up to him, completely interrupted his dinner with his family and told him he was a genius and I was obsessed with his album and what’s up with the Bird and the Bee?” Grohl recalls.

“He said they were going to make another record but he had to finish up producing Adele, Pink, Beyonce everyone. We just made friends and talked about music and I eventually realised he’s not just a pop producer but he’s a studied jazz musician who grew up playing in punk

rock bands, reggae bands, rock bands.”

The Foo fighters will tour Australia in the new year. Picture: Supplied.

After taking time out following yet another epic world tour in support of the last Foos project Sonic Highways, Grohl knew the band had to “push out” into uncharted musical territory. Bigger vocals, bigger orchestrations, just bigger.

With a case of wine in the back of the car, Grohl headed to a cabin in Ojai outside of Los Angeles to finish off the songs for Concrete and Gold, which had the working title Good Hangover.

“I knew we had to change, to push out and I thought Greg would be the perfect person because he’s never made a hard rock record,” Grohl says.

“And knowing what type of musician he is, he would be the one to take us by the hand and walk us into territories we have never been. And it worked.

“I don’t know if I have met a more brilliant musician than Greg, I think he might be the one!”

Other collaborators came from much closer to home. After years of asking to be in a Foo Fighters video, Grohl invited his daughters Violet and Harper to join the band on set for The Sky Is a Neighbourhood.

Director Grohl got more respect from his young co-stars than Dad Dave.

“So I tell them, this is what you are doing in this scene, just jump on the bed and pretend there’s someone on the ceiling stomping around.

And they were so good,” the proud papa says.

“But if we are at home and I say you gotta make sure you clean up your room before bed and get your homework done and make sure your backpack is in the kitchen, that’s pulling teeth and twisting wrists.”

Concrete and Gold is out Friday. Foo Fighters will play the nib Stadium, Perth on January 20, Coopers Stadium, Adeliade, January 23, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, January 25, ANZ Stadium, Sydney, January 27 and Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, January 30. Tickets on sale from September 22 at staggered times. Tickets for Melbourne and Perth will be available from noon, Sydney at 1pm, Brisbane at 3pm and Adelaide at 4pm local times.