14. “Dirty Water” with Inara George (Concrete and Gold, 2017)

 

Concrete and Gold producer Greg Kurstin is best known for his chart-topping work with major pop stars like Adele and Kelly Clarkson. But the skilled multi-instrumentalist also played in alternative bands like Geggy Tah and the Bird and the Bee. And Kurstin brought in the Bird and the Bee singer Inara George (daughter of Little Feat frontman Lowell George) to do some backing vocals on the Concrete and Gold highlight “Dirty Water.” Last year Dave Grohl returned the favor, playing drums for the Bird and the Bee when they covered Van Halen on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

 

 

13. “Never Gonna Give You Up” with Rick Astley (Live at London O2 Arena, 2017)

 

Dave Grohl didn’t technically Rickroll his London fans in September 2017 – he came right out and announced British pop singer Rick Astley before the Foo Fighters backed him on a surprisingly good, guitar-driven rendition of his 1987 hit. And just last month, Rick Astley tipped his hat to the Foo Fighters and sang “Everlong” on a live stream.

 

 

12. “X-Static” with Greg Dulli (Foo Fighters, 1995)

 

Dave Grohl famously played virtually everything on the first Foo Fighters album, save for some backing vocals by co-producer Barrett Jones and a guitar cameo by Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs. Dulli, who played with Grohl in the all-star band that recorded the Beatles’ early covers repertoire for the Fab Four biopic Backbeat in 1994, was one of the few visitors in the studio when Grohl was recording the Foo Fighters’ debut. “I was just watching him record, and he asked me if I wanted to play,” Dulli told Rolling Stone in 1995. “I didn’t even get out of my chair. He just handed me a guitar.”

 

 

11. “Subterranean” with Ben Gibbard and Barrett Jones (Sonic Highways, 2014)

 

One of the weightiest moments in Sonic Highways docuseries was the Seattle episode, where Dave Grohl returned not just to his former band’s hometown but to Robert Lang Studios, the site of Nirvana’s final recording session in January 1994. But instead of featuring one of Nirvana’s grunge era contemporaries on the song Foo Fighters worked on at the studio, Grohl brought in Ben Gibbard, whose Bellingham band Death Cab For Cutie, helped point the Washington rock scene to indie rock’s future beyond heavy Big Muff riffs in the late ‘90s.

 

 

10. “Walking After You (soundtrack version)” with Craig Wedren and Jerry Harrison (X-Files: The Album, 1998)

 

Dave Grohl named both his band and his label Roswell Records in homage to his enthusiasm for researching UFOs and Area 51 conspiracy theories. Naturally, he became closely associated with the TV series The X-Files, and the band contributed to the soundtrack albums for both the series and the 1998 spinoff film. At the end of The Colour and the Shape’s promotional cycle, Foo Fighters entered the studio to re-record a slicker new version of the album’s closing track “Walking After You.” With producer Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads on piano and Shudder to Think’s Craig Wedren sang backing vocals. The re-recorded “Walking After You” is also notable for being one of only two studio tracks that feature Scream’s Franz Stahl on guitar from his two-year tenure in Foo Fighters.

 

 

9. “Sunday Rain” with Paul McCartney and Greg Kurstin (Concrete and Gold, 2017)

 

Calling Foo Fighters the Wings to Nirvana’s Beatles is a popular jab, but Grohl doesn’t shy away from the comparison – they even covered “Band on the Run” in 2007. And Grohl and McCartney have collaborated on a number of occasions, including “Cut Me Some Slack” for Grohl’s 2013 film Sound City, and a recent livestream to benefit the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Anybody who’s listened to the first two tracks on The White Album knows that Sir Paul is a talented drummer in addition to his other musical gifts, and Grohl had Macca lay down drums for one track on Concrete and Gold that was sung by Taylor Hawkins.

 

 

8. “We Will Rock You” with Harper Grohl (Live in Reykjavik, Iceland, 2017)

 

“There’s another Grohl on the drum set now,” Grohl proudly announced at the Secret Solstice Festival in Iceland. Then his daughter Harper Grohl, who at the time was eight, got behind Taylor Hawkins’s drums and pounded out the beat for the first song she’d learned, the Queen classic “We Will Rock You.”

 

 

7. “Tired of You” with Brian May (One by One, 2002)

Foo Fighters have also played “We Will Rock You” with the members of Queen at Hyde Park in 2006, collaborating with Brian May on a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar” for the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack the same year. But the only time the Queen guitarist’s distinctive tone graced a Foo Fighters album was on “Tired of You,” a slow-burning One by One deep cut that appeared in the 2007 film I Think I Love My Wife.

 

 

6. “Congregation” with Zac Brown (Sonic Highways, 2014)

Dave Grohl went a little country to produce a few songs for The Zac Brown Band that became 2013’s The Grohl Sessions, Vol. 1 EP. And the following year, Zac Brown played a twangy guitar break and sang backup on “Congregation,” the Sonic Highways single recorded in Nashville. After the release of the album, Brown made a few appearances at Foo Fighters shows, usually joining in on a cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

 

 

5. “Razor” with Josh Homme (In Your Honor, 2005)

 

Hard rock superfriends Dave Grohl and Josh Homme have collaborated many times, often on suitably heavy songs by Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures. But the only time Homme appeared on a Foo Fighters song, it was to pick out an intricate acoustic riff on the surprisingly quiet and folky In Your Honor closing track “Razor.”