In a bid to further his reputation as not only the nicest, but busiest man in rock, Dave Grohl has contributed drums to the latest single from US pop megastar, Halsey, on the track Honey - taken from the singer’s newly-released album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.
The album - released August 27 - was produced by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and features tracks co-penned by Greg Kurstin who has worked with Grohl on Foo Fighters’ two most recent albums, Medicine at Midnight (2021) and Concrete and Gold (2017).
Honey is an uptempo pop-rock tune, featuring some classic meat ’n’ potatoes Grohl-isms: flammed snare to kick off, barking hi-hats and doubles around the kit between hands and feet.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Reznor has called-in beats from Grohl, enlisting the former Nirvana drummer for seven songs the Nine Inch Nails album, With Teeth in 2005 before collaborating with him again alongside Josh Homme for Grohl’s film, Sound City.
In 2011, Grohl told the Hollywood Reporter of Reznor, “I think it’s safe to say that he is my generation’s most talented musician-producer-songwriter.” Grohl once again recorded drums for Nine Inch Nails in 2016’s Not the Actual Events on the song, The Idea of You”.
Talking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Halsey revealed the reasoning behind working with Reznor and Ross for her latest album. “I wanted really cinematic sort of, not horror specifically, but kind of just really unsettling production.
It’s something I wanted, and Anthony, my manager, knew that it’s something I wanted and I had abandoned it, because I was like, ‘I’m not cool enough. They’ll never do it. I’m not interesting enough. Like, I’m not even going to ask…’"
