On the Foo Fighters new album, Concrete and Gold, the band invited a wide range of artists to contribute including Paul McCartney, Justin Timberlake and more. At first, the names seem to be plucked at random, but we often forget how busy a recording studio can be with artists buzzing around the building. In a new interview, Dave Grohl revealed how the band's open door policy while tracking the new album was inspired by Pantera.

Grohl began explaining how the Foo Fighters "get along with everybody." At festivals, he'll routinely appear backstage, whiskey bottle in hand, "banging on dressing-room doors to see who's fun, to see who's cool." The frontman went on to tell Planet Rock (video below), "It could be Tricky, or it could be Muse or it could be… whatever — I just look for pals."

Anyone who is familiar with Pantera knows the band's reputation for hard-partying found them hanging with the biggest stars in entertainment, not just limited to the music world, and it turns out that this welcomeness Grohl spoke of came from directly from the Texas groove hounds. "Back in the day, we did a show with Pantera and we became friends and I would go see them on tour all the time. And I realized that you'd be backstage at a Pantera show and there'd be, like, Marilyn Manson is in that corner, and Kato Kaelin is in that corner and Britney Spears is in [that corner]… Everybody loved to hang with Pantera. So, to me, that was the coolest thing about them — they were the sweetest people and they had this open-door policy," the Foos frontman detailed.

Taking this open door notion to the studio, Grohl explained that the Foo Fighters "don't really plan much when it comes to making music." He mentioned at the studio that "every week there was someone else in there," name-checking Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple fame along with his Black Country Communion bandmates and icons in their own right, Jason Bonham and Joe Bonamassa, as well as Lady Gaga, Wolf Alice, and Rufus Wainwright. "So the three months we were there, we were meeting all these people, we were drinking in the parking lot, we were outside smoking and you just make friends and it's literally that easy," said Grohl.

Loaded with guest artists, Concrete and Gold catapulted to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in its debut week and was also the highest selling album of the week, moving 127,000 copies (including track equivalent streams), 120,000 of which were traditional sales.

Foo Fighters have been nominated for Hard Rock Song of the Year in the 2017 Loudwire Music Awards for “Run.” Fan voting is underway and you can cast your votes now at this location. The winners will be revealed live on Oct. 24 at the 2017 Loudwire Music Awards ceremony and concert, hosted by WWE superstar and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho. The event will honor Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Judas Priest‘s Rob Halford and Van Halen legend Sammy Hagar with special performances from Anthrax, Halestorm, Body Count, Nothing More, Starset, Power Trip and more. Get your tickets and more information here.

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