Rick Springfield‘s been spending a lot of time in the studio lately finishing up his next album, “Songs For the End of the World.” But he’s also been doing a bit of rocking with some new friends — Foo Fighters.
Springfield tells Billboard that he’s cut a new track, “The Man Who Never Was,” with the Foos for Dave Grohl’s upcoming documentary on the legendary San Ferndando Valley recording studio Sound City (Butch Vig, who co-produced, previously said Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme was also involved). Springfield recorded his 1981 platinum breakthrough album “Working Class Dog” at Sound City and he was happy to be reunited with the studios’ mixing board that now resides in Grohl’s home studio.
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“It was a great experience for me to get together with those guys ’cause they’re great musicians and I love their writing. And to actually write a song with them was fun,” Springfield says.
He describes “The Man Who Never Was” as “a relationship song” but inspired by a true story from World War II about Operation Mincemeat, in which the British dressed a cadaver in an officer’s uniform carrying bogus details about an upcoming attack in order to mislead the Germans.
“The Germans found it and totally believed this story that the British were going to attack one area, so they put all their people over there and the British attacked somewhere else,” Springfield says. “The song talks about how I feel like I’m the man who never was in this relationship. It came out really great; Butch Vig produced it with Dave, and they really felt the song came out great and we’re thinking it could be one of the lead-off songs for (the soundtrack).”
Springfield, who recorded three other albums at Sound City, says he’s looking forward to seeing the finished film. “Dave’s one of those guys with a deep musical history and really knows what happened there,” Springfield says. “It’s going to be big. He’s got all these grand ideas, and he’s got the power now to do that kind of stuff. I think it’s a great idea.”
Grohl — who worked on Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album in Sound City — has interviewed a number of the other artists who recorded at Sound City, including the Pixies’ Frank Black, nine inch nails’ Trent Reznor and others Clips from some of them are posted at the movie’s official web site, www.soundcitymovie.com. Grohl and Vig are also recording new tracks with some of the artists, including what Vig says are “some really interesting collaborations.” Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman said he recorded a track with Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, while members of Ratt have also said they’re part of the project. No release date has been set for the film or the soundtrack.
Springfield’s “Songs For the End of the World,” his first new rock album in four years, comes out Oct. 9. and features a wealth of bonus material, much of it accessible online.