Music Odds: Who is Dave Grohl’s Mystery Popstar?

In an interview with BBC Radio 1 late last month, Dave Grohl teased fans that Concrete and Gold, the Foo Fighters ninth studio album (and first in three years) would also feature “the biggest pop star in the world”. With the September 15th release date for Concrete and Gold approaching, Grohl continues to keep fans guessing at who this could possibly be – even though he says they’re never going to tell.

A more recent interview with Rolling Stone had the Foo Fighters front-man explaining how this mystery collaboration came to be and expounded a bit more on the experience, albeit elusively:

“It was sort of towards the end of the album and this person came up and said, “Man, I’d really love to sing on your record.” I looked at [producer] Greg [Kurstin] and said, “OK, come in tomorrow and we’ll figure something out.” So we found a backup part for this person to sing and we decided we were gonna make it our own dirty little secret and see if anyone can figure it out…

I’d be amazed if anyone can really figure it out. But it was great and this person’s been around a long time. And I think I’ve met this person maybe a few times, but I’d never spent time with this person, and we had a blast together. Really f–king fun. And [he or she is] very talented — more so than I ever knew. But, of course, I f–king ran my mouth off; now I have to answer to it every time I pick up the telephone and I’m like, “F–k! I shouldn’t have said anything.”

After the Radio 1 interview fans were obviously buzzing amongst themselves over who the “biggest pop star in the world” would turn out to be. The immediate favorites: Adele and Taylor Swift. However, Grohl shot down those rumors in the Rolling Stone interview, admitting that while he wishes it were Adele and that he thinks T-Swift is “pretty rad”, it is neither. So, the question remains: Who is the greatest pop star in the world? (According to Dave Grohl.)

Below are some of the artists who are blowing up our radio at the moment, and the odds they are the mystery guest Dave Grohl continues to taunt us with.

Foo Fighters Mystery Guest Odds

Lady Gaga: 1/1

Lady Gaga is arguably one of the biggest pop icons in music today. Her musical spectrum is broad, from anthems to country ballads, and she has the vocal chops to sing on a rock album – no doubt about that. Her performance with Metallica at the 2017 Grammy’s was proof of that. Gaga also happened to be working in the same building as the Foo Fighters while they were recording Concrete and Gold, and you know that Dave Grohl did mention this mystery person “came up” to them.

Rihanna: 7/2

The girl is on fire, and she is fearless. Constantly reinventing herself and always pushing the envelope a little further, a RiRi x Foo Fighter collaboration does not seem like that wild of an idea. We’ve seen almost every other iteration of Rihanna, including a track with Kanye West and Sir Paul McCartney, why not this one next?

Elton John: 9/1

If you think about his unbelievably huge career, you’ll realize why we are considering Sir Elton John. If what we know about the “mystery star” is that they are big, have been around a long time, are insanely talented, and we would never, in a million years, guess they are on this type of track – well, he sure as sugar fits the bill.

Beyoncé: 12/1

There is no denying ‘Yoncé’s superstar status. The Queen B herself, Beyoncé has been in the game for almost 20 years now, and shows zero signs of stopping. In fact, it seems like every new thing she does is somehow more golden than the last. And, while her year has been a pretty full one already (what with growing the Carter dynasty and all), you just know Bey’s still been hard at work.

Bruno Mars: 15/1

Everything Bruno Mars touches these days turns to 24k magic. In the pop world, he seems unstoppable. And, why would we want to stop him, anyways? The fact that I can’t quite imagine what he would sound like as a back-up vocal on a heavy rock track makes me wonder if he is the type of star Grohl was alluding to. But, is he the biggest star out there right now? There are a lot of others shining just as – if not, more so – brightly.

Justin Bieber: 75/1

Like him or not, the Biebs is big. If you feel like the guy has been everywhere for the last couple years, it’s because he quite literally has been. He just cancelled the remainder of a massive world tour, months short of it’s intended completion date, citing exhaustion as the main cause. Whether he was left with enough down time to record in studio with another band, well, that seems unlikely.