Grohl Says Foo-ey to Breakup Rumors

Are the Foos through?

A wave of panic coursed through offices of RCA Records, which is awaiting the fourth album from consistent million-sellers the Foo Fighters. Reports had it that leader Dave Grohl was putting the band on indefinite hiatus to become the full-time drummer for the band Queens of the Stone Age.

At the same time, a wave of elation hit Interscope Records, which is awaiting the third album from the Queens, which have yet to achieve a big breakthrough.

Hold on, says Grohl. The reports are only partly accurate. Grohl tells Pop Eye that he and the Foo Fighters are taking a break before finishing their fourth album (now scheduled for fall release) and that he will be doing some shows with the Queens. Grohl has been recording with the Inland Empire band for its upcoming third album (due in late spring), and he played drums at a recent Troubadour show by the group. It was his first full concert behind a drum kit since the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain ended Nirvana.

“The Foos are taking a break from recording after four months and 12 songs,” Grohl said in an e-mail. “There’s a few songs that still need some tracking, but over half the album is completed and mixed. We’ve maintained a pretty solid work ethic over the last seven years and thought it might be a good idea to step back from the album, relax, and take our time finishing. No big whoop. No state of emergency.

“It’s true that I’m joining Queens for some shows. Don’t know how many, don’t know for how long. That doesn’t mean that the Foos are breaking up, doesn’t mean that the album is over. I’m still the singer for the Foos, first and foremost.”

Grohl’s two jobs will be showcased at the Coachella Festival in Indio, with the Queens scheduled to perform April 27 and the Foo Fighters co-headlining April 28.

“Come out to Coachella,” Grohl wrote in his e-mail. “That says it all right there. I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world that I can do both at the same time.”

That Grohl might want to step out of the frontman’s spotlight is no surprise after a stretch marked by several unwelcome distractions. The Foo Fighters’ European tour last summer came to an abrupt halt when drummer Taylor Hawkins was hospitalized after a drug overdose. In recent months, Grohl and ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic have been engaged in a nasty public battle with Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, over control of Nirvana’s recordings and song catalog.

Whatever the reasons for playing with the Queens, the double duty gets an endorsement from RCA executives.

“Dave’s involvement with Queens of the Stone Age is something that he’s fortunate to do because he loves the band and happens to be one of the world’s best drummers,” says RCA Vice President of A&R; Bruce Flohr. “At the end of the day, RCA Records and his management team support Dave’s musical vision to do whatever he wants.”

AMERICAN(ISH) GIRL: Beth Orton’s voice has been compared to that of Sandy Denny, and her mix of melodic ballad styles and electronic touches has been considered the successor to the English folk-rock tradition. But Orton’s upcoming album, “Daybreaker,” due from Astralwerks Records in June, has a distinct Americana cast, with Orton dueting with Emmylou Harris and Ryan Adams, who wrote the music for one song.

“It feels like Nashville,” says Orton, although the album was recorded in London. “I don’t know why. It’s a complete coincidence.”

Orton had long admired Harris, and they met in 1997 when both were on the Lilith Fair tour.

“On the last day of the tour, I gave her a necklace,” Orton says. “Then when I went to see her in London a few months ago when she was doing her anti-landmines concert, I walked into the dressing room and it just happened she was wearing that necklace. I had been scared to ask her to sing on my album, but I took that as a sign and asked her to sing and she did.”

Having heard Adams’ subdued 2000 release, “Heartbreaker,” Orton was a fan of his before last year’s acclaimed “Gold” album. “I adored that album and was looking for someone to do backup vocals on the song ‘Concrete Sky,’ and he seemed like a good choice,” she says.

“We met up last year....He did a vocal part and it was wonderful, then said, ‘I’ve got a piano part, and a guitar part.’ And then he had this song he said I’d be perfect for and played it for me and we did it in one take.”

In addition, veteran L.A. drummer Jim Keltner was recruited for one song, and Orton cites Ry Cooder’s atmospheric score from the movie “Paris, Texas” as a big influence on the album.

But “Daybreaker” is hardly an all-American effort. English producer Ben Watt oversaw most of the sessions, and regular collaborators the Chemical Brothers mixed the title song. Orton also notes that the score to “Blade Runner,” by Greek-born electronic musician Vangelis, was as much on her mind as Cooder’s work.

Orton will preview the album in U.S. clubs in May and June before returning to England to play on the outdoor festival circuit. She’s due at the House of Blues in West Hollywood on May 28.

SMALL FACES: Following up the ad campaign featuring Pink’s “Get the Party Started,” the National Basketball Assn. is producing spots with Lenny Kravitz (his song “Dig In”) and the Baha Men (“Move It Like This”) to run through the playoffs, which end in June. The campaign will tip off with a Baha Men performance at the NBA store in New York on Thursday....

Chuck Berry and Little Richard, who recently toured together, will be joined by a third ‘50s rock pioneer, Bo Diddley, to receive BMI Icon Awards as part of the royalties collection and distribution organization’s 50th annual BMI Pop Awards. The invitation-only, black-tie event will be held May 14 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel....

After mostly lying low in Hawaii and San Francisco since the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann will bring his band TriChromes to Southern California in June for its first shows outside the Bay Area. Dates include June 29 at the House of Blues in Anaheim and June 30 at the Sunset Strip House of Blues.

Steve Hochman is a regular contributor to Calendar.