John Mayer, Dave Grohl, and Ed Sheeran formed a perhaps unlikely triumvirate when they collaborated on the song Drive, featured in Brad Pitt's racing movie, F1.
Now, Mayer and Sheeran – together with all-star producer Blake Slatkin – are taking fans (and songwriting aficionados) behind the scenes on how the collaboration came about – and what exactly went down in the studio.
“I was called by my friends at Atlantic Records who were working on the soundtrack, and they had me come in and see the movie,” relates Slatkin in an interview with Variety.
“And I watched it, and got the feeling of watching the movie, which is just insane adrenaline, and like, ‘Holy shit. This is gonna be the biggest thing in the world, and people are gonna love this.’
“I literally walked out of the screening room and called Ed and John at the same time, and was like, ‘We have to make a song for this.’ Obviously, some of the greatest musicians in the entire world would be my first call. And luckily, they were down, and we all got into John's room at Henson [Studios] and started it.”
As Mayer details, as soon as they got together, there was no, “‘Well, let me just kick this around.” Instead, they all got straight down to business.
“Ed said, ‘What about this?’ And he kind of hummed the semblance of a guitar riff. He just starts writing. The distance between not having a song and having a song for Ed is a millimeter,” he quips.
“This is within 10 minutes of the session starting – Ed saying to John, ‘Give me a rock riff,’ kind of humming something,” exclaims Slatkin, to which Sheeran adds, “John’s got this toolkit of unwritten rock riffs, really. I wouldn't say that you’re, like, out and out, AC/DC rock – the music that you make – [but] you could easily do it.”
And for the keen-eared guitar geeks, there’s a spattering of blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em Easter eggs that Mayer reveals, including “this harmonic kind of whistling thing, and it's rhythmic – you can't tell what it is. It’s the speakers of Ed's first take of the vocals coming through that guitar part [through the pickups].”
There’s also “big dive bomb [in the bridge]. You know, the guitar's got the – whether people call it the whammy bar or the sort of Eddie Van Halen style whistle.”
As for the other star collaborator (or should I say collaborators?), the track also features Dave Grohl back on drums – as well as session maestro Pino Palladino on bass.
“When we thought who should drum on this song, the first name was Dave Grohl,” explains Slatkin matter-of-factly.
“I texted him,” Mayer pipes in. “These things are too intriguing to say no to if you’re in town. Same way it got passed to me initially. ‘Hey, do you want to write a song for F1 – the big summer movie coming with Brad Pitt?’ I think everyone kind of knew this movie was coming. I'm pretty discerning. I like staying at home. I like doing minimal stuff. And that's one of those things you go, ‘Yeah.’”
“Honestly, since the day I've met both of these guys, anytime I would get a call from them, I'm there,” Sheeran concludes.
“Anytime that I’ve worked with John, he can take an eight out of 10 and make it 10, instantly. But he is, honestly, one of the greatest musicians of all time... I’m sort of sat in the middle of this, just kind of grinning. It’s been great. It’s been a really fun process.”
And, speaking of notable collaborations, following last year’s breakout performance at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning, Yungblud continued his winning streak by teaming up with both Aerosmith and the Smashing Pumpkins.
