Foo Fighters mainman Dave Grohl has revealed he wrote the majority of the ideas for upcoming album Concrete and Gold six months into what was supposed be a year-long hiatus. He’d planned to avoid playing guitar for 365 days – but almost exactly half way through the rest period he decided to start working again.

The follow-up to 2014’s Sonic Highways is released Sept. 15 and comes after the band ended their break much earlier than planned, after having toured extensively in support of that LP despite Grohl breaking his leg and having to perform on a custom-built throne.

“We’ve never taken that much time off," the bandleader told Rolling Stone and added how he’d become bored with inaction. "I barbecued for months, man. I was doing eight briskets a week. It got a little dark.” He decided to get back into action six months “to the day” after he’d stopped.

“I don’t think I was inspired at first,” he continued. “I just felt like I was creatively atrophied and had to start to exercise in order to wake the muscle up. After maybe 12 or 13 ideas, I send them to the guys and ask, ‘Am I crazy? Or is this a record?’ They said, ‘Both.’”

Concrete and Gold was recorded with the assistance of producer Greg Kurstin, best known for his work with pop stars Adele, Kelly Clarkson and others. But Grohl was attracted by Kurstin’s work with his band Bird and the Bee. “I figured, I can take care of the heavy part,” Grohl said. “If he could do that Bird and the Bee thing, we’ll have made the album I have always wanted to make, because of the love of ‘70s AM gold radio and the love of Motorhead.”

Unlike Sonic Highways, which saw Foo Fighters recording eight tracks in eight different cities, and recording an episode of a documentary series to accompany each session, Concrete and Gold was a more straightforward affair. “I thought, ‘What’s the strangest thing for this band do to at this point?’” Grohl said. “And then I realized it was just to go into a studio and make a f–ing album like a normal band.”

Despite Kurstin’s connection with Adele, Grohl has ruled out her appearance on the album – although he previously said it would feature “the biggest pop star in the world.”

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