LAS VEGAS — If you're wondering what tricks the Foo Fighters have up their collective sleeve for Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards performance, let's just say you'd be foolish to miss it.
During the band's two-plus-hour rehearsal Saturday night (September inside the Palms Casino Resort's Hot Pink Suite, the band jammed vigorously with a veritable who's who of rock and roll: Gnarls Barkley mastermind Cee-Lo, Queens of the Stone Age mainman (and avid poker player) Josh Homme, System of a Down's Serj Tankian and the one, the only, the legendary Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, who arrived sporting tight black pants, black boots, a black leather jacket and a scowl.
The Dave Grohl-led rockers will also invite QOTSA multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen, the Eagles of Death Metal's Brian "Big Hands" O'Connor and Jesse "The Devil" Hughes (who, according to Homme, is the proud owner of "the world's greatest mustache, second only to Tom Selleck"), and Atlanta metallers Mastodon, who'll join the band for an epic rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir"
Needless to say, the Foos set is going to be a tough one to top.
Tankian will also join the band Sunday night for a cover of the Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia," while the gravelly throated Kilmister will handle lead vocals on two songs. That includes "Shake Your Blood" by Grohl side project Probot — Grohl will tackle drumming duties for that track, as he did on the studio version, which also featured Lemmy. They'll also perform a cover of Motörhead's "Overkill."
At one point during the relaxed and intimate rehearsal, Kilmister — whose four-string bass bears the words "Born to Lose, Out to Lunch" — taunted Foos guitarist Chris Shiflett for wearing earplugs. One couldn't help but feel like a fly on the wall in some basement where a group of old friends had gathered for a good-hearted jam session.
Grohl, who gnawed on the same piece of gum for the entire warm-up session, will stay behind the kit for a rendition of the Queens of the Stone Age's "I Wanna Make It Wit Chu." Grohl will of course be joined by Homme, Van Leeuwen, O'Connor and Cee-Lo, who is set to sing — but needs to learn the song's lyrics. The rapper had to refer to a lyrics sheet during the rehearsal but assured Homme he'd get them memorized before Sunday evening: "Don't worry, Joshua," Cee-Lo said with a wink and a smile.
Cee-Lo will inject some much-needed soul into one cover the Foos have become notorious for playing during their live shows: Prince's "Darling Nikki". After the boys ran through the song for the very first time, Cee-Lo — who had worked up a skull-covering sweat — and Grohl exchanged knowing grins. The cover was magic.
"That was sexy," Cee-Lo said to Grohl. And yes, it was certainly that.

Keep you in the dark you know they all pretend
Keep you in the dark and so it all began
Send in your skeletons
Sing as their bones go marching in again
The need you buried deep
The secrets that you keep are ever ready
Are you ready
I'm finished making sense
Done bleeding ignorance at your defense

Spinning and (spinning)/(spin it) deeper
The wheel is spinning me
It's never-ending
never-ending
Same old story

What if I say I'm not like the others
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender

In time or so I'm told
I'm just another soul for sale
Oh well
The pages that were print
They are not permanent
Temporary
Temporary
Same old story

What if I say I'm not like the others
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender

I'm the voice the voice inside your head
You refuse to hear
I'm the face that you have to face
Mirroring your stare
I'm what's left
I'm what's right
I'm the enemy
I'm the hand that took you down
Bring you to your knees

So who are you
Yeah who are you
Yeah who are you
Yeah who are you

Keep you in the dark you know they all pretend

What if I say I'm not like the others
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender

So who are you
Yeah who are you
Yeah who are YOUUUUUU!!!!

*What was the highlight of your year?
"The highlight of my year was the birth of my daughter Violet. She was born in April. It's been the highlight of my life actually. Nothing compares to that! We released a record and did some touring and had a good time, but nothing comes close to having a child. Sorry rockers! I have a baby and you don't!"

*Was the Hyde Park gig a musical highlight?
"Hyde Park was definitely a highlight! It was such a huge event that we were all really overwhelmed. When someone first asked me if we wanted to play Hyde Park I thought they were out of their fucking mind. I asked what the capacity was and they said 85,000. I was like, 'There's no way we'll ever sell that many tickets! That's fucking enormous! It's impossibly huge!'. Honestly, I can't imagine doing Hyde Park ever again because, to be perfectly honest, it was too fucking big. We've always taken pride in the connection we make with the audience at a show or festival. At Hyde Park it was almost impossible to do that. It was like a backyard barbecue backstage. An hour before we went on I was behind a grill backstage cooking up food for people!"

*Who is your villain of the year?
"Our president George W Bush! He's everyone's villain of the year! Fortunately, the Democrats just edged out the Republicans in the House and the Senate. The country's fed up with our president and his administration and I think he's probably the world's greatest villain at this point. I'm positive! We're halfway through his second term, they have two years left and then he's fucking out of there! And this country's screaming for change! I'm sure that even the slightest shift of the balance of power is probably encouraging for the world to hear. Not even Americans like our president! Nobody likes our president!"

*People hate Bush so much, you could argue it's been great for music.
"Yeah, when he was elected I was kind of excited because some of the best punk rock and my favourite music came out of the Reagan years. We used to go to the Rock Against Reagan shows in '83 and '84 and see bands like MDC, Bad Brains and Reagan Youth. They were these great shows. Whenever you get a really conservative President, the music and the underground lashes back and you get great results!"

*We got emo this time!
"Yeah, what fucking happened? Instead of fighting about it kids are crying about it! So I was really exited when he got elected, thinking it was gonna be a good thing for music, but it got to the point where I thought, 'Fuck music! We need to get rid of our President!'."

*Who's the biggest celebrity you met this year?
"Bob Dylan. He was a very nice man. We toured with him for a couple of weeks when our acoustic band was opening for him. If it wasn't for Bob Dylan, people would still be singing doo-wop, we'd still be singing Chubby Checker songs and rock 'n' roll would have no danger to it at all. I believe that he was the one that really brought an edge to rock 'n' roll: lyrically he inspired music to become a vehicle for rebellion. I mean, Elvis can shake his hips for the ladies and that might have been some sort of sexual revolution, but any sort of intellectual or political revolution was definitely put into motion by Bob Dylan. He's fucking badass! And he still boxes every day on the road."

*Did you get onto MySpace this year?
"No. I've seen the MySpace but I don't do the MySpace. It's interesting enough but basically it's just like a bathroom wall. It's great if you're a teenager and you want to get laid. but I can't really see much use other than thai, exceo; maybe musically. But MySpace is a Slippery slope: you don't wanna wind up doing self-portraits on a digital camera having virtual sex!"

*What's the best movie you saw this year?
"The best movie I saw this year was 'An Inconvenient Truth'. It's a documentary that Al Gore put together about the effects of global warming. I sound so Fugazi at the moment! But it's a great movie and everyone shou