Dave Grohl has long championed Mark Lanegan's 1990 debut solo album, The Winding Sheet, once calling it "the most beautiful record" ever made. Speaking to Melody Maker in 2000, the Foo Fighters and Nirvana musician placed the acoustic blues record alongside classics by the Beatles and Led Zeppelin among his all-time favourites, praising the depth of Lanegan's voice and the record's soulful, stripped-back sound.

The album marked a shift away from Lanegan's heavier work with Screaming Trees, and Grohl said it captured a pivotal period in his own life, having been released just after he moved to Seattle. He credited the city's grunge scene at the time with valuing "purity and truth" in music, drawing comparisons between Lanegan and Kurt Cobain's shared love of blues figures like Lead Belly. Lanegan died in February 2022 following a long battle with addiction and related health issues, with Grohl among those who paid tribute, describing his singing as "so pure and so real".