While the soundtrack to the hit Barbie movie features mostly pop and alternative artists, the Ryan Gosling-sung song “I’m Just Ken” brings the rock thanks to guitar from Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen. Speaking with ABC Audio, the album’s co-producer Mark Ronson shares that he knew Slash would be perfect for “I’m Just Ken,” but didn’t think that getting the Guns N’ Roses shredder would be a possibility.
“We weren’t even gonna ask Slash,” Ronson says. “I was talking to George Drakoulias, the music supervisor, and was like, ‘That would be the dream, Slash, but who should we get?’ And he was like, ‘Just ask Slash, you never know. You don’t know until you ask.'”
So Ronson did ask, and Slash was game.
“He was like, ‘This is cool. Is that Ryan Gosling singing?'” Ronson recalls of Slash’s reaction. “Even when he texts, he’s still probably got sunglasses and the top hat [on].”
“He’s very cool and nonchalant, like, ‘I actually really dig this song,'” Ronson adds. “He sounded definitely surprised that he liked it.”
And if having a solo from Slash wasn’t enough, Ronson also brought in the son of Eddie Van Halen for some extra riffage.
“[Slash] just killed it, and then Wolf as well came in and played these parts and brought it, like, in spectrasonic,” Ronson says. “Whatever we had, they just lifted it up.”
In addition to bringing rock to Barbie, could Slash and Wolf bring rock to the Oscars if “I’m Just Ken” gets a nomination?
“It’s up to Ryan. It’s still his song, he’s the artist,” Ronson says. “I would love that and I think that, yeah, if Ryan was down with it, it’d be fun.”
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