Wolfgang Van Halen and Foo Fighters' drummer Josh Freese have added their own Kentributions alongside Slash to an ‘80s ballad on the new ‘Barbie’ soundtrack.
You might not readily associate Barbie with the world of rock, but on one of the tracks from the soundtrack of the new film, there’s a host of rock royalty.
On the sentimental power ballad ‘I’m Just Ken’, sung by Hollywood star Ryan Gosling who plays the song’s eponymous character in the film, there’s a number of notable features.
The track doesn’t just have Guns N’ Roses guitar virtuoso Slash, but also Wolfgang Van Halen and newly-enlisted Foos drummer Josh Freese.
The track was in fact one of the first songs written for the film’s soundtrack, which also boasts features from the likes of Tame Impala to Billie Eilish, and has been produced by Mark Ronson.
Ronson wrote ‘I’m Just Ken’, along with Andrew Wyatt, and in an interview spoke about how adding the likes of Van Halen and Freese was needed to lift the track.
In a video released via Warner Bros. prior to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, Ronson said:
“By having all these really great musicians from Slash to Wolfgang Van Halen to Josh Freese on the drums play on [the track], [it] make[s] sure the music is also as powerful and as full and as rich as you would have on a real song – to make sure that there’s nothing about this song that feels tongue-in-cheek.
“And mainly because Ryan [Gosling’s] performance is so good that it deserves that bed around it of some serious musicianship.”
For anyone wanting to hear just what that sounds like within the context of the film, they’ll get the chance when ‘Barbie’ lands in cinemas tomorrow, July 21.
