Given the persona that surrounds Slash and his time with Guns R’ Roses, he remains one of the greatest guitarists in music history. Rolling Stone even listed him on their 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Holding a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the musician has played on stages all over the world, in front of countless people. But just a few weeks ago, he found himself standing alongside Ryan Gosling as they performed “I’m Just Ken” from the hit film Barbie. While enjoying his time at the 96th Academy Awards, apparently – the moment almost never happened according to the musician.
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Speaking with Classic Rock about his performance, Slash shared details on how the stellar performance almost didn’t happen. He recalled how the moment came about, explaining, “Mark Ronson, who’s a dear friend of mine, asked me to record the song, which I did. The movie came out and it was massive, and the song did really well, and so he asked me if I would do the performance at the Oscars – which originally I wasn’t going to do because I was in f**king Asia.”
Slash Reveals What It Was Like To Hang Out With Ryan Gosling
Although halfway across the world, Hollywood made sure Slash attended. “I just showed up there the day of the event. I flew to LA from Korea, got to the Kodak Theater, got rushed into this crazy mayhem situation which is the Oscars, and we did a quick run through with Ryan Gosling singing and all these guys dancing around, and then went backstage.” Slash continued, “I sat in the audience with all the other actors for the ceremony, then got up and played the song, got in a car, went back to the airport and flew to the Philippines.”
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While Slash had little time to soak in the atmosphere around the Oscars, he took a moment to praise Gosling. “I had no idea what to expect. We hung out backstage, and he sung the shit out of the song – I’ve got to give him kudos, he made that whole production happen.”
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
