Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen playing “I’m Just Ken” with Ryan Gosling was a highlight of the Oscars this year, but the Guns n’ Roses guitarist said he really wanted to skip the show.
Slash tells Classic Rock that after the song was nominated for Best Original Song, he was asked to perform, but he was wary since he and Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators would be in the middle of an Asian tour.
He explains, “Hollywood managed to pull its weight and get me flown over there to perform this song.” But he only got to rehearse the song once before they played it. “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…then went backstage. 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.”
As for Gosling’s performance, Slash adds, “I had no idea what to expect. We hung out backstage, and he sung the [crap] out of the song — I’ve got to give him kudos, he made that whole production happen,”
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