All five of the Best Original Song nominees will be performed at the 96th Academy Awards taking place Sunday, March 10th, in Los Angeles — which means "I'm Just Ken," the power ballad send-up from the hit "Barbie" movie will get its live stage debut. Ryan Gosling, nominated for an Oscar for his role as Ken, will be there to perform the song, while many of the musicians who were part of the recoding are also expected to take part along with co-writers and co-producers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.
Slash, who played guitar on the track, is between Australian and European legs of a world tour with his band, the Conspirators featuring Myles Kennedy, while Wolfgang Van Halen's Mammoth WVH recently postponed three dates on its U.S. tour that conflicted with the Oscars' rehearsal and broadcast schedule.
Van Halen tells us that he enjoyed being part of "I'm Not Ken;"
"I'm just honestly happy to be part of it, to have the opportunity to play a super small part in it, for Mark and Andrew to bring me into it just to play some guitar in the movie. It was a really, really wonderful opportunity. I'd love to do something like that again, especially with those guys. They're wonderful dudes, and everybody in the movie, the whole production of it, is so deserving of every accolade they're getting. It's really exciting." SOUNDCUE :28
"I'm Not Ken" hit No. 87 on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Barbie the Album" reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The song was nominated for Golden Globe and Grammy Awards but lost to fellow "Barbie" track "What Was I Made For?" by Billie Eilish.
It did receive awards from the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, the Phoenix Films Society and other organizations.
Mammoth WVH will be supporting Slash and company on its upcoming European dates.