Anytime you give a satirical spin to someone else's song, there's bound to be some concern about how the original singer will react. Well, luckily for Ryan Gosling, Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas thought his cover of "Push" from Barbie was "hilarious."
Thomas revealed his reaction to the cover in an interview with USA Today:
When I got the call for Barbie, they told me, "Ken's by the fireside, he's playing the song and it's his favourite band." So I did this thinking I'd be the butt of the joke, and I was fine with that. I'm pretty thick-skinned. But, Julie Greenwald (from Atlantic Records) came to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two ago. She had just seen the movie and was like, "You come out of it loving Ken and loving 'Push.'" And I was like, "Aww. Alright, really good!"
Given the context of the scene, in which Gosling's "Just Ken" sits down with Margot Robbie's Barbie and forces her to listen to his "Push" cover for hours in a kind of '90s alt-rock torture chamber loop, it wouldn't have been surprising if Thomas had felt scorned by the use of his song as a misogynist anthem.
But, ever the optimist, he looked at the bright side of the situation.
"I'm excited to see two of the most beautiful people on the planet while I listen to my own song. That's pretty amazing, in and of itself," he said.
Listen to Ryan Gosling's cover of "Push" from Barbie below.
Thomas revealed his reaction to the cover in an interview with USA Today:
When I got the call for Barbie, they told me, "Ken's by the fireside, he's playing the song and it's his favourite band." So I did this thinking I'd be the butt of the joke, and I was fine with that. I'm pretty thick-skinned. But, Julie Greenwald (from Atlantic Records) came to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two ago. She had just seen the movie and was like, "You come out of it loving Ken and loving 'Push.'" And I was like, "Aww. Alright, really good!"
Given the context of the scene, in which Gosling's "Just Ken" sits down with Margot Robbie's Barbie and forces her to listen to his "Push" cover for hours in a kind of '90s alt-rock torture chamber loop, it wouldn't have been surprising if Thomas had felt scorned by the use of his song as a misogynist anthem.
But, ever the optimist, he looked at the bright side of the situation.
"I'm excited to see two of the most beautiful people on the planet while I listen to my own song. That's pretty amazing, in and of itself," he said.
Listen to Ryan Gosling's cover of "Push" from Barbie below.
