GWAR have shared an intergalactic metal cover of ‘I’m Just Ken’ from the Barbie movie.
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Singer Blöthar the Berserker explained the cover was inspired by his “prurient interest” in Ryan Gosling, who performed the track in the Greta Gerwig movie and earlier this year brought the song to the 2024 Oscars.
He said: “I had my eye on him since the Mickey Mouse Club, I can’t go close to Ryan, I feel close to Ryan.”
During the cover, he sang: “We’re just GWAR,” while holding up a decapitated Barbie head before adding: “Yes we are clowns and we exist / To take a piss on a sacrosanctity.”
The band were performing the cover as part of The A.V. Club Undercover series which returned for season nine after a seven year hiatus.
During his own performance of the track at the Oscars earlier this year, Gosling took to the stage clad in an all-pink Barbie-inspired outfit.
He performed against pink hues with an ensemble of backup dancers as Mark Ronson played the guitar. During the song’s build, Gosling’s cast mates Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Scott Evans joined him to dance onstage.
The camera then panned to Guns N’ Roses‘ Slash ripping through a guitar solo with Wolfgang Van Halen supporting. As Gosling walked around the floor of the theatre, he handed the mic to Barbie director Greta Gerwig, Barbie herself Margot Robbie and America Ferrera to sing along. Gosling’s La La Land co-star Emma Stone also chimed in.
Ronson previously said that ‘I’m Just Ken’ almost didn’t make it to the final cut of Barbie amid concern that it “wasn’t working”.
“I thought, ‘God, I hope we don’t ruin it,’” the musician who wrote and produced the track told Sunday Times Culture [via MusicNews].
“At that first screening the song wasn’t working. I panicked. The humour wasn’t translating and Greta had to fight. The studio asked her how much she really needed it and she said, ‘With every inch of my body.’ And then there was a big swing.”
NME reviewed the Barbie soundtrack last year, highlighting Gosling’s performance as the “biggest wild card”: “If you can sincerely belt the words “blonde fragility” in a glam power ballad and hit every single note – my God, you Ken do anything in life,” it added.