Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash joins great Australian horror movie gold rush

The guitar rock god has revealed he is in talks with an Australian producer in his role as founder of Slasher Films.

Guitar rock god Slash is up for an Oscar. The guitarist became a secret member of the Barbie squad when the film’s soundtrack producer Mark Ronson tapped him to bring his skills to I’m Just Ken.

His signature shredding on the overblown ’80s power ballad sung by Ryan Gosling got a shout-out when the track was the shock winner of the Critics’ Choice best song gong last month.

More mouths dropped when I’m Just Ken, alongside the likely winner Billie Eilish’s smash What Was I Made For? scored an Oscars nomination for Best Original Song.

Slash’ signature shredding on the overblown ’80s power ballad, I’m Just Ken, sung by Ryan Gosling has been nominated for an Oscar. Picture: Warner Bros Pictures

Renowned as a one-take wonder, Slash had to re-record his part for the hilarious anthem three times when director Greta Gerwig decided to rewrite the film to accommodate an 11-minute dance sequence around Ronson’s song.

Slash is no stranger to contributing to film soundtracks when he’s not touring with Guns N’ Roses or his side band hustle with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators.

But he chuckles when asked if the former rock’n’roll hellraiser would have agreed to play on a song for a Barbie movie 30 years ago.

“All things considered I would have been hard pressed to do it if (the request) had been based on the title of Barbie alone. I didn’t know anything about the movie and agreed because it was Mark asking me to do it,” he said.

“I don’t have anything against Barbie. I mean, I never had one as a kid, but I had a lot of girlfriends who were pretty fond of them.”

Slash, who returns to Australia to tour with Kennedy and the Conspirators next week, was equally shocked to discover his influence in Hollywood extended to inspiring Jason Momoa’s Aquaman character, in the same manner Johnny Depp channelled Keith Richards for his Jack Sparrow role.

The actor and musician have become mates in recent years so Momoa’s revelation on the Jimmy Kimmel show in January that he modelled Aquaman’s costume on Slash came as a surprise.

“He texted me and told me I had to check out Jimmy Kimmel that night but I was in Mexico, and he was ‘Oh, you’re going to miss it’. And I felt like he really wanted me to see it for some reason,” Slash said.

“So I told him I would go check it out on YouTube and this morning, I went on there … and he never told me anything about that before. I was a little bit shocked and humble, you know, and I didn’t know what to say about it.”

Slash is returning to Australia to tour with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Picture: Supplied.

Slash grew up in Hollywood and Guns N’ Roses formed on the infamous Sunset Strip in the ’80s. With music biopics and docos proving box office gold, it would seem inevitable the musician’s life story with the Gunners will one day become a movie.

The rock god isn’t keen on the concept.

“I’ve seen a lot of (pitches) go by. With Guns, I think it would be difficult for all of us to sign off on having actors go and try and portray us, you know?” he said.

“Once you get into that kind of thing, if you’re all still walking on the planet, you start to get into a kind of self-importance thing where you think that it’s justified that people are going to make a movie and you’re going to go out and support that process.

“There’s more important things to be done than making a movie about us, okay.”

Axl Rose and Slash (L) of Guns N' Roses, pictured here performing on at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival. Picture: WireImage

Among those important things is making his own movies. He formed a production company Slasher Films last year to pursue his love of the horror genre.

Slash and his co-producers released the creepy cabin film The Breach last year and have three other productions in development. He is also working on a UK TV series, slated for release this year, based on a Swedish thriller novel called The Crow Girl.

“And we’ve been talking with an Australian producer, who will remain nameless at the moment, because there’s been some great horror and crime coming out of Australia,” he said.

“Now you have all these international streaming entities, you start to really be aware of cinema that’s coming out of all the different cultures.”

After his tour Down Under, Slash will head back into the studio to work on a new Conspirators album with his lead singer Myles Kennedy (L) and bandmates. Picture: Supplied

When he finishes up his Australian tour, the prolific creator will be back in the studio working with his lead singer Kennedy and bandmates on a new Conspirators album, their fifth in 12 years.

His focus for the next week is reconnecting with the band’s legion of Australian fans who were early adopters of his side project. Also on the tour bill are his good mates from Rose Tattoo, a band often cited by the Gunners as one of their early influences.

Slash and the Tatts frontman Angry Anderson have always caught up whenever the British-American guitarist and songwriter visits here.

“The one thing that I think is true is that Australian audiences like sincere rock and roll with some integrity,” he said about his abiding love affair with Aussie fans.

“I’m happy that I’ve always been well-received there because there’s that real basic thing of they like you or they don’t like you, there’s no bulls**t. They usually don’t like stuff that’s superfluous and that’s cool.”

Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators open at the AEC Theatre, Adelaide on February 22 and then perform at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney on February 24, Riverstage, Brisbane on February 25 and John Cain Arena, Melbourne on February 27.

Originally published as Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash joins great Australian horror movie gold rush