Taika Waititi didn’t call Axl Rose to ask for his permission to use Guns N’ Roses in Thor: Love and Thunder because he was afraid of messing the conversation up.
The director is a huge fan of the rock band and used four of their songs – Sweet Child o’ Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, and November Rain – in his latest Thor movie.
During an interview with NME, Waititi was asked if he called up Rose personally to get permission to use the tracks in his movie and the filmmaker explained that he didn’t want to ruin his image of his idol.
“It was put to me – and it was one of the moments in my life where I was like, ‘I’m not gonna do that,'” he replied. “I’ve met a lot of my heroes and then realised they weren’t my heroes. Axl Rose was definitely someone I thought, ‘I’m gonna f**k this up, I’m not gonna talk to him.'”
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople director joked that he wanted to use more than four of their songs in the film but it “might have been overkill” and shared how much Guns N’ Roses mean to him.
“It was a real triumph, having one of my favourite bands from when I was a kid, the band that really informed the soundtrack to my life. Still at 46, usually at about 3am when I’m in bed, I’ll watch GNR music videos,” Waititi revealed.
But the New Zealand-born director didn’t just want rock music on his soundtrack – he confessed that he wanted ABBA to have more of a presence in the Marvel movie.
“I got one in there, but I wanted more of an ABBA theme throughout. I thought it’d be funny if Thor’s favourite music was what he perceived to be a ‘Viking band’. He’d be like, ‘They’re a real tough Viking band called ABBA!'” he joked.
Thor: Love and Thunder is in cinemas now.
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