Jim Carrey names the two greatest rock and roll songs of all time: “Original version”
When looking for Christmas movies to watch around this time of year, there’s a decent chance you’ll stumble upon Jim Carrey in a green suit being all grumpy as The Grinch, a role he reportedly suffered so much with thanks to the immense amount of prosthetics involved that he offered to just hand back his $20m salary after having on-set panic attacks.
Whether or not that was worth it given the film got very mixed reviews depends on your point of view really, $20m is a lot of money after all, but apparently the make-up that Carrey had to endure while making the film was so intense that he couldn’t breathe through his nose, he had ‘frisbee size’ contact lenses in, and eventually had to be coached into being able to endure it all by a trained expert in surviving torture and interrogation.
None of that sounds very Christmassy at all, so if you do wind up watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas this year, spare a thought for poor Jim and his scratchy eyeballs and mouth breathing. Also in the movie is a young Taylor Momsen, playing Cindy Lou Who, and now of hard rockers, The Pretty Reckless.
Carrey and Momsen reunited last month at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, some 25 years after making their festive movie, where the Pretty Reckless performed a couple of hits, including their latest, a rock version of ‘Where Are You Christmas’, which Momsen sang as a seven-year-old in the film.
Momsen only had good words to say about her time filming with the bendy-limbed comic, saying that he was protective of her on-set and that “as a young person watching an artist at work and taking their craft so seriously, that left a really powerful, lasting impact on me as an adult now. And I’m excited to be able to tell him that as a grownup.”
As for Carrey, he has long been a rock and roll fan and played his part at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony by inducting legendary Seattle grunge band Soundgarden. While he was at it, he referenced the fact that when he hosted SNL back in 1996, and the band was the musical guest, they gifted him a fully signed guitar backstage.
Carrey, who ended up good friends with the band’s late singer Chris Cornell, had insisted on their being the main act, and the group wanted to show their appreciation afterwards with the electric blue Fender Telecaster.
Carrey, who is also a big fan of more full-on metal groups like Pantera and Cannibal Corpse, was also asked by Parade to name his guilty pleasure rock-out song. Carrey said: “Right now, it’s Black Crowes’ ‘Hard to Handle.’ But it used to be ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, AC/DC. But you gotta listen to the original version with Bon Scott.”
That track was released by the Aussie rockers back in 1977, the final track on their album Let There Be Rock. Written by original singer Bon Scott about a dalliance he had with a sex worker while on tour, the song has gone on to be one of ACDC’s most popular live songs, performed at almost every gig over a nearly 50-year span.
The Black Crowes’ version of Otis Redding’s ‘Hard to Handle’, meanwhile, was on their 1990 album Shake Your Money Maker, their debut that went on to sell more than five million copies worldwide.
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