Matchbox Twenty's Paul Doucette questions Barbie use of 'Push' as Rob Thomas backs it

Matchbox Twenty's Paul Doucette said the band should not have allowed "Push" in Barbie, while frontman and songwriter Rob Thomas said he approved its use immediately.

The bandmates discussed their disagreement over the 2023 film on the Zach Sang Show podcast, where they marked 30 years since their debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You. Thomas had agreed to the request without consulting the rest of the group.

"I don't think it's something we should have done," Doucette said.

Doucette worried that some listeners came away with a different impression of Matchbox Twenty. "I think that, you know, suddenly there was a large amount of people who maybe saw that we were now the voice of the patriarchy, and I was like, I didn't sign up for that," he said. He said that was not how he viewed the world.

In Greta Gerwig's Barbie, Ryan Gosling's Ken joins the other Kens to perform "Push" for Margot Robbie's Barbie at a bonfire. Thomas said Gerwig, who liked the song, had written to ask him for permission to use it.

The letter made the scene clear to him, Thomas said, because it described Ken as "playing 'Push' at Barbie." "And I thought that was a great description, like playing it at you instead of for you," he said.

"I unfortunately, I guess, immediately said yes because I was the writer on it," Thomas said.

Thomas said he likes the finished scene. He joked that when he saw it, he thought Doucette would love it.

Doucette said he understood the cultural reference, though he questioned whether viewers understood it too. "I don't know that everyone got the joke," he said.

He learned of the song's inclusion only when the film came out, Entertainment Weekly reported. The Daily Mail quoted Doucette as saying, "I was told they were just going to use a clip of it in a scene and then that scene got cut."

Doucette attributed part of the problem to how the band handled decisions. "We didn't have a good system of discussing these things," he told the show, according to the Daily Mail.

He has no plans to watch Barbie. "By the way, to this day I haven't seen it," Doucette said.

Thomas said the original plan gave "Push" a bigger role, with a chase sequence that did not survive the final cut. He said he had expected roughly two minutes of the band's recording in that sequence and saw it as a redemption moment for the song.

Thomas said he discovered the extent of the cuts when he saw Barbie in a theater. The soundtrack leaves out Matchbox Twenty's recording but includes the rendition by Gosling and the Kens.

Both men said their disagreement never turned into an outright fight. "Me and Paul, I wouldn't say we fight about it, we just have different opinions on the whole Barbie moment," Thomas said, according to the Daily Mail.

Thomas acknowledged that the band should take part in decisions about its music, although he has the final say as songwriter. After Doucette suggested other members might agree with him, Thomas said, "Kyle [Cook] thinks it's great."

The film came out during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA actors' strike, Thomas said, and the band was not allowed to discuss its song appearing in the movie, according to the Daily Mail.

"We had so many opportunities that we had to let go by because that's what they wanted to do and we couldn't do anything with that movie," Thomas said, the Daily Mail reported.