Machine Gun Kelly’s reception in the metal world has been contentious to say the least. Slipknot’s Corey Taylor blasted MGK for comments he made about veterans of the rock scene. “And he goes off on this f*cking rant about rock stars and comfortable shoes,” Taylor said of an Instagram Live post by MGK. “It sounds as smart as you think it is. … I mean, spit was coming out of his face. And I’m watching it and I’m going, ‘You f*ck. You’ve been here for five minutes, basically, and you’re gonna f*cking run your mouth about bands that have been doing this for 20 f*cking years, like in the mud, in the dirt. They’re gonna wear whatever the f*ck they want.”
[Rock] needed a defibrillator. Who cares who gives it, just as long as that motherf*cker doesn’t die? I know it kills certain bands in that community that I got the success that I got. But I earned that shit.
Machine Gun Kelly’s debut album in the pop punk genre has sold more than a million copies and was the first rock album in over a year (at the time) to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Now in a new interview with Billboard, Kelly said his “Tickets To My Downfall” album “opened the lane back up for people to make money. It opened up these festivals. [Rock] needed a defibrillator. Who cares who gives it, just as long as that motherf*cker doesn’t die? I know it kills certain bands in that community that I got the success that I got. But I earned that shit. Dude, I was fucking loading up the van with our drums and amps in 2010, driving to Indiana and Chicago, playing Warped Tour. I can tell you the fucking Wi-Fi codes to venues in Blackfoot, Idaho. Can you say that sh*t as a band?”
MGK starred as Tommy Lee in the 2019 Mötley Crüe biopic “The Dirt,” and he executive-produced and stars in this year’s “Taurus,” a film about a rap-rocker approaching rock bottom. “I felt from the beginning, even in my household, like the kid who was just outcasted from birth,” MGK said. “I was always too tall for the kids at my school, or I didn’t have enough money to buy the outfits the other kids had — it was just always something. But the world isn’t looking at me like that. They’re like, ‘F–k you, dude, you’re a rich rock star. How hard could it be?’”
