THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Normally I am not into rap music, but Machine Gun Kelly (nee Colson Baker) has diversified and entered different genres. He has collaborated with Jelly Roll on ‘Lonely Road’ – a reworking of John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ which won the Best Crossover Song at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards – and with Camila Cabello on ‘Bad Things,’ Halsey for ‘forget me too,’ and my favorite, Yungblud and Travis Barker on ‘I Think I'm OKAY’. The latter was my initiation into the world of MGK. ‘I Think I'm OKAY’ was the anthem of my summer a few years ago and even my very conservative Brit late husband loved yelling with glee the chorus ‘I think that something’s f****ing wrong with me’ on our rides along the Cote d’Azur. MGK has mixed rap, rock and punk in his career and was nominated for a Grammy for best rock album with Mainstream Sellout. He is certainly a genre-bending star.
He has had a very colorful personal life as well. A vocalist, song writer, producer and actor, the tall, blond, blue-eyed, lanky, white rapper from Ohio (the American Midwest like me,) has admitted to drug addiction including heroin, cocaine and an addiction to Adderall from an early age. He is now 2 years sober, although he smokes cigarettes like a chimney – he’s been known to use a giant cigarette prop onstage as an ashtray and a mic stand. He has been in entertainment news with his on-off romance with the stunning actress Megan Fox, sometimes showing too much affection (they French kissed with his tongue dyed black) on the red carpet. He showed up at the Grammys in a skinny purple suit with protruding spikes, sitting next to Lionel Richie, who was a good sport about it, but kept his distance – MGK admitted it was hard to sit down with all the needles protruding from his bottom. He and Fox have just had a baby girl, although the jury is still out if the couple are together. They are resolute about co-parenting the little tyke, named Saga Blade. MGK has an older daughter from a previous relationship and is said to be a good dad, often flying from his concert venues to watch his daughter’s school sporting events.
He recently had his body tattooed entirely black from the waist up. I don’t like tattoos but when he stripped to the waist in concert his torso was strangely alluring. For all his tattoos and piercing, he is strict with his skin care regime and claims not to know his age – or even if his age “exists”! (He is 35, fact fans.) He has his own brand of nail polish and an MGK fragrance as well. He dons loads of jewelry and has multiple piercings- he’s a fan of Van Cleef & Arpels bracelets and razor blade earring and necklaces, which include a mirage of diamonds. He has had a small acting career; he and Megan Fox met on the set of Midnight in the Switchgrass and he played Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe in The Dirt, but he has mainly concentrated on his music.
MGK has now come out with a new LP, Lost Americana, which he calls his ‘moody, vampire phase’ album (as shown by his recently sharpened canine tooth ‘fangs’) and is promoting it by touring this year, the first proper Machine Gun Kelly tour since 2022.
I had heard he arrived on stage dangling from a pink helicopter in earlier tours. I kept looking at the O2 ceiling to see if if there was any sign of a helicopter-friendly opening and even bet my son that this would happen. Sadly I lost the bet but his entrance was just as spectacular. The lights dimmed and the huge pink curtains were drawn back. It revealed a giant, crestfallen Statue of Liberty, her face on the stage floor as she stared up at the ceiling with a blinking red eye. Her nose was pierced (as is MGK’s) and her outstretched hand held a burning cigarette instead of a torch; a dystopian view of the symbol of America. Smoke started coming out of the statue’s mouth and MGK (clad in a red and white ‘Lost Americana’ leather jacket) rose through the smoke as his signature red and white guitar lowered from the beams into his outstretched hand. It was like King Arthur reaching for Excalibur as ‘Outlaw Overture’ started to play. This is the opening track of his new album and described as a five minute “raw emotional journey through rebellion, personal struggle and the desperate search for freedom”. I found it bouncy and danceable; an entrance worthy of a sold out show in front of 20,000 fans at the O2 Arena, an epic and unforgettable first chapter of the show.
After his opening song, the singer first spoke to the crowd by holding aloft a glass trophy he received for selling out the O2 Arena. He referred to it throughout the night, bearing it as a badge of honor and seemed genuinely delighted and, at the same time shocked, by this achievement after starting ten years ago as an underground rap artist in Cleveland, Ohio. He was self deprecating throughout the show, wondering how he sold out a London Arena. After ‘Outlaw Overture’ he launched into ‘Starman,’ also from the new album, with the lyrics ‘I want something else, to get me through this semi-charmed kind of life,’ seemingly giving an insight into his rocketing fame. Moments later, fireworks erupted from the mouth of the statue where he had been standing just seconds before.
Then came ‘Wild Boy,’ and ‘el Diablo,’ from his rap days. The audience erupted but I didn’t know these two songs, so took a moment to take the weight off of my cowboy boot clad feet. For a lady of a ‘certain age’ I was proud to sing along and know the words to almost all of the non-rap songs. Looking around the arena, there were girls and boys, men and women of all ages, shapes, sizes and hair color – pink (MGK’s favorite hue) the most prominent. The boy behind me was 9 years old with magenta hair!
MGK’s band played a central role in fueling the night’s intensity. It included 6 members, two darling midriff-baring dancers and a slew of different sized, shaped and colored guitars for the star. With Rook (nee JP Cappelletty) on the drums and Sophie Lloyd on the guitar, MGK surrounded himself with outstanding musical talent. The blonde guitarist’s presence was magnetic, in leather hot pants and fishnet stockings. MGK told her to ‘speak to her people’ – she’s a Brit. She surprised her boss by shouting ‘Oye Oye Oye’ and the whole arena erupted and chanted back. MGK was bewildered – ‘What was that?’ he yelled, ‘...oh, never mind’.
MGK tossed and caught his microphone, never breaking eye contact with the crowd or missing a lyric. I returned to my feet as he sang my favorite song, ‘I think I’m OKAY’, from the Lady Liberty’s crown. For the song ‘goddamn,’ he showed a never seen before video of the song on the jumbotron while singing it. The lyrics didn’t hide his fight with sobriety: ‘I’m a functioning junkie turning my life around.’
After a change of outfit (a tan leisure suit with pink belt) MGK invited a bevy of girls from the audience to join him onstage for the bouncy ‘Bloody Valentine.’ He was, curiously, bound with rope from shoulders to elbows and I have no idea how he played his, now, pink guitar. One of the girls, while skipping along, fell off the stage but was retrieved as fast as she disappeared. MGK gave her a special hug and one of his favorite baseball caps for being the ‘first person to fall off stage of his first sell out O2 show.’ He also changed the words while singing to ‘I really hope you’re fine’ instead of ‘I can’t hide how I feel about you inside,’ while not missing a beat. After making sure she was OK, he continued with “Let’s f**king go!” She stayed on stage and continued dancing. The video of the poor girl falling into a gap in the stage went viral.
Only when he ran through the crowd to the satellite stage, did MGK calm down and return to his roots. Delivering his early songs while sitting on a bar stool felt like a personal serenade. He played his guitar movingly, delivering lines from his hip hop songs, included a new track, ‘WHO I WAS,’ a collaboration recorded with rapper NF, then made a shout out to the Brits by playing Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ and The Beatles ‘Hey Jude’ acoustically. “This is a nod to this wonderful country’s bands,” he said from his London Arena perch. The moving ‘Times of my Life’ was especially poignant.
The star constantly made fun of himself, pointing out tiny mistakes during the show which no one else noticed. It made him more human and relatable, endearing himself to the crowd, and showing the show was truly live.
He made his way back onto the main stage, stopping to comment on the signs the crowd had made for him. One said “I took two planes to get here”. ‘Where did you come from?’ he asked, “Russia? How did you get out of there?” He launched into ‘Lonely Road’, the crowd singing Jelly Roll’s part, then welcomed his friend, comedian and actor Pete Davidson (who was in town filming a movie,) to perform ‘Roll Up the Windows’ together. Pete, who dated Kim Kardashian, joked with MGK that they were the most ‘famous ex boyfriends in the world.’ They are both now sober and recent fathers of baby girls. The mood then shifted when he dedicated ‘play this when i’m gone’ to his 16 year old daughter, Cassie. While he performed, screens displayed videos of the rapper and his daughter together over the years. Cassie later joined her father on stage. Julia Wolf, the night’s support artist, joined MGK for a rendition of the Goo Goo Dolls ‘Iris’, the duet floating through the arena, raw, emotional and unguarded.
The final stretch was pure adrenaline. From ‘papercuts’ to ‘make up sex,’ the energy never dipped. Sparks even shot out of the artist’s razor blade shaped guitar.
The encore featured the three most popular tracks from his new album: ‘cliché,’ ‘sweet coraline,’ and ‘vampire diaries.’ MGK ripped off his tee shirt leaving him topless which sent the audience into a frenzy. During ‘sweet coraline’ Pete and Cassie joined him onstage, dancing and shimming as he broke into a searing guitar solo, impressing his daughter with his ‘cool Dad’ vibes. With Casey and Pete playing the backup dancers and doing the twist, MGK changed the lyrics from ‘I’m hanging from a thread. I can’t hear a word that you said’ to ‘please don’t make fun of me in front of my daughter,’ hilarious!
My cousin, also from the American Midwest like MGK and me, saw the same show and summed up the evening like this: “MGK is the quintessential rock star. He’s also a rapper, a punk pop mastermind, an underrated songwriter, and a fantastic performer. He effortlessly mixes eras and music styles. He doesn’t miss on the little details. His casual style is an ode to the ‘90s and a lost art of music made by instruments. In a time when computers seemingly do most of the work for artists, MGK is reminiscent of a time when the biggest stars played electric guitar. Though at his core he’s a guy from the Midwest, he captivates a fan base of misfits whose musical tastes don’t find an easy home. The Lost Americana show is a must see!”
