Machine Gun Kelly has reflected on his feud with Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor and insists he merely “punched back” against the metal singer during their spat.
The rapper-turned-rock-musician, 36, traded barbs with the 52-year-old via interviews and social media. The back-and-forth started when MGK lambasted the rock scene in December 2020, saying he wanted to see more “attitude” from the genre and tore into bands on Warped Tour for wearing “comfy shoes”.
Taylor came to rock’s defence the following February, saying (via Billboard), “I [hate] the artists who failed in one genre and decided to go rock, and I think he knows who he is.”
The comment was interpreted by many as a jab against MGK and his 2020 album Tickets To My Downfall, which saw him transition from rap music to pop-punk.
The feud was reignited in September 2021, when MGK tore into Taylor mid-show for “being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage, talking shit”. It was then revealed via social media that Taylor was meant to make a guest appearance on Tickets… but backed out due to creative differences.
Now, talking to Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza on his podcast, MGK says he has no remorse for the way the feud kicked off, believing he acted in self-defence.
“What do you do if someone punches you in the face?” he asks. “That’s what happened, right? I got punched in the face and I punched back, and that’s crazy? That’s exactly what you would do, too.”
He later adds: “[I asked Taylor] ‘Can we do this?’ And he was just like, ‘That’s not what I wanna do. I’mma opt out of the record.’ OK, cool, I respect that, that’s all good. I’ve done that as well, to other people. Then to go on to see, after the album comes out and has success, someone that I looked up to shitting on me, like I said, it’s a punch in the face. What you gonna do?”
During a 2022 Q&A, Taylor disputed MGK’s assertions that he started the pair’s feud.
“He maintains that I started it. The truth is he started it,” he told an audience at the ShipRocked festival cruise. “You don’t get to walk in as some weird substitute teacher and pretend that you can tell us what to wear – boots, shoes, house fucking shoes, slippers. Why don’t you suck every inch of my dick?”
The spat cooled off after that comment, and MGK reveals to Garza that he and Taylor have never spoken in-person. The musician continues to make rock music, his latest album being last year’s Lost Americana. Meanwhile, Slipknot released their long-delayed studio project Look Outside Your Window last month and are writing their eighth studio album.
