Machine Gun Kelly Takes On ‘Rock Community’ Critics During AMAs Speech
The dangerously spiked suit Machine Gun Kelly wore at the American Music Awards ceremony Sunday night (Nov. 20) might have been a cloaked message for his critics. Specifically those in the "rock community" who he took sharp aim at when delivering his speech upon receiving the award for Favorite Rock Artist during the ABC telecast.
After he complained about that very suit being uncomfortable, he made a segue to another uncomfortable facet in his life - the people who think he doesn't deserve to be in the rock leagues. “There have been some people in the rock community who've called me a tourist, but they’re wrong – I’m a rocket man,” he bizarrely started the speech, which did more to conjure Elton John than anything else.
MGK then added, “We weren’t born on the moon but we looked at it and we were curious and then we went there … supposedly. And these last two rock albums, to me, were me going to the moon. I'm not done exploring the universe yet, I'm all genres." His expletive-filled rant was then cut by ABC. See the video below.
It was his second year in a row MGK has won the Favorite Rock Artist category, beating out Imagine Dragons, The Lumineers, Maneskin and Red Hot Chili Peppers. It comes as the AMAs also added another rock-leaning award titles this year to widen the span of artists recognized in harder genres, so time will tell if MGK will hold up in this arena in the years to come. Ghost in fact won the inaugural Favorite Rock Album honor.
MGK was also recently given a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album for his 2022 effort Mainstream Sellout though he has some pretty stiff competition alongside The Black Keys, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Idles, Ozzy Osbourne and Spoon. That telecast airs in February.
His rock nominations come at a time MGK declares he never "departed rap" or switched genres, making it all the more confusing.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the artist explained, "I’m talented as fuck and I added on to my catalogue of four great rap albums. So what I did was I added on – never departed, left or switched. Because in the same year I was the most-viewed YouTube video putter-outer with all rap, which was my lockdown sessions, which gained more views than almost any of my other videos. And it was hundreds of millions of views of me rapping.”
So perhaps next year he'll find a whole new 'community' to be a part of come award time.