Machine Gun Kelly Regrets Feud With Slipknot's Corey Taylor: "We All Acted Ridiculous" | Revolver

Machine Gun Kelly Regrets Feud With Slipknot's Corey Taylor: "We All Acted Ridiculous"

Rapper-turned-pop-punker expresses remorse about infamous beef in new documentary
mgknot.jpg, Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images (MGK) and Steve Thrasher (Slipknot)
photograph by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images (MGK) and Steve Thrasher (Slipknot)

Machine Gun Kelly appears to regret the feud he started with Slipknot's Corey Taylor. In a segment of his new documentary, Life in Pink, the rapper-turned-pop-punker reflects on the nasty back-and-forth he got into with the nu-metal frontman, which all spilled out into the public last year when MGK spontaneously dissed Slipknot onstage at 2021's Riot Fest. Shortly thereafter, the Mainstream Sellout songwriter took to Twitter to say that Taylor was supposed to do a verse for his album, but that "it was fucking terrible, so I didn't use it. He got mad about it, and talked shit to a magazine about the same album he was almost on." 

"I hate all new rock, for the most part," Taylor said during the interview in question. "The 'artists' who failed in one genre and decided to go rock… and I think he knows who he is."

From there, Taylor released his own side of the story that painted MGK as the bitter one who got mad when he respectfully declined to participate in the album, and then Slipknot fans took the feud into their own hands and booed MGK at Louder Than Life just for showing his face at a metal fest. As recently as January of this year, Taylor said that MGK could "suck every inch of my dick," so it didn't seem like forgiveness was on the horizon. 

That said, MGK took a more zen and admittedly mature approach to the whole situation when he was given the opportunity to comment on it in his own documentary. 

"It's funny, the whole Slipknot issue — which really isn't a Slipknot issue, it's a Corey issue," he said, as transcribed by The Pit. "That situation's unfortunate because I think both of us let our egos get in the way.

"You know, I was a fan of Slipknot. I was a fan of Corey. That's why I'd asked him to get on [my 2020 album] Tickets to My Downfall. He obviously had mutual respect, too, because he cut a verse.

"I kind of tried to give notes back, like, 'Oh, you know, this wasn't exactly what I was looking for, can we try this?' And respectfully he was like, you know, 'no.' And I was like, 'okay, cool.' So we didn't use it. You know, then I heard him on a podcast. "

The statement he's referencing hearing is the one where Taylor said he hates all modern rock musicians, especially ones who "failed in one genre and decided to go rock," which definitely seemed like a pointed aim at Kelly. 

"That narrative always confused me," Kelly continued in his documentary. "My most successful album was the album I just put out. [2019's] Hotel Diablo, that's a rap album that has a billion-plus streams."

"I could have handled it differently," he concluded. "I should have just picked up the phone and been like hey dude, 'why would you say that'? But, instead, we all acted ridiculous."

Now we'll have to wait and see if Taylor accepts this quasi-olive branch. But we have to give it to MGK that at least he's mature enough to admit that shit went off the rails where it really didn't need to.