Machine Gun Kelly, the musician known for his feud with Eminem and more recently being part of a VMAs scuffle with Connor McGregor, has launched a new beef with metal band Slipknot.
To be fair to MGK, it appears the stoush started by Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor on the Cutter's Rockcast podcast earlier this year appeared to throw shade at the rapper-turned-pop-rocker.
"I hate everything. I hate all new rock for the most part. I [hate] the artists who failed in one genre and decided to go rock - and I think he knows who he is," Taylor said at the time.
Cut to this past weekend where both MGK and Slipknot were closing out Chicago's Riot Fest from different stages, and MGK seemingly saw an opportunity to fire back at the comment.
"Hey, you wanna know what I'm really happy that I'm not doing? Being 50 years old wearing a f**king weird mask on a fucking stage," he told the crowd during his set.
"F**king shit. Turn the lights up. Let me see who chose to be here instead of with all the old weird dudes with masks."
Meanwhile, Taylor was reportedly paying homage to the band's founding drummer Joey Jordison who died in his sleep at the age of 46 in July this year.
Slipknot was formed in 1995 and shot to fame with the release of their eponymous album in 1999, grabbing attention with the frightening and occasionally humorous masks that became an integral part of the band's identity.
MGK himself is no stranger to embellishing his appearance - he dyed his tongue black as a "special accessory" to wear at this year's Billboard Music Awards, got a single red line tattooed down the length of his throat, donned long pink and black stiletto nails with chains hanging off them at the iHeartRadio Music Awards and earlier this month bedazzled his face with shimmering pearls at the MTV VMAs.
His 'man bun' hairstyle in 2018 became a target for Eminem in the MGK diss track 'Killshot', where he rapped: "How you gonna name yourself after a gun / And have a damn man bun?"
The 'My Bloody Valentine' singer's latest rant about Slipknot appears to contradict comments he made in an interview on the Spotify Rock This podcast, where he blasted rockers for wearing "comfortable shoes" and not showing enough "attitude".
"This is what I f**king hate. I did Warped Tour and these [people] would wear comfortable shoes onstage every day. F**k your Nike f**king New Balances comfy shoes because it makes you feel comfortable," he said late last year.
"Put on some Dr Martens, put on some f**king Chucks, put on some Vans. You don't look cool, man. I hate your f***ing feet, I hate your f***ing shoes. Rock and roll is not comfortable, it's uncomfortable. It's a metaphor. Your shoes are a metaphor, f**k you."
MGK's remarks at Riot Fest drew ire from some Twitter commentators who noticed the irony of the situation.
"Machine Gun Kelly yelling at people for wearing comfortable shoes at Warped Tour and then calling Slipknot weird for wearing masks is the start of my Joker arc," one tweet on the subject read.
"Not that this has to be said but Slipknot is one of the most influential metal bands of all time and for MGK to boil them down to '50 year olds wearing weird masks' is so f**king funny to me."
MGK has since doubled down on his comments, claiming Taylor was "bitter" after providing a verse on MGK's Tickets To My Downfall album which didn't make the cut.
"Corey did a verse for a song on Tickets to my Downfall album, it was f**king terrible, so I didn't use it," MGK tweeted.
"He got mad about it, and talked shit to a magazine about the same album he was almost on. Y'all's stories are all off. Just admit he's bitter."
"Very odd that when an artist talks shit, and I respond, I'm the bad guy," he added in another tweet.
