In a new interview for the cover of Billboard magazine, Machine Gun Kelly said that rock music “needed a defibrillator” and claims that he played a key role in reviving the genre.
“I know it kills certain bands in that community that I got the success that I got. “But I earned that sh*t,” MGK told Billboard. “Dude, I was f*cking loading up the van with our drums and amps in 2010, driving to Indiana and Chicago, playing Warped Tour. I can tell you the f*cking Wi-Fi codes to venues in Blackfoot, Idaho. Can you say that sh*t as a band?”
The Billboard article points out that when Machine Gun Kelly‘s late album, 2020’s Tickets to My Downfall, debuted at number one on the US album’s chart (the Billboard 200), it was the first rock album to do so in over a year.
“It opened the lane back up for people to make money,” MGK. says “It opened up these festivals. [Rock] needed a defibrillator. Who cares who gives it, just as long as that motherf*cker doesn’t die?”
“The 2010s was great for singers and rappers, and I was part of that,” he continued. “But I think we needed something else: We needed an instrument. Kids come up to me like, ‘Dude, the first time I ever saw someone play guitar in concert was at your concert — and now I take guitar lessons.’ ”
