Travis Barker’s mate and Megan Fox’s boyfriend Machine Gun Kelly is not a fan of Slipknot.
Kelly, who’ll soon release the second album of his pop punk phase, appeared at day four of Chicago’s Riot Fest over the weekend. He was onstage at the same time as Slipknot, which prompted him to voice his distaste for the Iowa metal crew (according to the Chicago Sun Times.)
“Turn the lights up. Let me see who chose to be here instead of with all the old, weird dudes with masks,” said Kelly, whose setlist was almost entirely devoted to 2020’s Tickets to My Downfall.
Later in the show, he was even more explicit. “Hey, you wanna know what I’m really happy that I’m not doing?” he said. “Being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage. Fucking shit.”
Kelly sounds a bit like a spurned child here, but his disdain for Slipknot is not without causal justification. Slipknot singer Corey Taylor was on episode #222 of Cutter’s Rockcast in February, during which he explained everything he doesn’t like about modern rock music.
“The young artists that really frustrate me are the ones that take something that’s been around forever and just basically rework it and call it new—even though it’s completely derivative. I hate the artist who failed in one genre and decided to go rock. And I think he knows who he is, but that’s another story.” Many speculated he was talking about Kelly.
Kelly’s Riot Fest set also included covers of The Kid LAROI’s ‘F*ck You, Goodbye’ and Paramore’s ‘Misery Business’. Slipknot kept up their end of the bargain, appearing onstage in masks. Taylor, though, is only 47 years old.
