These days, almost everyone has heard about the wild antics of Machine Gun Kelly. Whether you love him or love to hate him, his TMI tomfoolery definitely grabs a lot of headlines—especially when it comes to his on-again-off-again fiancée Megan Fox. Read on to find out how this lost boy became public enemy number one.
1. He Had An Unsettling Start
On April 22, 1990, Machine Gun Kelly was born Colson Baker to missionary parents in Houston, Texas. It’s too bad that his parents’ desire to spread the good word took them from Egypt to Germany, Chicago, Denver, and more. This itinerant existence was definitely stressful for young Colson. Sadly, his life was about to get even worse.
2. He Suffered A Heartbreaking Loss
As if always being the new kid wasn’t painful enough, nine-year-old Colson’s world fell apart when his mother abandoned the family for another man. Colson would later write about it in the song "Burning Memories": "This one’s for the mama that I never knew / I took acid just to burn all of my memories of you".
To make matters worse, Colson and his increasingly mentally unstable father had to pick up and move yet again.
3. His Father Fell Apart
Even though Colson’s dad tried to pick up the pieces by moving with his son to Denver to live with his sister, things were not looking up. Colson’s father began a dark descent into depression, which resulted in years of unemployment.
During these tough financial times, Colson had to sleep in a chair instead of a bed and only owned two outfits, which led to major ostracization at school. At a shockingly young age, he turned down a very dangerous path.
4. He Was Headed Down The Wrong Path
By the age of 14, Colson hadn’t yet chosen his outlaw stage name, but he was starting to get in trouble with the law—and we aren’t talking about a cute li’l shoplifting charge. In Rolling Stone, he confessed to having had some serious charges but would not divulge what they were.
Sadly, this wouldn’t be the last time he took things too far.
5. He Cleaned Up His Act…For Now
Colson’s stint in the justice system scared him straight into focusing on his nascent career as a rapper. A fan of Eminem and DMX since sixth grade, by 15, he was starting to perform in shows around Cleveland. It was at this point that he earned the nickname Machine Gun Kelly (or MGK for short) thanks to his rapid-fire lyrical delivery.
Little did he know his life was about to become a total nightmare.
6. He Grew Up Fast
After graduating from high school, Colson was abruptly kicked out of the house by his father. No pomp, no circumstance…just Colson plunging right into the real-world worries of finding work and making rent payments.
He ended up working at Chipotle, which was totally humiliating, especially when he’d have to make burritos for his former classmates who were home from college for Christmas. His peers would laugh at him and ask why he wasn’t a big rapper by now. Life was looking hopeless.
7. He Unlocked A New Challenge
What every young rapper needs is a baby, right? Well, not quite, but at the age of 18, Kelly and his girlfriend Emma Cannon welcomed Casie Colson Baker into the world. This must have been a time of reckoning…Kelly was still a teenager himself, after all. Would he sacrifice his dreams to step up and support his family?
8. His Bad Boy Days Were Beginning
When you’re 18 and laser-focused on your music career, you don’t let a little thing like a new kid slow you down. A year after Casie was born, the rap gods served Kelly the opportunity of a lifetime.
After being discovered during a performance, he was offered a recording contract with P Diddy's label, Bad Boy Records. Things were looking up…for now at least.
10. He Made An Expensive Misstep
We are officially entering Kelly’s provocateur era (and depending on who you ask, he’s still in it). In January 2012, the authorities apprehended him for hitting a bouncer with a bottle in Florida. The bouncer spent eight days in the hospital and Kelly’s finances took a massive hit when the bouncer sued him for an eye-popping $2 million.
Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be his last altercation.
11. He Made Another Dumb Move
Even though Kelly’s star was 100% on the rise, it didn’t stop him from making a long string of wrong moves. In May 2012, after an image of his idol Eminem’s daughter went viral, 22-year-old Kelly tweeted about how hot she was "in the most respectful way possible [because] Em is king".
Unfortunately, Hailie Jade Mathers was only 16 at the time. Yikes! Start getting your popcorn ready, because this tweet came back to haunt Kelly in a major way.
12. He Was Almost Invincible
In 2013, Kelly was hit by a double-decker bus while on the hunt for weed in Manchester. During an Armchair Expert interview, he said that his head hit the bus windshield hard enough to create a spider’s web of cracks. Shockingly his scans showed no signs of bodily damage.
The hospital staff was in such awe that they nicknamed him Superman. Unfortunately, even Superman has his Kryptonite…
13. He Goes Hard
MGK certainly has a penchant for mind-altering substances and often speaks candidly about using them in interviews. On the podcast Armchair Expert, he admitted that he snorted Adderall and Vyvanse and has consumed nose candy in beverage form.
His addiction gets even worse than that though…
14. He Follows The Advice "Write What You Know"
Whether you call narcotics a muse or a crutch, with Kelly, it seems to be both. His first album Lace Up tells of his addiction to the really hard stuff. Also, his 2019 song "Candy" includes references to a whole host of substances and the video features Kelly’s pal Pete Davidson as a pharmacist who helps kids score various types of "medicine".
Even though this 30-something musician has avoided joining the 27 Club (although he’s opened a coffee shop in Cleveland with that name), this roller coaster ride is far from over.
15. He Realized His Thespian Dreams
In 2014, Kelly’s trajectory suddenly became impressively multidimensional when he scored an acting role in the 2014 feature film Beyond the Lights with Danny Glover and Minnie Driver.
Sure, his role as bad boy rapper Kid Culprit was not a huge stretch and haters might cheer in the scene where he gets punched out, but he held his own and even earned a few more smitten fans. But it wasn’t just his fangirls who were falling for him…
Beyond the Lights (2014), Black Entertainment Television
16. Will He Accept This Rose?
All of the components for a superstar career were coming together for Kelly: chart-toppers, acting jobs, a huge tour, and then in April 2015, the universe added the final ingredient. Enter: hip-hop video vixen Amber Rose.
Rose had previously dated Kanye West and was once married to Wiz Khalifa, but she wasn’t quite ready to settle down with Kelly. After a couple of months of dating the pair parted amicably with Rose referring to her previous marriage, "I can’t really support a man on tour anymore," which left the world wondering, would this Sid ever find his Nancy?
17. He Found Someone New
Perhaps Kelly needed to find someone who would better understand his demanding career. And what could be better than a sandy beach, sunny skies, and standing beside songstress Halsey in a barely-there bikini? Strangely enough, although this romantic moment had already appeared online, people seem to have short memories…
18. He Couldn’t Forget Her
After the beach pic, a couple of years passed during which Halsey dated Kelly’s rival G-Eazy. When Halsey and G-Eazy broke up, the beach photo mysteriously resurfaced making it appear that she was far from heartbroken. Halsey set the record straight and told everyone to mind their own business.
Unfortunately, Kelly threw more fuel on the fire…
19. He Kissed And Told
Although we don’t know how serious Kelly and Halsey’s relationship was, on The Breakfast Club, an interviewer asked Kelly if he’d ever "smashed Halsey". His answer? "Absolutely". Don’t worry, though—Halsey’s Twitter clap back was equal parts savage and succinct: "how *absolutely* pathetic".
It seems she didn’t harbor too many hard feelings for Kelly, though, because in 2020 the pair would go on to collaborate on the song "Forget Me Too".
20. His Costar Didn’t Pull Punches
As Kelly was starting to build a pretty impressive film resume, his experience on the set of Captive State starring John Goodman was a literal pain. He told Rolling Stone about how an actor who was playing a cop kept punching him in the chest—for real. Kelly’s complaints fell on deaf ears, though.
Critics generally considered the film a mess, but it wasn’t the bad reviews that would come back to haunt Kelly…
Captive State (2019), Dreamworks Pictures
18. His Performance Was Heart-Stopping
Could it be that MGK was so obsessed with potentially joining the 27 Club that he might have manifested his entry into it? It seems this way, from his account of events on the night of his 27th birthday. He was onstage at a gig when he suddenly felt a startling pain in his chest; it was as though his heart was "getting a bone jabbed in".
Only six songs into the performance, he had to pause the show and run off the stage…
19. He Had A Major Scare
His concertgoers just stood there in shock staring at an empty stage. Finally, the paramedics arrived and started checking him over. Not surprisingly, many thought he was high. The actual issue was shocking.
All of those real punches to the chest while filming Captive State had given him a fractured chest plate. Ouch. He ignored doctors’ orders to take a month off and instead crossed his fingers and loaded up on hydrocodone, weed, booze, and mushrooms.
20. He Earned Some High Praise
Almost kicking the bucket didn’t slow Kelly down much. In fact, he went on to land a sweet role on Roadies, a show created by Cameron Crowe of Almost Famous fame. Crowe had this to say about Kelly: "I think we all worry that he’s going to break his neck before he achieves all his dreams. But that’s part of the ride you take as an MGK fan".
That said, I hope you’re wearing a helmet for this next part of Kelly’s crazy ride…
Roadies (2016), Showtime Networks
21. He Entered His Diss Track Era
Here’s the beef—big time. The feud between MGK and his idol Eminem is a full-on saga featuring ups, downs, danger, laughter, and, strangely enough even an actor from Ozark.
Remember when Kelly tweeted about how hot Em’s daughter was? It was this very tweet that led Kelly to believe that Eminem had banned him from his radio station Shade 45 and his resentment was building…
22. He Went From Stan To Attacker
Kelly could no longer contain his animosity. In an appearance on the Tech N9ne song "No Reason," Kelly rapped, "Popped in…to remind y’all you just rap, you’re not God". This was a not-so-subtle dig referencing the Eminem single "Rap God".
Since Em’s previous album was not too well received, this shade probably hit a sore spot.
23. His Battle Of Words Heated Up
This is where things start to get real. The insults fired by the lanky up-and-comer likely gave Eminem the rage fuel he needed to create and drop an entire surprise album called Kamikaze.
In the track "Not Alike" he confronts Kelly’s comments about his daughter and gets in some jabs: "Y’all music sounds like Dr Seuss inspired it" and "let me put a … silencer on this little blond fairy / cornball takin’ shots at me".
If we know anything about Kelly, we know that not much can scare him into submission.
24. He Stirred The Drama
You can call MGK a lot of things, but he was definitely not slow to respond to Eminem calling him out. Just a few days later, Kelly released a response to Eminem called "Rap Devil".
In the gritty video, Kelly alternates between menacingly holding a shovel and walking around Buffalo eating cereal while using his trademark rapid-fire delivery to squeeze in a lot of sick burns. By now, the world was waiting with bated breath to see how Eminem would respond.
25. He Gets Skewered
A week after Kelly released "Rap Devil," Eminem fired back with "Killshot". In it, Eminem responds almost line-by-line to Kelly’s accusations. And with incisive lyrics like, "How you gonna name yourself after a [darn] gun and have a man bun?" many were hoping that Em might be returning to his former glory.
26. Does He Take It Too Far?
On the same day that "Killshot" drops, Kelly tweets an image of a row of judges holding paddles with the number six on them along with a laughing emoji and someone throwing something into the trash. "2 weeks and 3 interviews later," he tweeted in a nod to all of the attention Eminem was getting—and he was right.
Eminem’s "Killshot" broke a YouTube record for the most plays in the first 24 hours. Unfortunately, during that 24 hours, things got weirder before they got better.
27. He’s Accosted In Atlanta
Will anyone in this godforsaken battle take Michelle Obama’s advice and take the high road? On the same day that "Killshot" came out, Kelly was confronted by Ozark actor Gabriel Rodriguez at an Atlanta restaurant.
Rodriguez pulled a Godfather-esque move by filming himself insulting Kelly for "going for family". After an uncomfortable evening, Rodriguez claimed that he was later jumped by Kelly’s security team at a Hampton Inn (of all places). Can someone please make this stop?
28. He Acts Like An Adult (Kinda)
This battle could have gone on forever, but a few days after "Killshot" drops, Kelly tells an interviewer that although he has another diss track ready to go, he’s going to put it "back in the holster".
As the world breathes a collective sigh of relief, it seems that both sides may have gained something from this beef, including hundreds of millions of YouTube views on their various tracks. Guess who's also about to turn the page to a new chapter?
29. He Found His Twin Flame
Once upon a time, a musician and a baddie (aka Megan Fox) met on the set of the C movie Midnight in the Switchgrass. It was a thriller. It was thrilling. But it was March 2020 and after just two weeks, filming shut down along with everything else on the planet.
Thus began the "darkest fairytale"…a phrase from early texts that the pair would soon tattoo on each others’ bodies.
30. He May Have Been A Homewrecker
According to a sly source, the sparks flew from the beginning: "They are intrigued by each other and having a lot of fun". Wait, wasn’t Megan Fox still married to Brian Austin Green?
The messy situation went downhill when only a month after Megan and Kelly met, the paparazzi caught Megan and Brian in a depressing scene that divorced parents know all too well—exchanging their three kids in a parking lot. But Megan's brokenhearted ex took to social media to smooth things over.
31. He Had Her In His COVID Circle
Picking up takeout was pretty typical during COVID times, but doing it alongside your lanky blonde costar while not wearing your wedding ring, kinda sealed the deal for anyone who was clinging to hope that Megan and Brian were still married.
Then on Megan’s birthday, just two months after she met Kelly, Brian made an interesting birthday post.
32. His New Girl Fluttered Into His Arms
You can only imagine the trepidation Megan felt when she opened Instagram to see that her soon-to-be ex-husband had made her a birthday post. Below what looked like a stock photo, Brian wrote, "Eventually butterflies get bored sitting on a flower for too long. They start feeling smothered. It’s a great big world and they want to experience it".
Be that as it may, in hindsight it might have been better if Brian had moved off the grid considering the tidal wave of TMI he—and all of us—were about to encounter.
33. He Started Off Strong
Every dark fairytale needs a romantic inception and when it came to their first date, Kelly delivered. He rolled up to Megan’s place in a not-so-subtle 1974 Cadillac convertible blasting Ella Fitzgerald (Yes, you read that right).
He then drove Megan to the edge of a canyon where he had a whole picnic already set up on a blanket among many roses. But that's not all.
34. He Had A Heart-Pounding Plan
With such a strong start, Kelly had to get creative to keep his dream girl interested. After their picnic under the stars, the pair drove the Caddy down Sunset to the Roxy Theatre, which was closed. Instead of going in, Megan and Kelly climbed onto the roof and made out.
When the fun was over, Megan had to climb down from a three-story balcony while wearing high heels. Luckily there were no mishaps, but this was just the beginning of the couple’s risky behavior.
35. He Loves Feet
In a genius move (from a publicity standpoint alone) Kelly cast Megan as his girlfriend in the video for "Bloody Valentine," the first single from his new album. As a self-confessed foot lover, Kelly asked her to step on his face in one of the scenes.
As proof of her intuitive powers, she replied, "Yeah, I literally got a pedicure just ’cause I knew you were gonna ask me that". This wouldn’t be the only time that they displayed their freaky preferences.
36. He Found A Cosmic Connection
Get your cringe muscles warmed up, we know Megan Fox believes in astrology and has even said from the beginning she knew that she and Kelly were twin flames (aka two halves of the same soul), but in an interview with Glamour she really went into detail: "He’s literally my exact type that I’ve been manifesting since I was four. I’m also four years older than him. So, I think I made him".
37. He Did A Different Type Of Manifesting
While we may know that Kelly isn’t quite as mystical as Megan, he did speak of manifesting her in his own special kind of way. When Kelly was a teenager, he told GQ he had a poster of Megan hanging on his bedroom wall. He even vowed to marry her one day and the magazine found old classmates to back up his claims.
Kelly's life seemed to have reached a high point. But what goes up must come down.
38. Heartbreak Found Him
By now any pattern seekers might have noticed that Kelly’s highest highs can transform into the lowest lows in a head-spinning blink of an eye.
In July 2020, his father lost his battle with liver cirrhosis, but not before making a jaw-dropping confession. Part of Kelly’s father’s mental health and addiction issues stemmed from watching his father perish in front of him when he was a child. Unfortunately, this loss was too much for Kelly to handle…
39. He Received A Very, Um, Unique Gift
To make matters worse, shortly after Kelly’s father’s passing, Megan had to leave the country to film a movie in Bulgaria. And as Kelly told Ellen, he was "freaking out" because he didn’t have a passport and couldn’t go visit her. So, Megan summoned her inner Angelina and gave Kelly a necklace that held a drop of her blood.
"Some people give a handkerchief to their partner, or whatever. She gave me her DNA," Kelly said. Too bad this real-life "Bloody Valentine" wouldn’t be enough…
40. He Was In A Very Dark Place
With his father gone and only a blood drop necklace to keep him warm at night, Kelly found himself spiraling and alone. In his 2022 documentary Life in Pink, Kelly speaks openly about this harrowing time.
He was so overcome by paranoia that he resorted to sleeping with a weapon beside his bed for protection. The situation reached a chilling climax.
41. He Broke Down
Suffering, scared, and alone, Kelly called Megan in Bulgaria. He admits to freaking out on her and accusing her of not being there for him. Suddenly he told her he had the barrel in his mouth—cocked and ready. There was a heavy silence on Megan’s end of the line.
Then, perhaps cosmic forces intervened as the piece jammed before anything could happen. Kelly realized that he needed to change.
42. He Took A New Path
Kelly threw himself into his music and in the process, the universe threw him some good fortune for a change. He was jamming with his pal Travis Barker from Blink-182 and they had such an exhilarating session that Barker decided to block off two months of his life to collaborate on Kelly’s new album, the aptly named Tickets to My Downfall.
43. He Found A Foursome
With new blood in the form of Travis Barker, Kelly’s music made a dramatic departure from rap to pop punk, but that wasn’t the only change that Barker inspired.
He also brought Kelly and Megan into his friend group, which includes his now-wife Kourtney Kardashian. Can you think of a more headline-grabbing foursome? And oh-how-handy with an exciting new album almost ready to pop. Speaking of popping…
44. He Entered Titillating Times
There’s nothing the world loves more than a pregnancy rumor or even the hint of one. So, just as Kelly’s new album launched, he and Barker were to perform at the MTV VMAs—and guess who introduced the performance?
After a few sweet words from the super-glammed Megan Fox and Kourtney Kardashian, Megan said, "New York, I need you to get extra loud for our future baby daddies!" Social media went wild and who cared that neither woman was even married? Kelly was just about to remedy that situation.
45. His Night At The VMAs Was Wild
The baby daddy talk sent tongues wagging on the night of the VMAs, but before the broadcast, the fists were flying—right at Kelly. Several red-carpet videos show none other than UFC champ Conor McGregor throwing a drink and lunging wildly at Kelly.
According to TMZ, the fighter became angry when Kelly denied his request for a photo.
46. He Proposed!
If anyone can make even an engagement controversial, it’s Machine Gun Kelly. After a tumultuous year-and-a-half of dating, he proposed to his dream girl under the same tree they fell in love under.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, Megan Fox casually stated that she "said yes…and then we drank each other’s blood". Speaking of blood, wait until you hear about the custom-made engagement ring.
47. He Put A (Painful) Ring On It
Everyone loves a good engagement ring shot, but the post about Megan's ring evoked much pearl-clutching and shouts of "red flag!" Kelly’s Instagram post described the custom-made engagement ring, which he designed to incorporate the couple’s birthstones. Cute, right?
Sure, except the stones had a band of thorns attached to them that he designed to cause Megan pain if she ever tried to take the ring off. Never gonna happen, right? Right?
48. His Fiancée Has Not Heard Of TMI
If there’s one social media post we can file under "Little tidbits that will break Brian Austin Green’s heart," it would be this one. Megan Fox shared a screenshot of her texts to her stylist in which she tells the stylist she cut a hole in the crotch of her jumpsuit so that she and Kelly could get busy.
The stylist probably spoke for many when she replied to Fox with "I hate you".
49. His Relationship Exploded In His Face
You know there’s trouble in paradise when Megan Fox is quoting from Beyonce’s Lemonade ("You can test the dishonesty / it’s all over your breath"). Over Super Bowl weekend 2023, Megan and Kelly’s world crumbled before our eyes.
She went scorched earth on social media, posting a video of a letter burning in a barrel and then deleting all of the photos of Kelly from her grid. Unfortunately, that wasn’t all she did…
50. He Went Out With A Bang
We always hurt the ones we love and Megan Fox knew exactly how to twist the ol’ dagger. After she deleted Kelly’s existence from her Instagram, she unfollowed everyone except for Timothée Chalamet, Harry Styles, and—wait for it—Eminem. OUCH!
Too bad we are only left to imagine Eminem having a really good laugh over things as we wonder what the heck Kelly did wrong.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
