Corey Taylor revisits beef with “weird substitute teacher” Machine Gun Kelly
Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor has revisited his recent beef with Machine Gun Kelly during a Q&A appearance at this year’s ShipRocked.
The fallout between the pair began last September after MGK hit out at the metal legends at Chicago’s Riot Fest, saying onstage: “You wanna know what I’m really happy that I’m not doing? Being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage, talking shit.”
His onstage diss came after Taylor appeared to dismissively allude to Kelly in an interview earlier this year: “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.”
After MGK’s comments went viral, he took to social media, tweeting: “Very odd that when an artist talks shit, and I respond, I’m the bad guy.”
He followed it up by saying his issues with Taylor dated back to when he was working on his 2020 album ‘Tickets To My Downfall’.
“Corey did a verse for a song on tickets to my downfall album, it was fucking terrible, so i didn’t use it,” he wrote on Twitter.
“He got mad about it, and talked shit to a magazine about the same album he was almost on. yalls stories are all off. just admit he’s bitter,” he added, seemingly referring to Taylor’s comments about “failed” artists crossing genres.
Taylor then responded to Kelly’s claims by sharing screenshots of a purported email exchange with Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, who had executive produced ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ and appeared to be communicating with Taylor on Kelly’s behalf.
Sharing the screenshots of the emails on Twitter, Taylor wrote, “I don’t like people airing private shit like a child. So this is all I’ll say: I didn’t do the track because I don’t like when people try to ‘write’ for me.”
“I said NO to THEM. So without further ado…. #receipts” he continued, before saying that this is all he’ll say on the matter.
The emails shared by Taylor show that he declined to appear on the song in question, bonus track ‘Can’t Look Back’, because after listening to Kelly’s ideas for his guest verse, he didn’t think he was “the right guy for the track”.
The email from Taylor read, “Nothing personal, I just think if this is what MGK is looking for, someone else is the guy to do it. It’s ALL good, and I’m stoked for him- I hope you guys find the right fit for it. Hope you understand and I wish you guys the best with it.”
Barker’s email apparently showed that Kelly was initially “super inspired” by Taylor’s vocals on the song. “Can u tell him he fuckin killed it and im stoked and HONORED he is even on it wtf !!!” MGK seemingly wrote to Barker.
It did seem that Kelly had suggested changes he hoped Taylor could make to his verse: “I sent Corey an idea for the second half of his verse and he can obviously say fuck it but it would be sick to see if it inspired anything or if he could try it like that,” one note from Kelly, via Barker, reads.
“I laid a demo screami-ish type track under his first part of the verse that would be dope to hear in his ‘Psychosocial’ voice.”
Kelly then replied to Taylor’s tweet: “Basically, your verse was really bad. Respectfully, i was just telling you to rewrite it because it was really bad. respectfully.”
He ended his tweet by suggesting that the two “do a Britney Spears song cover together.”
Taylor, who was one of the headliners at this year’s ShipRocked, a fully immersive rock and metal cruise that took place from January 22-27, revisited the feud during a Q&A portion of his appearance.
“For those of you that don’t know, MGK doesn’t like me very much. And let me follow that up by saying I don’t care,” he told the audience. “I won’t fill you in on the whole fucking story because you can go online and look it all up. However, I will say this: he maintains that I started it. The truth is he started it. Now, I will explain to you why.
“If you don’t know, they asked me to do a tune with him. They sent it to me. I didn’t dig it. And I tried to do something with it because of my respect for Travis, because he and I worked together before. They sent me these really weird notes and they wanted me to sing his words. And I just said, ‘I’m not gonna do it.’ And I sent an email. I posted that email. And I didn’t hear back from him. And I thought it was done.
“Fast forward about eight months, and Machine Gun Kelly is doing this weird Instagram Live interview with Allie from Spotify. And he goes off on this fucking rant about rock stars and comfortable shoes. It sounds as smart as you think it is. … I mean, spit was coming out of his face.
“And I’m watching it and I’m going, ‘You fuck. You’ve been here for five minutes, basically, and you’re gonna fucking run your mouth about bands that have been doing this for 20 fucking years, like in the mud, in the dirt. They’re gonna wear whatever the fuck they want. You’re gonna walk in here with your fucking black tongue and try to talk some shit on some bands that would fucking circle your ass? Fuck you.’ So when I had my opportunity to say something, I did.”
Corey Taylor’s Q&A. He was asked about the MGK situation. His answer…
Posted by Kris Sterbinsky on Thursday, January 27, 2022
He continued: “And I didn’t call him out. I just said what I said about people failing in one genre and sliding over to another. And that upset him. … Weirdly, we’re in Chicago on the same show, and we’re playing basically at the same time. And he wasn’t happy that there were a lot of people at our show – and I do mean a lot.”
“But he, to this day, maintains that I started it,” Taylor added. “It’s, like, the only reason I said what I said is because he said what he said.
“You don’t get to walk into a genre with the history, with the work… The fact that this genre really doesn’t get the fucking respect that it deserves. You don’t get to walk in as some weird substitute teacher and pretend that you can tell us what to wear – boots, shoes, house fucking shoes, slippers. Why don’t you suck every inch of my dick? You don’t get to do that. And these are bands that maybe I don’t even fucking know, but guess what? I fucking respect them because they get on fucking stage and they fucking give every fucking thing they’ve got.” You can watch Taylor address the ShipRocked crowd above.
Meanwhile, Taylor has confirmed that Slipknot’s new album will be released this year alongside more “big shit”.
Taking to Twitter earlier this month, Taylor wrote: “Big Shit Coming, 2022 edition” before saying a new Slipknot album would be released this year. He then shared the quote “Hold On To Your Butts”.
Taylor also promised updates on his gonzo comedy/horror movie Zombie Versus Ninjaand “secret ‘homecoming’ plans’”.