Machine Gun Kelly's Dad Was 9 Years Old When He Was Accused of Murdering His Father
"I don't know how you found that. That's quite the piece of information to stumble upon."
Published Aug. 5 2024, 6:16 p.m. ET
Rapper Machine Gun Kelly's (MGK) father passed away in July 2020, according to the Daily Mail.
The two had a difficult relationship that was made more complicated by the fact that the songwriter's mother left when he was 9 years after she met another man.
Because MGK's father was clinically depressed, he had trouble holding down a job, which meant they mostly lived in poverty.
Much of MGK's music tells the story of an angry kid who rightfully resented the two people who were supposed to protect him, but who undoubtedly failed him.
In August 2024, MGK appeared on Bunnie XO's Dumb Blonde podcast where she asked him a shocking question about his father.
It was such a surprise, that the "I Think I'm Okay" singer was taken completely off guard. It involved his father and a harrowing legal proceeding. Here's what we know about MGK's dad's trial.
MGK's dad's trial was a family secret.
In the Season 8 premiere of Dumb Blonde, Bunnie XO did not pull any punches when chatting with the oft-misunderstood rapper. "Your dad was tried at 9 years old for his own father's death," she asked. "I don't know how you found that," MGK said. "That's quite the piece of information to stumble upon."
She used this moment to suggest that this situation undoubtedly contributed to how MGK's father treated him. "It seems like it was generational," said Bunnie XO.
Before sharing some details of the trial, MGK admitted to being told by multiple mediums that, "There is a generational curse on all the men in my family. They will die alone. And they've all died alone."
Switching back to his dad, MGK revealed that he used to get angry at his father when he would react strongly to loud noises, suggesting that this behavior wasn't very manly. "It made me hate him," said MGK.
He then made the connection between his father's hypervigilance and his reason for being on trial. "The story that was told to me was they dropped his gun and his head essentially blew off."
MGK's father was apparently alone in the room with his dad when this happened. He said his father was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, and that schizophrenia ran in their family.
There were also other family issues that could have contributed to his father's behavior later in life. Evidently, he was born a triplet but one of the babies died when they were little.
As an adult, MGK likened his father's behavior to that of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, but only in the way that he had very black-or-white thinking. "There is no gray area," said MGK.
When he learned about his father's death, MGK shared on social media that he had "never felt a pain this deep in my life." The world works in mysterious ways as less than a year later, he re-connected with his mother and said his fans were responsible for that.