-Our next guest is a talented actor and musician who is
currently on his "Mainstream Sellout" tour.
His new album, "Mainstream Sellout (Life in Pink Deluxe)"
is available now. You can also see his documentary,
"Machine Gun Kelly's Life in Pink" on Hulu.
Let's take a look.
-This is 112th and Dove.
We always had these big dreams.
Ladies and gentlemen, how are y'all feeling?
I like that energy. [ Laughs ]
First music video I ever shot was right there
in front of that ADM Deli.
I got a gun pulled on me right here, and I was like,
"Are you going to do this with my daughter in the car?"
-Please welcome back to the show Machine Gun Kelly, everybody.
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
Welcome back to the show. How are you?
-There are censors, right?
-Yeah, yeah. -I feel like [bleep]
-Oh, no. [ Laughter ]
Well, I know you did a sold-out show at MSG last night.
Congratulations. -Thanks, thanks.
-But last time you were here, you'd just done the VMAs.
You'd hurt your hand at the VMAs
and you hurt yourself again last night at MSG.
-Yeah, I almost -- I'm going to start having doctors around me
every time I see Seth Meyers on my schedule.
-Yeah, the night before. So what happened last night?
-Um, you know, you know when you clink a champagne glass with
a fork to kind of --
-To get people's attention to start a toast?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Yeah, I didn't have a fork. -Okay.
-So I just clinked it on my head.
-Okay. -Um...
-That's a -- You know, they call that, you know what --
[ Laughter ]
In medicine, they call that "asking for it."
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, so I had a serious case of that last night.
-Yeah, yeah, you had a serious case of -- How was it?
How was the show? Must be always fun to perform in New York City.
-Ow, f-- Um, sorry.
I keep forgetting I have this, but I'm a hand talker, so I --
-Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-You know, my first music check was from New York City.
It was -- I was the first rapper to win amateur night
at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. -Really?
-And it was for $45. -That's a pretty --
I mean, it must have felt like a million dollars at the time.
-Absolutely. And I never cashed it.
I always just held on to it.
And I think --
Well, the only thing I said the whole day was
"We're at the Garden. We're at the Garden."
And, like, there's obviously -- you know, growing up,
I watched -- It's funny that we have a documentary called
"Life in Pink" because we watched "Fade to Black,"
which was Jay-Z's doc, so much growing up.
And right before we did the Garden, we got to -- Yeah.
-Yeah, the Empire State Building.
This was pink last night in honor of your album.
That's a pretty big deal when
they do the Empire State Building.
They decided to do this before they heard you're the kind of
guy who smashes a glass against his own head.
[ Laughter ] -Thank God I waited.
-Did you get to go hang out at the -- Did you get to go
to the Empire State Building for the lighting?
-I did, I did.
So they took me on a --
This is where everybody kind of stops at.
And then they showed me a secret ladder
that takes you right there. -Really?
-Yeah. -You were that high?
-Mm-hmm. Thank God I didn't have a champagne glass up there.
[ Laughter ] Excuse me! New York!
-So I want to ask about "Mainstream Sellout."
That seems like, I don't know, a bit of a provocative title.
How did you come up with that as the title for your album?
-I think because I was trying to be provocative.
-Yeah, okay. [ Laughter ]
So I got it nailed?
[ Laughter ]
-I kind of -- I'm -- I think it was almost
like I'm just in on the joke. -Yeah.
-I put an album out prior to that was really successful
in a genre that wasn't in the mainstream.
And, you know, I was known for
doing a different genre of music as well.
So I think it just kind of --
Success breeds hate.
And I was kind of like...
"But I'm hilarious, so this is the title of the new --"
[ Laughter ]
I was -- It was almost like...
You know when you shake hands with -- when, like, you're
in competition with someone and you shake hands
and you smile at them and you know you won?
-Yeah, and then you shake it for a super-long time.
-But then you just shake it and you're just like...
-Yeah. -Yeah, that was me.
-That was you.
-That was me with all of the hate.
-You're talking about --
Here is your documentary that I mentioned.
We talk about the fact that you did sort of switch genres
and the documentary shows your early roots doing hip-hop.
Then you've got, you know, pop-punk.
You sort of move into this different genre.
Do you feel -- You know, again,
you're still early in your career.
Do you think you're going to drift back
to different genres, move on to a new genre?
Do you have any plans or do you think it just sort of happens
organically when you sit down to write new music?
-Well, I did buy an accordion.
-You did? [ Laughter ]
So... -I think that's pretty exciting.
You know, Steve Carell plays... [ Laughter ]
Steve Carell plays fife.
[ Laughter ]
And I feel like you get the two.
-Wow. [ Applause ]
-I feel like there's no --
There's no mainstream accordion-fife duo.
-Mm. Yeah, we're going underground anyway.
We want to be more of like a cult band.
-You got engaged. -I did.
-You and your fiancée, Megan Fox,
you gave each other tattoos. -Mm-hmm.
-Now, obviously, you've received
a fair amount of tattoos over the years.
Do you feel like you are a good tattoo artist?
-Her skin's really so--
I felt that I -- Hers is kind of fading.
-Okay. -Her on me, though, she dug it
in so deep that I think -- [ Laughter ]
-Oh, hers is fading because you felt -- you felt for her.
Oh, you were very soft. -And with mine, she was like,
"Oh, no, this is sticking." [ Laughter ]
Yeah. No, we did get our voodoo dolls tattooed on us.
-Oh, that's pretty good. -Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's interesting 'cause we were
watching the "Pam and Tommy" series.
I forgot that Mark Mahoney did theirs, but Mark also did ours.
-Oh, you have the same tattoo artist?
-Mm-hmm. -Oh, that's pretty good.
-Hopefully don't end up the same.
[ Laughter ]
Hopefully don't take after all the paths that...
[ Laughter ]
-I feel like he's due a winner at this point.
[ Laughter ]
Do you remember any of -- You know, in watching
the documentary, do you have early rap lyrics,
like the first ones you remember writing?
-Uh...
Yeah, but you know what?
You know when you're -- You know when you're 13 and corny?
-Yeah.
-Yeah, like, I remember there was -- I think there was one
where I like -- You know how you know it's corny?
'Cause I used the word Bud Light.
And you're like 13. You're also like, "You've never --"
-You're like, "I know what the coolest drink is."
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so funny.
There's no mention of, like, cool liquors or anything.
Like, "break out the Bud Light."
I don't know, dude, I don't know. I just -- I remember that
being that, and I remember seeing that notebook,
and I burned it and I was like, "No one will ever know
that I've written this terrible rhyme."
-Hey, man, it's always such a pleasure to see you.
-Thanks, Seth. -Congratulations on everything
and take care of yourself, alright?
No more -- -I will.
-Thank you, my friend. You guys, that's Machine Gun Kelly.
"Machine Gun Kelly's Life in Pink" is streaming now on Hulu.
We'll be right back with Ingrid Andress.