What’s the beef between Machine Gun Kelly and the members of Slipknot?

The Hatfields & The McCoys. The Earps & The Clantons. Tupac & Biggie. Machine Gun Kelly & Slipknot? The latest celebrity feud is proof that 2021 is as confoundingly bizarre as 2020. Rapper-turned-pop rocker Machine Gun Kelly took aim at the legendary heavy metal band Slipknot on the last day of Chicago’s RiotFest.

Wait and Bleed

On Sunday 19, at Chicago’s RiotFest, Machine Gun Kelly took a swing at the band Slipknot, a band with which he shared top billing on the festival’s last day. While introducing a song from his album Tickets to my Downfall, MGK told the audience, “Hey you wanna know what I am really happy that I am not doing? Being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage.” Kelly, a man who wears shiny clothes on just about every red carpet & once dyed his tongue black, seems to take umbrage with Slipknot's attention-grabbing trademark masks. Later in his performance, which occurred at the same time as Slipknot’s, he demanded, “turn the lights up. Let me see who chose to be here instead of with all the old weird dudes in masks.” Slipknot meanwhile took a very different tact on stage. Founding Slipknot member Corey Taylor used the performance to reminisce about signing the band’s first record contract in Chicago in 1998. The band also paid homage to former member Joey Jordison, who passed away earlier this year. The overlapping sets and MGK’s comments drew no direct onstage response from Slipknot at the time.

Duality

Machine Gun Kelly’s shots were not the first fired in what might be the strangest celebrity beef of 2021. Back in February, Slipknot member Corey Taylor mourned the state of rock music on Cutter’s Rockcast. “I hate everything,” the Slipknot member said on the podcast. “I hate all new rock for the most part. I [hate] artists who failed in one genre and decided to go rock – and I think he knows who he is.” It is safe to assume that the “he” that Taylor was talking about was in fact MGK. Machine Gun Kelly claims the beef started when Corey Taylor did a “terrible” verse for a song on his album Tickets to my Downfall. On Twitter, Taylor refuted Kelly’s story, even going as far as posting receipts. Email correspondence between Taylor & Kelly collaborator Travis Barker revealed that Kelly claimed to love Taylor’s verse but gave him a grocery list of notes. Taylor responds by respectfully saying he might not be the right person for the song. He even compliments Kelly & wishes them luck on the project. Kelly responded to Taylor’s tweet by saying his verse was really bad. Taylor shared the email receipts via Travis Barker in 2021. In a 2022 Q&A, Taylor stated that MGK started the feud.

Psychosocial

Taylor is known for speaking his mind, even when he doesn’t have anything nice to say. In 2002, Slipknot & Taylor’s other band Stone Sour were signed to the same record label as Nickelback. In an interview, Taylor revealed that he thought the label’s public relations team supported Nickelback more than his bands. While Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger tried to diss Taylor’s music, Taylor called Kroeger ugly. In an interview, Taylor said, “Chad Kroeger is to rock what KFC is to chicken.” Taylor has also dissed the likes of Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst & nu-metal pioneers Korn. He appeared to bury the hatchet with Korn in 2006, when frontman Jonathan Davis was hospitalized, Taylor filled in. The two bands would continue to collaborate including a joint tour. Machine Gun Kelly is no stranger to beef himself, however, his track record is not exactly spotless. Kelly once tweeted that Eminem’s sixteen-year-old daughter was “hot as fuck”, which led to Eminem apparently blacklisting MGK from several radio stations. The two traded diss tracks for years, with Eminem calling MGK “Stan” in a 2017 track entitled Killshot. Suspect tweets about underage girls aside, some believe the beef was staged as MGK & Eminem are signed to the same label & are believed to share a producer. Taylor later ranked MGK among other feuds and called both big-mouth singers. His pattern of public criticism continued into references about MGK in subsequent years.

Aftermath and Regrets

The public exchange cooled after the initial 2021-early 2022 back-and-forth. MGK later expressed regret over the public nature of the comments and said he should have called Taylor directly instead. Taylor disputed MGK’s account of who started the feud during a 2022 Q&A, pushing back on the narrative that the verse rejection had sparked everything. The feud went dormant with no further major incidents reported after those exchanges. Both sides moved on without additional public shots.

Sid Wilson Connection

The tension reached beyond the main participants. MGK stated the situation temporarily damaged his friendship with Slipknot DJ Sid Wilson. The two had known each other through the rock and pop-punk circles, and the public comments put an awkward pause on that relationship. They later reconciled and are cool again. The brief strain showed how the feud touched other members of the Slipknot camp even when they stayed out of the spotlight.

Taylor's Broader Feud History

Taylor’s willingness to name names stretches across two decades. He ranked MGK in the middle of past feuds with Limp Bizkit and Nickelback, placing the MGK comments alongside those earlier exchanges rather than treating them as an outlier. He noted similarities between himself and MGK as outspoken vocalists who rarely hold back in interviews or online. The pattern shows a consistent approach rather than a one-off reaction to genre-switch artists.

MGK's 2026 Reflection

Years later, MGK offered his own framing of how the exchange began. He described it as punching back against Taylor’s rock music comments and the broader gatekeeping around genre switchers. MGK referenced earlier 2020 comments about Warped Tour crowds and the attitude some veteran rock figures brought to newer acts. The 2026 remarks positioned the whole thing as a defensive response rather than an unprovoked attack on Slipknot’s stage presentation.

The dust settled without further escalation. MGK focused on his own catalog and touring, while Taylor continued fronting Slipknot and Stone Sour with the same blunt interview style that defined his earlier career. The episode sits as one of several public disagreements both men have navigated, each moving forward without revisiting the exchange. The story remains a snapshot of how quickly festival scheduling and old email threads can turn into headlines when two outspoken artists cross paths.