The 30 Best Machine Gun Kelly Quotes

You either love him or hate him.

Perhaps no musician in the world today is both as popular and as polarizing as the rapper-turned-pop-punk-rocker Machine Gun Kelly.

From his bleach-blonde hair, pink guitars, and his early days in Cleveland as an emcee to his engagement to actress Megan Fox and his feuds with Eminem and Corey Taylor, MGK is a headline-generating maven.

But what does the 32-year-old, Texas-born artist (born Colson Baker) have to say outside his many songs? What are his thoughts on life and love and everything in between?

Without further ado, here are the 30 best Machine Gun Kelly quotes.

1. “Every time I perform, I always try to have that ‘wow’ factor.”

2. “Every night, we put on shows that are deteriorating our bodies’ life span… we don’t do it for it all to be in vain.”

3. “I love looking at pictures of me in 2012-2017 because every single one of those Machine Gun Kellys looks different.”

4. “New life situations equal out to new kinds of songs.”

5. “I’m a kid from Ohio in an industry that drives people insane.”

6. “It seems like I’m one of those people that has the personality where, if I win an award, I wake up the next day, and I’m like ‘Oh, but I didn’t win this award though, or this didn’t happen.’”

7. “I’m from Cleveland. I don’t have any famous parents. I don’t have any media training, I don’t have a history in the industry to where I would have any preconceived notions of how I’m supposed to be.”

8. “As I was coming up, there was so much naysaying, there was so much doubt, whether it was from my peers or people in the industry.”

9. “I’m very personal with my music, and it takes a piece of your heart away every time you record that in the studio. So you only have so many pieces of your heart to give away.”

10. “I’ve become so much more comfortable divulging things I’ve never talked about before, honing in on certain relationships that everyone can relate to.”

11. “I don’t think that my music without pain is good music—and I wouldn’t know, because I haven’t made any music without pain.”

12. “I was never supposed to get a record deal—that’s one in a million.”

13. “Before I even started listening to rap music, I was really into metal and punk.”

14. “When the universe throws something your way, or things happen, I’m one of those people that goes with it, and I don’t fight it.”

15. “When I came into the industry, and as I continue to be in it, part of my authenticity is the fact that I speak my mind.”

16. “My view on music and the way that it’s portrayed is that it’s a religion.”

17. “Economics runs the world.”

18. “The last thing I want to do is be complacent.”

19. “I think I’ve watched and been around so many people that are of a high celebrity grade that I’ve attempted to soak in every kind of way to deal with fame.”

20. “I’m probably one of the wildest, most out-of-control people in the industry.

21. “I think me and Macklemore exist in two different worlds.”

22. “Everything is my fault when you’re me. I don’t know why.”

23. “I have Nineties music oozing out of my pores. What made rock & roll back then is that it was uncensored. It was raw and dark. Think of ‘Something in the Way,’ by Nirvana—he was telling everyone how he felt.”

24. “My executive board, my management, my friends, are so ethnically diverse.”

25. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t really care anymore what people think about me. I’m just gonna be me.”

26. “I’m an anarchist. I have it tattooed on my stomach.

27. “I don’t feel fear anymore, in any form.”

28. “There’s something about America’s sweetheart and America’s bad boy. That juxtaposition is what everyone desires.”

29. “I was picked on a lot as a kid because of the way I dressed. Metal and punk music got me through that. I know a lot of people don’t understand it, but I love metal.”

30. “You can make something out of nothing. I proved that with my career, making it out of the city that I’m from.”

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/MTV VMAs 2021/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS