Machine Gun Kelly is reflecting on how his father’s childhood trauma impacted his own life. In an Aug. 5 appearance on Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast, the 34-year-old musician revealed that his father stood trial alongside his own mother at just 9 years old following the tragic death of his dad – and the effects of that were passed down to the “Sun to Me” artist.
“The story that was told to me was always that their dad dropped the gun and his head essentially blew off,” said MGK, born Colson Baker. “And so that all happened in the room with my dad at 9 years old. Him and my grandmother were tried for the murder. They were both acquitted.”
The impact of the trial was felt by his family years later. “I just remember that I always used to get so mad at him when I was a kid, because if I scared him or he heard a loud boom or a loud noise, he would freak out, like gnarly freak out,” MGK recalled. “And I would be like, ‘You’re supposed to be a man, dude, like why are you acting like this?’ And it just made me hate him. But then you sit there and you think about a kid who was on trial at nine years old for the murder of his father.”
The “Rap Devil” artist said his father’s childhood trauma “definitely bled into” his own. “I think I’ve projected myself to be somebody who has the stamina to endure all of these things that come with fame and criticism and hate. Because I fought back with all those traumas by becoming what I always wanted my dad to be, which was like tough and shake everything off and just fight anyone who comes at you,” he explained, adding, “I’m just now fixing myself, and I don’t have the energy to be the image that I was.”
MGK previously shared his father’s story in his 2022 documentary Life in Pink, telling daughter Casie Baker, now 15, about her grandfather. “It’s crazy ’cause they actually took my dad to trial at 9 years old,” he said in the documentary. “‘Cause he never took a chance to heal, all that stuff, it came out on me as I grew up.” Casie reflected later, “I can see why my dad was so depressed, ’cause like, it kind of passed on through generations to him.”