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Machine Gun Kelly has revealed how he’s hoping that his latest album will inspire a whole new generation of musician to become festival headliners.
The US star, real name Colson Baker, released ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ last week – which sees him exploring pop-punk for the first time.
While it marks a new direction in his sound, he’s hoping that it could spark a revival in the fortunes of guitar music.
“This album might be the reason why bands of our generation, instead of the Foo Fighters, Green Day or one of those established artists, get to headline Coachella and shit like that – because this album is gonna make the demand for guitar music go up!,” he told NME for this week’s Big Read cover feature.
“It’s tapped into the new generation of kids, the 13-to-18-year-olds, that those bands I just named can’t reach at this point.”
Singling out detractors who have questioned his change in musical direction, he went on: “I get that people are saying: ‘How the fuck did Machine Gun Kelly make the fucking biggest rock record of the year?’ I get that concept sucks for some people, and it may not have been your choice – but it fucking happened.”
In the same interview, he opened up on his friendship with Yungblud – likening the pair to to Elton John and Jimi Hendrix.
“His raw voice is so good, and he has an immense love for rock ’n’ roll. Those energies gravitate towards each other.”
Describing their friendship as “free-spirited”, he continued: “It feels like a dope, across-the-pond thing, like: ‘You hold it down over there and I’ll hold it down over here.’ Together we can make some sort of union of rock stars. We’re like Elton John and Jimi Hendrix back in the day.”
Earlier this month, Kelly scored his first Billboard Number One album with ‘Tickets To My Downfall’.
Reviewing the album, NME wrote: “There’s a rebellion in the fact Machine Gun Kelly has even made a record like this.
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