During the Q&A portion of his appearance on the ShipRocked , Corey Taylor provided new details about the beginning of his feud with Machine Gun Kelly and denied the rapper's accusations that he started the fight.
Throughout the last month of September, the Slipknot and BBMAs winner exchanged barbs and acidic comments about each other. It all started because Corey Taylor was invited to participate in Gun Kelly's most recent album, Tickets To My Downfall , but refused after a brief attempt.
After that, Machine Gun Kelly reportedly disliked a derogatory comment Taylor made about artists who fail in one genre and switch to another, which he took as a dig at his rap career and recent shift to rock and pop punk. Upon taking the stage at Riot Fest in Chicago, where Slipknot was playing at the same time, the rapper took a jab at the band, saying he was happy he was "not wearing weird masks on stage at 50 years old .
Despite Gun Kelly's claims that it all started because of Corey Taylor's initial comment, the Slipknot vocalist said he only said that after seeing a clip of the rapper complaining about rock artists wearing comfortable shoes on stage.
“I watched that and thought, ‘You bastard,’” Taylor says. “You’ve been here for five minutes and now you’re going to open your mouth to talk about bands that have been doing this for 20 years, in the mud, in the dirt? They’re going to wear whatever they want. You’re going to walk around with your tongue painted black and try to talk shit about bands that would destroy you? Fuck off.”
The Slipknot vocalist then admitted to having said what he meant about artists who change musical genres in response to that comment, but stressed that he did not mention Gun Kelly's name. The singer also insinuated that the rapper "wasn't happy" to see that there were more people watching Slipknot's show than his during Riot Fest.
“I said what I said because he said what he said,” Corey Taylor continues. “You don’t have the right to come into a musical genre with the history [that rock has], with all the work… The fact that this genre doesn’t even get as much respect as it deserves. You can’t come here like you’re a substitute teacher and pretend you can tell us what to wear.”
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