Machine Gun Kelly got to work with one of his favorite artists on his new pop punk album Tickets to My Downfall, which was executive produced by Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. As Kelly tells Kerrang!, his approach to making the album was also greatly influenced by Kurt Cobain.

“Kurt didn’t give a f*** how he sounded,” the rapper-turned-rocker says of the late Nirvana frontman. “He gave a f*** how he felt.”

“[Cobain] was like, ‘Dude, my stomach hurts today. I feel like s***. I hate this song that you all love so much. I’m gonna play it terribly. I’m not even gonna sing the right lyrics to this s***. F*** you!'” Kelly continues. “That is how I felt when I was 13.”

MGK particular admired how Cobain seemed more concerned with the passion and emotion behind the song than with technical proficiency.

“I was [in] a basement; where the f*** was I going to learn how to play like Steve Vai?” Kelly recalls of his youth. “I couldn’t! I was broke. No one gave a f*** about me. Give me three chords, though, and tell me to show you how I feel, and I bet you I will.”

Tickets to My Downfall, which features the lead single “Bloody Valentine,” is due out September 25.

By Josh Johnson
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