Actor and musician Machine Gun Kelly shares his struggles with mental health in the documentary “Machine Gun Kelly’s Life in Pink,” available now on Hulu.
The documentary starts with clips of various media outlets hailing the singer’s latest album, but quickly shifts to clips of hatred from the rock community and social media outrage over Kelly’s new musical venture.
By 2019, Kelly had released five hip-hop/rap albums, but in 2020 he shifted gears to a sound closer to his heart — alternative rock —which ruffled some feathers and started an online hate movement targeting the “My Ex’s Best Friend” singer.
The film reveal Kelly experienced a lot of trauma both during his childhood and on stage as a performer. In one scene, Kelly describes a downward spiral into darkness after losing his father in 2020.
“I flew to my dad’s apartment to clear all this stuff out. I had this really weird interaction with this neighbor who told me all these things I didn’t want to hear,” he says in the film.
The conversation with his father’s neighbor left the rocker in a dark space as he “couldn’t get closure on it,” he said in the film. As feelings of panic set in, Kelly grew paranoid that someone would come to kill him. He called his fiancé, actress Megan Foxx.
“I called Megan, I was like, ‘You aren’t here for me,’” he said. “I’m in my room and I’m like freaking out on her and dude, I put the shotgun in my mouth and I’m yelling on the phone and like the barrel’s in my mouth. I go to cock the shotgun and the bullet as it comes back up, the shell just get jammed. Megan’s like dead silent.”
That was the turning point for Kelly, making him realize that something was not right. He decided then to stop doing drugs, and has since started therapy. He also credits his fiancé for being a positive influence on his life.
“Megan became like the sun to me,” he said, “That’s what makes me write those songs — the passion between us.”
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