Machine Gun Kelly has continued his pivot to country by covering Zach Bryan’s ‘Sun To Me’ – watch it down below.
Following in the footsteps of other pop artists turning to country such as Beyoncé, Post Malone, and Lana Del Rey, Machine Gun Kelly (now mgk) has covered Oklahoma’s Zach Bryan from his living room, dubbed ‘Cheshire Cottage’.
After starting his career in rap with 2012 debut album ‘Lace Up’, he would then go on to transition into emo and pop-punk beginning with 2020’s ‘Tickets To My Downfall‘. But it appears as though mgk is now entering a new era of country, having covered The Chicks’ ‘There’s Your Trouble’ at CMA Fest earlier this month.
Now, the rapper and singer (real name Colson Baker) has chosen to sing Bryan’s ‘Sun To Me’, which was released on his 2022 album ‘American Heartbreak’. Take a listen to the cover below:
Recently, stars like Beyoncé have been making the move to country, with six country artists covering her classics for Apple Music and Beyoncé releasing ‘Cowboy Carter‘.
Meanwhile, Lana Del Rey spoke to NME about her turn to country, saying: “When I gave Jack Antonoff his award for Best Producer Of The Year [at the 2024 Grammys], I said, ‘Welcome Nashville to Hollywood and Hollywood, welcome to Nashville because the music business has gone, gone country. And it went silent; 5000 people, dead silent. Then the next week, we had three major artists announce big country albums.
“So where’s ‘Lasso’ going? I really have no idea now!”
NME spoke to Kelly about his pop-punk reinvention and falling in love with actress Megan Fox in 2020, with the musician saying: “‘Tickets’ is essentially my diary, because I did fall in love during the making of this record, and I did become a better person.
“It’s interesting. There was probably a crossroads in the middle of making this album where the title would have lived up to the reality. I think the universe caught on to me wanting to make a change. It was like: ‘Maybe we won’t make this a reality; maybe we’ll make this ironic.’ Instead of the downfall, go ahead and have the biggest rise of your fucking life.”
NME also reviewed Machine Gun Kelly’s ‘Ticket’s To My Downfall’, rating it four stars at the time: “There’s a rebellion in the fact Machine Gun Kelly has even made a record like this. Boisterous, full of sincerity and exciting enough to make you jump on a table in the middle of a board meeting, ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ is an album that not only proves MGK can do whatever the hell he likes, but that also maybe pop-punk still has something important to offer the world.”
In other news, Machine Gun Kelly has said he “doesn’t want any smoke” with Taylor Swift’s fanbase.
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