When the wrong weed meant Machine Gun Kelly lost out on a huge movie role
Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) first came onto the musical scene as a rapper. In 2018, he entered a feud with Eminem and didn’t fare well in it. That said, over the past few years, he has transitioned into rock music and has opened up about his love of certain rock artists—something he didn’t do while active in hip-hop.
Machine Gun Kelly is known for being a fan of the late artist David Bowie and even called himself the David Bowie of his generation in his 2017 song ‘Golden God.’ The rapper and singer has stated on multiple occasions that he was inspired by Bowie growing up and has previously told the online magazine JOE that he was influenced by the 1977 song ‘Heroes’.
During his interview with the online publication, MGK unveiled that he was moved by Bowie’s last album, Blackstar, explaining, “His last album, just listen to how much it was hinting towards his death. I was actually over here [when it was released], the promotion was everywhere so I went and listened to it straight away. But when I went back and listened to it after he was dead, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ It just hit me in a much different way.”
That said, Kelly was ready to audition when an opportunity to play Bowie in the 2020 biopic Stardust came his way. However, his lifestyle at the time ultimately prohibited him from sending in his audition tape.
During a discussion with Interview magazine, Kelly laughed when speaking about the missed opportunity, unveiling, “What’s funny is that in real life, four or five years ago, I did audition for the Bowie biopic. I think it was called Stardust. But I never sent in my tape!”
Kelly said that he was desperate for the part, but his love of marijuana stopped him from performing properly. Elaborating on this, the rapper continued, “I smoked the wrong strain of weed and rewatched it, and I was like, ‘I’m too insecure. I can’t do it.’ I did the bolt. I did the Ziggy Stardust. I had a dialect coach help me master his exact way of speaking. I did all of that. Then, I did the audition, was about to send it in, and I was smoking this weed in Europe and rewatched the tape and was like, ‘Oh, I can’t send this!’”
Bowie inspired Machine Gun Kelly in various ways. As such, since leaving hip-hop, he has begun to embrace his glam-rock side more with his aesthetic. Explaining it was Bowie’s death that pushed him in this direction, Kelly concluded, “Ever since Bowie and Prince passed I realized that I really wanted to start making more than just statements with my music.”
He concluded, “If that means that clothes can be a statement, which they are, but it took me a while to realize. And they really inspired it. So ever since then, I’ve just been doing statement pieces.”