After a viral TikTok video accused him of “muting” his guitar on stage, Machine Gun Kelly fired back with “proof” it’s not true.
Last week, a guitar shop employee by the name of Gunnar DüGrey sparked a TikTok war with Machine Gun Kelly after uploading a video titled, Machine Gun Kelly EXPOSED.
In the now-viral video, DüGrey made a pretty bold claim about the famous pop-punk artist’s live performances. Little did he know, he’d get a fiery response from MGK himself.
As can be seen in the clip below, DüGrey starts by making reference to a “kill switch” feature located on the body of Kelly’s signature pink Schecter guitar. He then showcases various images of MGK performing live with the instrument, pointing out that the kill switch is allegedly in the “down position” in all of them. This position is supposed to mute the guitar’s volume output entirely.
“I’m not making any definitive claims here, but it certainly seems like [Kelly] doesn’t use [the switch] for much other than muting his guitar while he plays,” says Gunnar.
@gunnar_dugrey Machine Gun Kelly EXPOSED JK ProbablyJustACoincidence FYP MachineGunKelly MGK Guitar GuitarDrama Exposed MGKExposed
Much to the shop employee’s surprise, the video became a viral sensation and prompted a response by Kelly, who clapped back with evidence to debunk the accusation in a video of his own.
With his signature Schecter in hand, Machine Gun Kelly filmed a reaction to Gunnar’s video, pausing to give live demonstrations that prove the employee “reverse-engineered [the switch] to look like that.”
Kelly explained, “when you down, it’s on.” He demonstrated this by playing the guitar with the toggle switch in its down position.
@machinegunkelly #duet with @gunnar_dugrey ♬ original sound – Gunnar DüGrey
He then backed this up with a caption that read, “this guy flipped the kill switch to the opposite direction for his video. Go buy the guitar and see for yourself.”
MGK declared, “I only play my guitar live.” He concluded by urging DüGrey to actually attend one of his live shows so he “can hear the vibe.”
In light of Kelly’s response video, Gunnar has since uploaded a formal apology, addressing the Emo Girl artist directly and admitting he “was wrong.”
@gunnar_dugrey My response to @machinegunkelly #FYP #guitardrama #MGK #machinegunkelly #guitar
Of course, we all make mistakes. But unfortunately, in Gunnar’s case, this one reached a wider audience than he was anticipating.
“I did not expect 2.5 million people – and MGK himself – to see [the video] so I probably would have done a little bit more research, a little more due diligence had I known that was gonna happen, ” he said. “So I’d like to formally apologise to Mr Kelly – maybe we could do a shred battle or a collab or something like that if you don’t totally hate me.”
Although Gunnar did apologise, he didn’t miss the opportunity to bad mouth MGK a little more by saying after hearing a clip of the emo-star live, there was no doubt in his mind that it was MGK play… implying that it was a bit shit.
