Machine Gun Kelly told his Nerve co-star Dave Franco about how girlfriend and actress Megan Fox helped him kick his drug habits in a recent Interview profile.
The rapper-turned-pop-punk artist opened up about his Adderall use, when he went “from orally taking it to then snorting it,” and how that dependency led him to feeling “scared to ever go into a studio if I didn’t have something.” He also shared how he’s “taking steps” to better himself by starting therapy last month.
“I think I watched myself believe that drugs were how you attained a level, or unlocked something in your brain, and I’ve seen the pros and cons of it,” he told Franco. “…Currently, my drug of choice is happiness and commitment to the art, rather than commitment to a vice that I believed made the art. I’m taking steps. I had my first therapy session last Thursday. That’s the first time I ever went, ‘Hey, I need to separate these two people,’ which is Machine Gun Kelly and Colson Baker. The dichotomy is too intense for me.”
While reflecting on the impact of his past drug abuse on his writing and recording process, MGK recognized two people in his life who were influential in his pursuit for help.
“When you have a partner, mine being Megan [Fox], sitting there with you on those dark nights when you’re sweating and not being able to figure out why you’re so in your head, to help you get out of your head and put it in perspective, that really, really helps,” MGK explained about his girlfriend, whom he first met on set of their film Midnight in the Switchgrass in March and began dating in June.
He also acknowledged blink-182 drummer Travis Barker as a prime mentor in his “grounding” process. The two collaborated on his fifth album Tickets to My Downfall, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 for MGK’s first No. 1 album in October. “Travis Barker has been huge in the process of grounding me, because he’s lived it. It’s much different than a priest or something, where I’m like, ‘How can you relate to me? It’s easy for you to tell me I can get through it when you’ve never faced these obstacles,’” he noted. “Whereas with Travis it’s like, ‘I know for a fact that you went through what I’m going through.’”
Read the entire Interview feature here.
