Is Machine Gun Kelly a Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorist?

For those of you unfamiliar with that side of the internet, there's a long-running theory that the United States government and NASA staged the Apollo program in order to mislead the general public into thinking we went to the moon in 1969. And for some odd and unexplained reason, MGK appears to think there's a link between a major Cold War propaganda effort and the rock community's critical reception of his music.

During his acceptance speech for Favorite Rock Artist at the 2022 American Music Awards, the "emo girl" singer tried to draw some parallels between the space race and his much discussed pivot to pop punk. But not before complaining about the height of the microphone stand, of course.

"Thank you to the fans who got me here, and I love you. I just want to say I'm petitioning for longer mic stands next time," the 32-year-old musician said, while also taking aim at "some people in the rock community who called me a tourist."

"But they're wrong," MGK said, before trying to argue that he was a musical astronaut of sorts by calling himself "a rocket man."

"We weren't born on the moon but we looked at it and we were curious and then we went there… supposedly. And these two rock albums were me going to the moon," he continued. "But I'm not exploring the universe yet, and I am all genres."

MGK concluded, "I'll see you on Mars, motherfuckers!"

That said, MGK's bizarre speech comes on the heels of another rant against those who say he's no longer a rapper after turning his focus towards pop punk, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he "never departed, left or switched" away from hip hop — even if he can't say the same about whatever he learned in history class.

Photo via Getty / Sarah Morris / FilmMagic