Machine Gun Kelly goes all out during Bonnaroo fest's final hours: 'It feels like home right now'

When Bonnaroo revealed this year’s lineup back in January, no name elicited more groans — on social media and message boards, anyway — than Machine Gun Kelly.

Why? Those folks probably had an image of the rocker/rapper similar to what we first got as he shambled onto the What Stage: a rail-thin, bleach-blonde dude with dark sunglasses, a studded choker, a cigarette dangling from his mouth and a million other sartorial choices we don’t have time to get into.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for 32-year-old Colson Baker to shed that contrived skin and give Bonnaroo his all.

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He got his start as a gritty rapper some 15 years ago, but has skyrocketed in popularity as he started pruning from a variety of influences – pop-punk, nu-metal and classic hard rock among them. And after the opening one-two punch of “Born With Horns” and “God Save Me,” the glasses came off, and his beaming expression was unmistakably genuine.

“It feels like home right now,” he said. “I (expletive) love that you came to watch our set in this hot weather.”

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Soon, he was leaping off the stage and running down the barricaded path to the middle of the field, climbing atop the camera scaffolding to sing the pop-punk track “Drunk Face.” He gleefully pointed out the totem poles through the crowd, and insisted one – a caricature of Lil’ Wayne – be brought to the stage so he could hold during the Wayne-featuring “Ay!”

There was also his exquisitely cast backing band – including social media guitar sensation Sophie Lloyd, who joined the group last month and is already routinely stealing the show. And Baker apparently insisted on bringing as many of his tricked out stage props (typically used in arenas) on the What Stage. That included two massive inflatable figures, a wall of scattered televisions and a pink helicopter.

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“…Bonnaroo was very upset that we brought (it) in here,” he told the crowd. “But I was like, ‘I ain’t comin’ without the pink chopper.”

He passed on greetings from his famed fiancé Megan Fox, who wanted to say hello to her home state. And during “Lonely,” a song for his late father, he looked to the sky and wished him a happy father’s day.

His biggest hit, “My Ex’s Best Friend,” was an inevitable addition in the final minutes, but MGK closed with the somber “Twin Flame,” ending in a pyrotechnic crescendo.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Bonnaroo 2022: Machine Gun Kelly goes all out in fest's final hours