Photographers caught the rapper in a pre-show altercation with Conor McGregor.
Machine Gun Kelly is hinting at some major VMAs drama. The 31-year-old rapper appeared on Monday's Late Night With Seth Meyers, and alluded to some off-screen happenings prior to his performance at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, which included a fiery, pre-show confrontation with Conor McGregor.
MGK took the stage with Travis Barker to close out the show with a performance of "papercuts," which he ended by smashing a guitar. While on Late Night, he asked for a band-aid, noting that he had to remove a piece of his guitar stuck in his hand after the performance.
"That was never part of the plan," he said of destroying his instrument. "I kind of did it out of... there could be a documentary about everything that happened backstage at the VMAs."
MGK added that being the show's final performer was also not the initial plan, telling Meyers, "I wasn't supposed to close out the show."
"I was in my set piece. I was in the grave. If you watch the performance I start out in a grave. In the middle of the show they took me out of the grave," he explained. "Dude, story for another day."
MGK's VMAs drama began before he even entered Brooklyn's Barclays Center, when photographers caught a heated exchange between him and McGregor.
According to an eyewitness, McGregor and MGK "exchanged some words" on the red carpet, before the MMA fighter lunged at the musician. MGK and Fox subsequently left the carpet and threatened not to pose for photos, the eyewitness says, but then they returned once McGregor left.
"Absolutely nothing [happened. I don't know. He showed up, and I don't know. I don't know the guy," McGregor told ET's Rachel Smith after the fact. "Nothing happened with me, I only fight real fighters, people that actually fight, you know what I mean. I certainly don't fight little vanilla boy rappers. I don't even know the guy. I don't know anything about him, except that he's with Megan Fox."
McGregor was later all smiles on the VMAs stage, where he presented an award to Justin Bieber. For his part, MGK took home the Best Alternative award for his song, "my ex's best friend," before delivering his epic, show-closing performance.
The 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, hosted by Doja Cat, aired live on Sunday, Sept. 12. For complete VMAs coverage, keep checking in with ETonline.com.
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