“Lonely” by Machine Gun Kelly

Unfortunately Machine Gun Kelly’s father passed away on 5 July 2020. The event left him emotionally devastated, and one of his responses was to come out with this song.  And as its title states, the vocalist is feeling “lonely” without his dad around.

For the most part, the wording is biographical in nature. MGK gets quite candid in detailing his personal relationship with not only his father but also with his aunt. And in the third verse he opens up in terms of his interactions with his dad during his final moments. 

Conclusively one can say that, all lyrics considered, this track serves more of a history of Kelly as opposed to his father. But the primary sentiment being expressed, once again, is that the vocalist feels empty without his pops.

The death of Machine Gun Kelly’s Father (Song’s Inspiration)

MGK’s father passed away coincidentally on the one-year anniversary of his album titled Hotel Diablo. The rapper broke the news to his fans in a Twitter post, mourning his loss while announcing that he would be taking a hiatus from social media to deal with the painful event.

Although the cause of death of the artist’s father is yet to be disclosed, MGK admitted to the British GQ magazine that he owed his father an apology for being such an unruly character during his adolescent years. Contrasting his youthful days to that of his daughter, Cassie, who is more obedient, he revealed to the magazine how marveled he was that his father tolerated him all those years.

Kelly’s father died on July 6, 2020, few days prior to the release of the rapper’s fifth studio album, Tickets to My Downfall.

Writing, Production and Release of “Lonely”

Kelly wrote this song with Travis Barker and Dark Waves. He and Travis Barker also produced the track.

Bad Boy Entertainment released “Lonely” on 25 September 2020. It is part of the MGK’s album, “Tickets to My Downfall”.

Was this released as a single from “Tickets to My Downfall”?

No. Here are the official three singles MGK released in support of the album:

• “My Ex’s Best Friend”
• “Concert for Aliens”
• “Bloody Valentine“

The aforementioned singles alongside hit non-singles like “Lonely”, played an instrumental role in making “Tickets to My Downfall” one of 2020’s most successful albums. The album actually made its debut at number 1 on America’s popular record chart, the Billboard 100. This feat gave Kelly the first US number 1 album of his career. The album also achieved a similar feat in Canada. In Australia, Ireland, New Zealand , Norway and UK, it was also a top 10 entry.

Machine Gun Kelly’s Professional Relationship with Travis Barker

American rapper, Machine Gun Kelly and Blink-182 drummer, Travis Barker, have maintained a friendly relationship over the years that has translated into an ongoing professional relationship that is spawning masterpieces.

Their first music collaboration was in 2019, when Barker featured on MGK’s single titled I Think I’m Okay. They later performed a cover of Paramore’s Misery Business and collaborated on the song, Bloody Valentine, which was released in 2019. Following the release of Bloody Valentine, the two artists developed some more enthusiasm about working together. And this enthusiasm was seen on multiple MGK albums, including his “Tickets to My Downfall” album. The entire production duties of this album were jointly handled by Barker and MGK.

Actually in addition to producing all the songs on the album, Barker also co-wrote all the album’s original songs too.

Barker also featured in the music video for the rapper’s pop-punk song, Concert for Aliens (which is the aforementioned album’s second single).