“in this clip mgk blurts out a justification for statutory rape that amounts to ‘its ok because other famous men do it,’” Glass wrote on Twitter Monday. “seems like he’s spent a lot of time thinking about this. quickly rattling off a list of examples that encourage predatory behavior towards underage girls.”
In her tweet she includes a clip of an interview Kelly gave to FuseTV about eight years ago when he was 23. In the clip, he’s asked about his celebrity crush.
“I don’t care who my first celebrity crush was, because right now it’s Kendall Jenner. Goddamn it, I said that so many motherf***ing times,” he said. “Don’t let me move to LA. Oof. I’m findin’ her.”
“Counting down the days until she’s 18?” the interviewer asks.
“I’m not waiting till she’s 18! I’ll go now. I’m 23, dog. I’m not, like, a creepy age, like, you know what I’m saying? I’m 23, bro, but if she’s 17 and she’s like a celebrity like, there’s no—there is no limits right there,” he replied.
“Robert Plant was one of the greatest lead singers ever. For all y’all who don’t know, he’s from Led Zeppelin. Dated a girl that was 14. Axl Rose was one of the biggest badasses ever—dated a girl that was 16 and wrote a song on his first album about the girl that was 16. I don’t care. Say what you want man. If Kendall Jenner is in your bedroom, naked, and you’re 50? You’re going,” he continued.
Glass says that Kelly’s arguments are the same as she “heard as a young teenager.”
“arguments that were used to exploit me. this is very personal to me,” Glass continued. “its sad I have to explain this to some of you, but sex with minors is wrong. they are not prepared or developed enough to make clear headed decisions when pressured by manipulative or forceful older men.”
“being used by an older man for sex as a child/teen can have devastating consequences that lasts years or sometimes a lifetime depending on the severity of the abuse,” she added, closing with a plea to Kelly to tell his fans “this was a bad take.”
“tell them this was wrong,” she said.
Newsweek reached out to Machine Gun Kelly’s representatives for comment.
Though Kelly is mistaken when he says Robert Plant had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl, he’s actually referring to the band’s guitarist, Jimmy Page. In 1972, Page started secretly dating Lori Mattix, who was 13 at the time, according to Rolling Stone.
The band’s manager, Peter Grant—eager to keep Page’s secret, lest he be arrested for statutory rape—kept Mattix locked in a hotel room, according to Nigel Williamson’s book The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin. Mattix says that she did not tour with the band, but was kept in Los Angeles, and Page would fly back between concerts to see her.
Mattix says the relationship ended when she turned 16, after catching him sleeping with Playboy playmate Bebe Buell. Buell disputes this, however, and says that Page’s security kept Mattix from seeing him once his relationship with Buell began—though she does say Mattix “had given herself exclusively to Jimmy (Page) from age 14 to 16” in her autobiography.
Though Plant is rumored to have written lyrics referencing Mattix in the song “Sick Again,” he told Rolling Stone in 1975 that the lines in question—“One day soon you’re gonna reach sixteen/Painted lady in the city of lies”—are about underage groupies in general.
“And it’s a shame to see these young chicks bungle their lives away in a flurry and rush to compete with what was in the old days… It’s a shame, really. If you listen to ‘Sick Again,’ a track from Physical Graffiti, the words show I feel a bit sorry for them,” Plant said at the time. “One minute she’s 12 and the next minute she’s 13 and over the top. Such a shame.”
Axl Rose, the lead singer and songwriter for Guns N Roses, was charged with statutory rape in 1985. A 15-year-old girl identified only as Michelle had sex with Rose in the band’s loft, according to the book Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N’ Rosesby Mick Wall.
The band’s guitarist, Slash, said in his autobiography that though his memory was “hazy,” Michelle had sex with Rose while high, and “towards the end of the night, maybe as the drugs and booze wore off, she lost her mind and freaked out intensely. Axl told her to leave and tried throwing her out.” The charges against Rose were dropped for lack of evidence.
Though Rose did write a song called “My Michelle” on Guns N’ Roses’ first album, Appetite for Destruction, the song is about a different person, Michelle Young. Young was a school friend of Slash, and once told Rose that she always wanted someone to write a song about her.
In addition to being a singer, Alice Glass is also an activist against domestic and sexual abuse, donating all proceeds from her debut solo single “Stillbirth” to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). She accused her former bandmate Ethan Kath of sexual, physical and mental abuse during her time in Crystal Castles. Kath denies these accusations. She has since disavowed her work with the band and asks fans to not support Crystal Castles.
Glass’ single “Fair Game,” taken from her new album PREY//IV, takes its lyrics from quotes of her abuse.
“It’s a song made of actual phrases that were used in repetition to gaslight me, to intentionally keep me confused and weakened,” she said in a statement when the song was released.
