Last weekend, the Louder Than Life festival took place in Louisville, Kentucky. As one of the biggest rock festivals in America, this event attracts some of the biggest names and characters in music. One of those names had a particularly eventful performance on Saturday night. American rapper and pop-punk rocker Machine Gun Kelly, who is no stranger to controversy, had a bizarre night that included a chorus of boos and an altercation with a barricade-busting fan.

Earlier this month, Machine Gun Kelly drew the ire of Slipknot’s lead singer Corey Taylor after dissing the legendary rock band. During his performance at Riot Fest, which both bands performed at, Machine Gun Kelly stated, “Hey, you wanna know what I’m really happy that I’m not doing? Being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage.” This is in reference to the eccentric uniform and masks that the band is known to wear during their live performances.

Shortly after these comments, Machine Gun Kelly and Taylor engaged in a twitter spat. Machine Gun Kelly called Taylor “bitter” for allegedly having his guest spot rejected on the rapper’s Tickets to My Downfall album. In response, Taylor disputed this claim and provided emails with co-producer Travis Barker that appear to show the singer willingly abstained from the project.

The rapper’s comments appeared to rile up some fans at Louder than Life. Fan footage of Machine Gun Kelly’s set shows a cascade of boos being hurled at the singer. Many fans appear to be holding up their middle finger in the direction of the stage. The chaos did not stop there as Machine Gun Kelly can be seen engaging verbal altercations with multiple audience members. In one video, the musician appears to throw a punch at a fan who broke through a barricade separating the crowd from the stage.

After the show, Machine Gun Kelly took to Twitter to defend his performance and the crowd. “I don’t know why the media lies in their narrative against me all the time but all I saw was 20,000 amazing fans at the festival singing every word and 20 angry ones,” wrote the singer.

Many fans and artists in the metal community have since criticized Machine Gun Kelly for his comments and recent antics. Trivium vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy mocked the singer yesterday on social media, tweeting, “I’d like to formally diss Machine Gun Kelly for “being 31 years old wearing a fucking 16 year old pop punk cosplay identity on a fucking stage.” Heafy then proceeded to call the singer “Squirt Gun Smelly.” Later in the day, Heafy sarcastically apologized to Machine Gun Kelly. The guitarist jokingly revealed that he had since discovered that Machine Gun Kelly was afflicted with “Ligma,” which is a fictional disease.

Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz