Who was Machine Gun Kelly's father, James Colson Baker – who was on trial for murder at age 9? MGK's father was a missionary living abroad who was “extremely religious and extremely strict.”

“The story I was always told was that their father dropped the gun and his head basically got blown off. This all happened in my father's room when he was nine years old. So he and my grandmother were charged with murder. They were both acquitted,” the 34-year-old rapper said on the show.

Here's what we know about Machine Gun Kelly – and his relationship with his late father, James Colson Baker, until his death.

Where did Machine Gun Kelly grow up?

MGK was born in Houston, Texas, but lived in nearly a dozen places during his childhood, including abroad. According to CapitalXtra, his parents were missionaries, so they moved around a lot. They lived everywhere from Egypt and Germany to Chicago and Cleveland – where he began performing as an MC and releasing mixtapes. According to Cleveland Magazine, due to his time in Egypt, the young MGK spoke Arabic before he spoke English.

According to MGK's interview with First Avenue, his father moved to Kuwait to work for the Army while his son stayed there and attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver. At some point in ninth grade, MGK also lived in Kuwait, according to his post on X.

What did Machine Gun Kelly’s father do for a living?

Although some details of MGK's background are not entirely clear, US media reports that his father, James Colson Baker, worked as a human resources manager for companies such as Amoco, PepsiCo and Hewlett Packard before turning to missionary work when his son was in high school.

According to MGK's conversation with Dave Franco in Interview magazine, his father was very strict. “I had a father who was extremely religious and extremely strict and wouldn't even allow me to hold my pen the way I wanted to,” he said. “That made me completely rebel and completely cut off communication because I didn't want to have any common ground with him.”

MGK said he takes after his father

During his appearance on Bunnie Xo's Dumb Blonde podcast, MGK talks about how his “emotional side” comes from his father.

“The emotional side of things I got from my father, who was very, you know, he wore everything on his sleeve,” he told the moderator. “His depression was very obvious; his need for love was very [obvious]. I wish I could have told him before he died that his emotionality really inspired me. In retrospect, I thought that was really cool because I'm very emotional too.”

What happened to Machine Gun Kelly's father?

Kelly recalled his last moments with his father in the hospital in an interview on The Howard Stern Show“The last thing we did was drink whiskey together,” he said. “I secretly took a bottle with me to the hospital and we just drank.” He said he asked his father questions about his birth and his past.

Is Machine Gun Kelly close to his mother?

After previously speaking about how his mother left him at the age of nine and left his father “for another guy,” MGK reconciled with her in 2021, according to British media. “The fans are responsible for my mother and I finally getting back together,” he told X at the time.

A year later, he shared a sweet photo of the couple on Instagram and simply wrote: “Introducing… my mommy.”

How many children does Machine Gun Kelly have?