MGK Said He Had a Very Good Reason For Skipping 2025 American Music Awards After Walking Red Carpet

You might have noticed that Machine Gun Kelly walked the red carpet at Monday night’s (May 26) 2025 American Music Awards, but did not appear to make it into the actual ceremony in Las Vegas. According to E! News, the “Cliché” singer had to bail on his first major event since welcoming a child with ex Megan Fox in March because their daughter was home sick with a fever.

“Baby’s great,” he told E! of the child whose name the former couple have not yet revealed. “She has a little bit of a fever, so I’m gonna just walk the carpet and go back, you know what I mean, and handle my business. Give her my pheromones, and let her heal up.”

MGK, 35, who also has a 15-year-old daughter, Casie, with ex Emma Cannon, told E! that family always comes first. “I was born to be a dad. Yeah, it’s my purpose,” he said. Before taking his leave, MGK spoke to Billboard on the AMAs red carpet about recording the new single in his living room after his studio burned down, switching things up with with “new pictures in his art gallery” and returning to the Warped Tour.

To date, like many celebrity parents, Machine Gun (born Colson Baker) and Fox have kept details and photos of their daughter offline, though the proud dad did share a sneaky selfie last week in which fans could get a glimpse of the three-month-old in a baby carrier strapped to the rapper/singer’s chest reflected on a shiny car door.

The rapper-turned-singer is riding high at the moment after his pop-leaning latest single, “Cliché,” topped Billboard’s new music poll on Friday (May 23). Fans chose it as their favorite new track of the week, with the tune running up 38% of the vote as it edged out new songs from Joe Jonas, Burna Boy, Travis Scott, Karol G and Alex Warren with Jelly Roll.