Machine Gun Kelly has been very open about his private struggles in the past. But one of his strongest support systems was his ex-girlfriend Megan Fox, who explained how she kept the artist from going off the deep end.

Megan Fox felt Machine Gun Kelly wouldn’t care for himself all that much without her

Kelly was once known for his rebellious attitude and lifestyle, which often reflected in his earlier rap records. He credited his upbringing for his behavior. The “Wild Boy” rapper grew up in a lower-class suburban neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. In an interview with Nylon, Kelly felt his environment helped shape his outspoken demeanor.

“There’s a beauty and a rawness to the streets of lower-class suburbia,” Kelly said. “I had a f***-you attitude, in and out with drugs and cops.”

Kelly’s father also played a major part in affecting his approach to life. Kelly was primarily raised by his dad, as his mother left him and his father at an early age. The artist’s father grappled with unemployment and substance abuse issues, the latter of which Kelly would also experience later in life. But his father’s overly strict parenting may have influenced Kelly more than anything.

“I came from a father who was extremely religious and extremely strict, and wouldn’t even let me hold my pen the way I wanted to hold my pen,” Kelly once said on Interview. “That made me rebel completely, and cut off communication completely, because I didn’t want to have any common ground with him. I don’t want to have that with my daughter. Honesty is the key to that relationship.”

His ex-girlfriend, Fox, believed that she helped rein him in.

“There’s never an attempt to control him on my end,” she said. “It’s more that he looks to me to avoid his own self destructive tendencies. And that’s where I’m useful because on his own and left to his own devices I don’t know how much interest he has in caring for himself.”

Kelly agreed, believing that none of the resources he had access to thanks to his star power compared to what Fox gave him.

“So finding someone that can take you out of the fast lane and make sure that you’re safe, because at any minute you can crash — I love that it can evolve into that,” he said.

Megan Fox was allegedly going to leave Machine Gun Kelly if he didn’t get sober

For Kelly, removing excessive drugs and alcohol from his life wasn’t going to be easy. Drugs weren’t just a way for him to cope with his own personal issues. He eventually believed that they were the source of his artistry.

“I think I watched myself believe that drugs were how you attained a level, or unlocked something in your brain, and I’ve seen the pros and cons of it,” he said. “Adderall was a huge thing for me for a long time. And I went from orally taking it to then snorting it, and then it became something where I was scared to ever go into a studio if I didn’t have something. I wouldn’t even step out unless there was a medicine man who was going to visit me and give me what I needed. And that’s where it becomes a problem.”

But eventually, it seemed that the risk of losing Fox outweighed his desire for Fox. An insider claimed to InTouch that Fox reached a breaking point when it came to Kelly’s drug use. She was allegedly willing to walk away from Kelly for good if he didn’t sober up.

“She wasn’t going to stay with him, not after the way he was acting, destroying guitars, smashing glasses on his head and raging at anyone who got in his way,” the insider claimed in 2024. “He was headed for disaster until he made up his mind to change.”

Kelly’s vow of sobriety didn’t save his relationship with Fox in the long run, however. Fox was reportedly distraught after the two ended things for good in November, 2024.