Giving them hell. Tyson Ritter‘s claims about Machine Gun Kelly‘s “unhinged” behavior have put him back in the spotlight years after rising to fame with The All-American Rejects. The Oklahoma native, 39, raised eyebrows on Tuesday, May 30, while discussing an interaction he had with Kelly, 33, on the set of the movie Johnny & Clyde.
Ritter stars in the crime flick with Kelly’s fiancée, Megan Fox. “I go over [to Megan’s trailer] and there’s her man in there with her. This Colson guy, who you know as Machine Gun Kelly,” the “Move Along” artist said on the “Tuna on Toast with Stryker” podcast. “I call him ‘Pistol Pete.’”
Ritter plays a character named Vince, who serves as a “henchman” to Fox’s character, Alana. The “I Wanna” singer explained that he wanted to put his fingers in Fox’s mouth during her death scene as a reference to Alana making the same gesture to Vince throughout the movie. “[It was] resolution to my character getting his revenge,” Ritter said. However, the suggestion allegedly didn’t sit well with Kelly. “Colson, like, just goes from zero to, like, rage and [was] super angry,” the musician claimed. “He was super bummed about me asking if I could put my fingers in Megan Fox’s mouth and I knew she was right there and he just went ballistic.
He kind of went [into] maniac mode.” Ritter teased that the alleged incident actually worked to his advantage as inspiration for his role in the upcoming movie Prisoner’s Daughter. “I remember when Pistol Pete started going ape on me, I was like, ‘This is really confrontational, but also, like, thank you dude,’” he recalled, noting that the “Bloody Valentine” artist simply “might have been having a bad day.”
Neither Kelly nor Fox — who got engaged in January 2022 — have responded to Ritter’s claims.
While the Idol star has branched out to acting in recent years, Ritter is best known as the lead singer of The All-American Rejects. The band was formed in 1999 when Ritter and guitarist Nick Wheeler were still in high school. Their self-тιтled debut record dropped in 2002, but the group gained even more recognition for their second album, Move Along. (The 2005 LP featured hits “Dirty Little Secret,” “Move Along” and “It Ends Tonight.”)
After releasing two more albums in 2008 and 2012, Ritter announced via Twitter in 2018 that his band hoped to continue making music “without all the politics that come into play when signed to a major label.” They left Interscope Records and signed to the indie label Epitaph Records one year later.
During a 2020 interview with Radio.com, Ritter hinted at the future of The All-American Rejects as he quarantined in New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s not going to be very likely that we are going to do another record anytime soon if ever,” he said at the time, noting that he had “other projects” in the works.