MGK covers Zach Bryan; is he the latest rap-rocker headed to Nashville?

It turns out that Post Malone isn't the only outlaw-style pop artist now more officially centering himself in country music.

Since 2020, two-decade-long veteran and Houston-born alternative rock and rap artist MGK (also known as Machine Gun Kelly, born Colson Baker) has evolved past his hip-hop roots.

Two albums and two EPs released later, the lion's share of his five million albums sold and roughly a dozen top-10 Billboard charting singles are of the emo-punk variety.

This most notably includes his 2020 Blackbear collaboration "My Ex's Best Friend," plus work with acts as diverse as fellow genre-bending rappers Lil Wayne and Trippie Redd, rockers including the U.K.'s Bring Me To The Horizon, U.S. legends M?tley Crüe, and pop-favored, rock-aimed performers Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne.

On June 26, he released an acoustic guitar-driven cover of Zach Bryan's 2022 "American Heartbreak" album track "Sun To Me," recorded at Cheshire Cottage, aka the living room of his home in Encino, California.

MGK in Music City?

"Sun To Me" is not the first — and likely not the last — time MGK will grow his art via three chords and the truth.

On April 16, he was spotted at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry while his longtime friend — and similar rap-to-rock-to-country performer — Jelly Roll was onstage.

One month later, at May's Academy of Country Music Awards, Jelly Roll offered to Entertainment Tonight, "I could see MGK doing more than one collaboration (with me). That's my guy. We might have something cooking. Something big."

A week following the ACM Awards, Jelly Roll confirmed on a Taste of Country Nights podcast appearance that he, Barker, MGK and English pop-punk performer Yungblud were working on new material.

"I'm in the kitchen, and it's southern fried," joked MGK.

A month later, at CMA Fest, MGK appeared at Ole Red's Spotify House installation alongside Jelly Roll. He played his rock tracks "Bloody Valentine" and "Forget Me Too" and a fiddle-aided cover of The Chicks' 25-year-old "There's Your Trouble." Jelly Roll also joined for a duet version of his hit "Need a Favor" and MGK's "My Ex's Best Friend."

Jelly Roll and Post Malone perhaps paving a successful road for MGK?

Jelly Roll and Post Malone's recent rap-to-rock-to-country moments are worth contemplating in the wake of MGK's apparent forthcoming entry into a more countrified realm.

Before his country stardom expanded, Jelly Roll's 2021 BMG-distributed "Ballads of the Broken" album was first broken to Billboard's rock charts. It peaked just outside the top 40.

His "Whitsitt Chapel" album was a rock chart No. 1 hit two years later.

Alongside his four Billboard country radio chart toppers, Jelly Roll has also achieved two No. 1 rock hits ("Dead Man Walking" and "Need A Favor") in the past three years.

Insofar as Malone, he's blended genres for over a decade, to the tune of four No. 1 hits among his double-diamond equivalent number of singles sales. However, his recent Morgan Wallen collaboration "I Had Some Help" has been on top of Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 charts for the past month and a half while tallying the highest weekly sales and streams of any single released in the past half-decade.

Malone's country-leaning sixth studio album, "F-1 Trillion," has also been announced as arriving on Aug. 16, 2024.

For more information on all things MGK, visit machinegunkelly.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Machine Gun Kelly covers Zach Bryan, considers country crossover