acting like that (feat. Machine Gun Kelly)

MGK and YUNGBLUD first played “acting like that” for a select group of fans at a December 2019 party celebrating the success of their first collab, “I Think I’m OKAY.” YUNGBLUD announced its official release via Twitter on November 30th, 2020.

The song was originally the sixth track on MGK’s 2020 album, "Tickets To My Downfall", before he removed it for an unknown reason.

MGK told NME in March 2020:

"Me and YUNGBLUD got together to drink some beer after Juice had passed because we were just like, ‘Times are short. Let’s link up.’ And the weirdest night happened, and we went to the studio the next day and wrote a song about that. And that felt like a smash, too."

YUNGBLUD told Apple Music the week weird! came out:

"This song is a direct representation of mine and Machine Gun Kelly’s relationship. We wanted the song to just make people lose control. We wrote it on a night where we were both sad because we had lost a colleague. And we were just like, ‘You’re way too cool to be acting sad tonight.’ We wanted to resonate the idea of you being at your favorite show, with your best friends, going absolutely crazy."

In December 2019, Barker posted an Instagram story of MGK and YUNGBLUD in the studio together. Barker played drums on MGK’s June 2019 track “I Think I’m OKAY,” which also featured YUNGBLUD.