MGK, the dad he wants to be

An interviewer expecting his first child, a girl, asked MGK for advice. His answer came straight back: “Always make sure throughout her growing up that you call her beautiful.”¹⁴

MGK wanted her to grow up hearing affection from her father so often that a young man’s easy compliments would not be enough to impress her. She would already know that being loved meant more than being told she was beautiful.¹⁴

Colson Baker, known as MGK, shares his older daughter, Casie, with Emma Cannon. Remembering Casie’s birth, he admitted that he had not known how to help. He tried to make Emma laugh through the delivery, but she wanted him to stop joking. When the baby took her first breath, he cried. He described it as the first time he had fallen in love.⁹

The hug she came back for

In 2024, a podcast host who was about to become a dad asked MGK what to expect. His advice began with how a father sounds to his child: “watch the tone of your voice.”¹⁵

MGK recalled Casie coming to him and saying, “I just need your hug.” He burst into tears while holding her. He had offered her that comfort as she grew up; now she was coming to him because she wanted it.¹⁵

“You are always going to be the safe place for your daughter,” he told the interviewer. He wanted a dad to give his girl that closeness long before she had to ask for it. The dad-to-be was moved to tears too.¹⁵

His affection can be considerably less solemn. During a photo shoot in 2020, he was on FaceTime with eleven-year-old Casie while changing into a white suit. She told him, “You’re giving me Grease vibes.” He protested, put on ’N Sync and sang into the phone. A break at work became a performance for his daughter.¹

That protective feeling could catch him by surprise. In 2021, he described walking behind Casie through an airport and noticing the bounce in her step. She seemed excited simply to be alive. “I just pray to every God that exists that she just keeps that bounce forever,” he said. He wanted to protect that joy, and to keep being there to see it.¹²

Learning to hear the hard things

Casie could also tell him something he did not want to hear. He recalled her saying, at roughly eleven or twelve, that she knew when he was high. “The ultimate let down,” he called it. He acknowledged that changing took time; knowing he had disappointed her did not immediately free him from addiction.¹⁸

He connected his wish to change with his own childhood, when he had felt pushed to be someone else. He recognized that pressure in fathers trying to relive sporting ambitions through their children. Sitting at his daughter’s volleyball games, he wanted to become the father he had needed himself.¹⁸

He entered rehabilitation in 2023. Asked in 2024 about becoming a better dad, he described what clearer days made possible: listening properly, having patience and offering advice without being driven by his next craving. He also resisted being congratulated as though the work were finished.^{2, 9}

He later spoke about another rehabilitation stay over the 2024 holidays. By 2026, he was describing how work and the search for outside approval had crowded out family life. Remembering Casie’s earlier childhood, he said, “my eyes were physically open, but I was not there.”^{5, 4}

His public record also includes sexualized remarks about a seventeen-year-old girl in 2013.⁶

A volleyball dad, with outfit restrictions

By November 2024, he could describe an evening at Casie’s volleyball banquet with wonder and a little embarrassment. “Our children are like a mirror of ourselves,” he said. Fatherhood had shown him the man he had been and the one he wanted to work toward becoming.¹⁶

At the banquet, he was the youngest parent, and Casie had given him restrictions on what he could wear. He was amused: being a famous musician had not made him any less capable of embarrassing his daughter.¹⁶

He has rearranged the working day for her world. A scene in his 2022 documentary trailer follows him boarding a plane straight after a show to make her volleyball game the next morning. By 2024, he was describing himself as a volleyball dad; performing was his job, and her game was where he wanted to be.^{11, 18}

At home, music gives him a chance to listen to her. He has said he trusts Casie’s judgment of his songs “more than I trust my own now.” In the car, he lets her choose the music. Her selections still surprise him. He can spend his working life deciding what people hear and happily hand that decision to his daughter.^{10, 4}

For Father’s Day in 2024, Casie surprised him with balloons spelling Dad, and he cooked for her. In the video he shared, he prepared chicken fried rice, then baked brownies. “I like to cook for her,” he explained. He also lit a candle for his own late father. The day held both the pleasure of being someone’s dad and the ache of missing his own.⁷

The memories still to make

In March 2025, he and Megan Fox welcomed Saga Blade. A few months later, he recalled someone praising his fathering simply because he was holding the baby. He thought the credit belonged to Fox, who was doing the work while he played guitar and hoped Saga was happy. He could recognize the absurdity of getting applause for an ordinary part of being a dad.^{5, 8}

He had written Saga a ukulele lullaby. With Casie, he could share the songs they played in the car; with the baby, he was making music to soothe her. At the same time, he acknowledged how little sleep Megan was getting while he traveled for performances and caught up on rest.^{3, 4}

One day in May 2025, good news arrived while Saga was sleeping. MGK discovered he was on a music-playlist cover, jumped with excitement and called Casie on FaceTime. He wanted to shout about it, he told her, but her baby sister was asleep. Even a celebration had to fit around the baby’s nap.¹³

While sitting by a fire on a wilderness trip, MGK talked with his guide about fatherhood. He acknowledged “a lot of years of not doing it right,” but said he had kept trying. Addiction was still a struggle. He felt he was becoming a better father and wanted to hold on to the playful side of himself that fed his creativity.¹⁷

Near the end of the trip, his guide asked what goals he still had. MGK wanted time with his children, family and friends. “I just want to make memories now,” he said.¹⁷

His guide told him his girls should be proud of how far he had come. “I hope they will be,” MGK replied.¹⁷