"Shady Bizzness: " Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters" (15 page)

I was looking forward to that because it was the beginning of the
new me—the first day of the rest of my life. We told Mike (the European
tour manager) to hook us up with a straight flight from Amsterdam to
Detroit, no connectors or any of that shit, and he did. Everything worked
out pretty good, and we went home.

On November 14th, we touched down in Detroit. It felt good to be
back, and it felt good to have a new outlook on life; it felt good to have
done some soul searching and to have reinvented myself. I found out what
Byron Williams was all about because I knew what everyone else was all
about. Now, I really know who I am. Sometimes a little solitary confinement
is good, and that’s what being in Europe meant to me.Terrible food, being
away from my family, isolation and minimal money–to me that was solitary
confinement. I had a lot of time to think, and this was the most influential
time for my family and me because I felt purged.

I got the family together, and we went on our yearly trip up north
to a hotel room and ate breakfast and let the kids play. It was a special
time for me because I was able to make up for lost time and bond with
my family, especially my baby boy, because he and I never had a chance to
do so since I was always on the road. This time, I had a nice little break,
and I knew I probably wouldn’t have to work again until the weekend,
when Slim would probably want to go out, which wouldn’t be a problem.
I really enjoyed my time with my family, and I felt different. I felt revived.
I felt as though I had seen all I needed to see, and it was time for me to
be at home. Being in Europe on that bus, I had a lot of time to do some
thinking. Referring to my Bible during my downtime really enabled me
to put my life into perspective. One verse in particular that I came across
really helped me to focus. It answered all of my questions. The verse was
Proverbs 24, Verse 27. It said, “Prepare your outside work. Make it fit for
yourself in the field and afterward build your house. ” I read that, and I
said, “Man, that’s hitting it right on the nose. ” I interpreted that as I had
met all the people I needed to meet in this music business, and I had
gone as high as possible working with Slim and meeting all the people
that I met. I gathered all my resources and contacts and made them fit for
myself, and it was time for me to go back home and build my family back
up and get everything back together and make myself better. That verse
sticks with me, and I’m sure I’m going to remember that for the rest of
my life.

I was getting back into the swing of things at home, knowing at
any time that could be interrupted by a call from Slim. I would call him
at noon every day to see if he needed anything, but oftentimes I couldn’t
even speak to him. I would leave a message with his wife for him to call
me on my cell. I was going to be out and about with my family. When he
was at home, he felt like he didn’t need me. I beg to differ, though, because
I can recall one night after he had a big physical blowout with Kim, he
went out walking to get some air alone in the hood of Detroit, away from
where he and Kim usually stayed in the suburbs. He was walking by these
two black guys at a pay phone who had a dog with them. One of them said,
“What’s up, man? You Slim Shady?” And he was like, “Yeah, ” and kept
walking. The other guy called out, “Like, you Slim Shady for real?” and
Slim was like, “Yeah, ” and turned around to give him a play, but the guy
knocked him down and stomped him and kept hitting him. Eventually, he
broke away and ran home, with his eye looking pretty bad. I told him he
was lucky they didn’t kill him and that he couldn’t keep walking around
like he wasn’t famous.

“You’re famous now, and there are jealous people out here who
want to do something to you. Everybody doesn’t want to be your friend or
get your autograph.You have to be wiser than that.You have to be smarter.
People see all these lawsuits in the paper, and they think you got major
loot. That’s why that happened. ” He then went back to the house to get
Kim, and they did this Bonnie-and-Clyde thing, trying to ride down on
the guys to get revenge. You would think one ass whipping would have
been enough, but they were going back for more, like a combo deal.What
he should have done was filed a police report, or at least called me. But
instead, he put it upon himself to prove he’s hard and go look for this guy,
to look for more trouble.

Needless to say, he didn’t
find the guys, and he had to chalk it up
as an ass whipping like he did. He called and told me everything the next
day, and I was furious. I was like, “I know you were mad, but you can’t
go walking at that time of night thinking that people won’t bother you,
because people know who you are, man; they are going to notice you. ”
The whole point was he felt like he could come home and do the same
things he had been doing before he sold a couple of million records,
but I told him, “Those days are over. You can’t do that shit anymore. You
can forget it. You’re not a normal person anymore. ” All he wanted to do
was be able to turn it on and turn it off, but I told him it didn’t work like
that.

I can recall one time when he took his daughter to a park way out
in the suburbs, and she cut herself playing. While he was tending to her
wounds, a groupie came up and asked him for his autograph, and he told
the guy to get the fuck away. I thought that was the most inconsiderate
thing a groupie could do. People just don’t care.These fans think you owe
them something for that $14. 99 they pay for your CD and will go to any
extent to get a piece of you.

Anyway, the weekend of November 20th, he wanted to go hang out
and show his face at some local clubs like the Shelter and St. Andrews
Hall. He wanted people to know that he still came back to his roots. I
tried to get him to do that often, but he didn’t like to do it unless he was
with his group, D-12. Anyway, this weekend when he called me and let
me know that he, Kim, and D-12 wanted to go out. I took it upon myself
to pick them up because I knew that they were going to get shit-faced
drunk, and I would rather drive them than have them out drunk driving.
Kim already had one DUI. Kim had a nice apartment in Sterling Heights
that Slim signed for, even though he said he wasn’t going to do that.There
were seven people staying in a two-bedroom apartment, and I couldn’t
understand that for the life of me since Slim was sitting on millions.
I guess he always lived like that so he was used to it, but personally, I
couldn’t do it. When I got to the apartment to pick them up, Kim’s sister
answered the door. She had this big-ass black eye and her eyeball was
red. As I was talking to her, my eye started hurting just looking at it. She
told me that she and Kim got into a fight, and Kim did that to her. I was
thinking, “Damn, that’s one hell of a punch!”

Kim’s sister introduced me to her husband, and the
first thing he
did was deny giving her the black eye, and I was like, “Yeah, she just told
me Kim did it. ” I was thinking, Damn, this is a mixture of “The Beverly
Hillbillies” and “South Park. ” As I was sitting there on the couch, there
were a couple of kids running around, being kids, and there were three
cats there, causing my allergies to act up. I looked at the situation and
realized that Slim was the only one working. There was Kim, his sister-inlaw, and his brother-in-law and their children, and I was thinking, why?
He moved from sleeping in a bunk bed at his mother-in-law’s house into
a convalescent home-type situation. I couldn’t understand it. But that’s
the way he chose to live, with everybody there mooching off him. He was
paying all the bills and buying all the food, and he complained about it
but didn’t do anything to change it. I told him to do something about it,
to put their asses out or have them get a job or something, but don’t sit
there and complain about it and not do anything about it. But that’s just
how he chose to live.

We went out that night, and Kim was looking nice. She’s an attractive
woman, tall and a natural blond. She’s very nice looking, but she has the
shittiest attitude. This night, she was dressed nice and was showing off
her new boobs that Slim paid for. They had cost him about five grand,
and Slim and Paul got into a dispute about that. Lo and behold, Kim
got her new tits, so I guess everybody was happy. I guess I would have
done the same thing for her. They looked pretty nice on her. She was
showing off her tits, and Slim didn’t seem to mind, and we then headed
out. Slim tried to drive, but I convinced him that it would be best for me
to drive since they would be drinking.They wanted to go get some drinks,
so we headed to Ruby Tuesday, and Slim got his Bacardi and Kim got
a Hennessy. People noticed him, but no one really stepped over to him
or anything; they would just walk by and wave. They tried to get me to
drink and loosen up with them, but I refused, telling them that I had to
be sober in case something jumped off.We all talked, and I actually had a
good time. Kim even seemed to be in a good mood for a change.

We didn’t have a problem with her that night, and I was shocked.We
talked about how good it felt to be home and to go Christmas shop ping,
and I tried to set Slim up to go up north to the spot my family and I usually
go, but their daughter was in the hospital with the flu. The trip, for them,
was canceled. Anyway, we finished our drinks and headed to St. Andrews.
Kim was showing me her new Rolex that Slim just bought her— it was all
iced out with diamonds and was real nice. I mean, you are sup posed to do
that type of stuff for your lady, but I was calculating all the money that was
being spent right before my eyes. I couldn’t even get a raise. The watch
had to have run at least ten grand, and I saw seven grand spent on Kessia
coming out to Europe and another four grand on Nicole to Switzerland.
That’s twenty-one grand! No doubt, he was the boss, but at least take care
of your people so that they feel appreciated. That’s all people want–to feel
appreciated. Finally, we left and headed to the club. On the way to the club
we played the “Chronic 2001” tape and the song “What’s the Difference”
came on. Slim’s verse was saying how he would kill Kim and drive around
with her dead body, waving at people, and drop her off at the bus stop and
toot the horn as he drives away, and I had to turn down the volume. I told
them I wasn’t sure how they felt but that that was awkward for me. Kim
was like, “Yeah, isn’t that some fucked up shit?“ and Slim said, “It’s only
entertainment. ”It almost started an argument, but luckily it ceased.

Once we were at the club, I gave him his space because he was
known there, and D-12 was there also, so I wasn’t playing him too
close. Other than some folks coming up kicking freestyles and passing
demos, everything was cool, and my job wasn’t hard that night. Slim
and Kim had some nice buzzes going, and they wanted to leave and
go shoot some pool at a place near the house. I called my people, the
Wadsquad, and they came to shoot some pool, too, and the night went
pretty smoothly. On the way home, Slim had to make his routine Taco
Bell stop, then we went home. It turned out to be a good evening.

November 26th was Slim’s homecoming show at the Royal Oak
Music Theatre, featuring his group, D-12, Royce Da 5’9”, and my own
group, the Wadsquad, was opening up. I had basically politicked this show
months earlier, but my group got played because our name wasn’t even
on the flyer, thanks to Paul. He claimed that he switched printers and that
the information got lost in the transfer. I was like, “Whatever, man. We are
going to rock it, anyway. ” I made sure that I told my crew to shit on every
body on the show, because they all had deals except us. I told my crew we
had to be the best. When we left, everyone there knew who we were. We
had the crowd super hyped. We had been rehearsing all week for it, and
we stole the show. I got them a limo so they could feel what it was like
to roll in celebrity fashion. We also did interviews with The Source and
a radio station, and it was tight—it was a real good feeling. I felt like that
was the beginning of a good thing for the Wadsquad, but that it was the
beginning of the end with Slim.

No one was getting paid to be on the show—supposedly. But I saw
so much money transfer that my head was spinning. I saw the promoter
get some money, Paul gave me some money to give to Slim, and I saw
Paul get a big envelope full of money. I could have sworn Paul said that
this was going to be a charity event. Hell, I don’t know, maybe they were
donating one percent of the proceeds. All I know was that I didn’t get
anything except exposure for my group. Slim was on an ego trip again
that night, but his walls were about to start tumbling down, and I saw
it coming. Whenever we did a show in Detroit, I liked to bring my old
college buddy Collin Love on. He is a big fella, and I like working with
him because he doesn’t get starstruck; he does what he’s supposed to do.
I was glad he was there that particular night, because whenever Slim and
Kim were together and were drinking, there was always some drama. Kim
was drinking and taking Vicodin at the same time, and her pupils were
so dilated they were taking up her whole eyeballs. It was ridiculous. Kim
was starting to trip out!

She was sitting on the
floor. She was mad and crying, and she didn’t
know why. Her sister came over to me and said, “Kim’s had too much to
drink, too many drugs, she’s mad at Slim, and she wants to drive home.
” I was like, “Look, y’all, don’t start that shit tonight, please! Just be cool.
Just calm down, ” because I knew it would just escalate. About an hour
passed, and Kim and Slim’s argument was getting worse. She was mad
because she wasn’t getting any attention; everyone was focusing on Slim
Shady. Some people were used to this because it happened so frequently,
and others were sick of it. Even members of his own crew started leaving.
Unfortunately, I had to stay, along with my friend Collin. Kim was trying
to drive home, but she was so drunk and high that she could hardly stand
up. Things were getting ugly. Kim’s sister gave me their car keys, and I
told Kim and Slim that I would drive them home since they had been
drinking and taking Vicodin.We would just come and pick up their truck
tomorrow, which would be the best thing. Then Kim began her drunken
protest—”You can’t tell me what to do; you’re not my father, ” blah, blah,
blah. “I’m not trying to be your father, but if y’all go out driving in this
condition, you will go to jail or someone will get hurt. ” I told Kim to
think about Hailey, think about what was more important, her driving
drunk or getting home safely. “You think about it and make your decision
because I’m not going to say anything further on the topic. ” So, I walked
away and left C-Love with them in the dressing room. I made a pit stop
and came back, and all I saw was Kim attacking Slim, and C-Love trying
to pull her off him.

Proof was trying to hold back Slim. I told Proof to get Kim out of
there. In the process of him trying to do that, she hit Proof in the chin.
Proof had seen this scene for the past ten years, and he was tired of it.
He had enough of them fighting. Proof was tired of being in the middle.
C- Love tried to get Kim out of there, but she tried to slap him, so he was
like, “Fuck this! I’m not getting involved in this domestic shit. ” I tried
to get Slim away from her, and she pushed me from behind. I told her,
“Don’t ever put your hands on me. I don’t get paid enough for this shit!
You don’t ever put your hands on me!” I told Slim, “If she puts her hands
on me again, I’m going to act like I don’t know her!” Kim got mad and
stormed out. Slim was like, “Naz, go get her!” I said, “Look, she put her
hands on me. If she wants to leave, let her leave, ” but I told C-Love to
kind of trail her. He gave me a look that said he didn’t expect to be doing
all of this extra shit, but I told him to do it, and I would appreciate it as
a favor. C- Love and Kim’s sister trailed her. They went out to the parking
lot and lost C-Love. The story we got was that Kim punched her sister in
the eye— again! Then Kim took the car keys and drove off.

Kim was now gone, driving drunk. She was gone literally and
figuratively. She was high and drunk. We were trying to get Slim together,
and he was worried about Kim, which was understandable because she
was in no condition to drive. She was either going to kill somebody, be
killed, or end up in jail. I told Slim I would take him home, but it would
be better if he stayed at a hotel or over at my house because if he went
home he would end up in jail because they would only get into another
fight. He agreed. “Man, let’s just go!”While Slim and I were in the parking
lot, one of the groupies came up with this big-ass bag of pills, and that
held us up for another ten minutes. Mark Labelle (Slim’s road manager)
politicked these pills for him.Then Slim said he was straight at that point,
since he had the pills, and I was like, “Man, this shit never stops. ” He tried
to put the pills under my car seat, and I was like, “Man, you better put that
shit in your pocket because if we get pulled over I’m not getting caught
up in that shit—that’s a lot of pills. ” He said he would tell the police they
were his if we got pulled over, but I was like, “Fuck that! Put that shit in
the trunk, ” and he did.

On the drive home, Slim decided to spend the night at my house
rather than go to his house, but my boy was throwing an unofficial after-
party that we wanted to check out first. At one point, Paul found out about
it and confronted me about it that night, but I nipped that in the bud
quickly and told him not to ever confront me on some shit someone else
was doing. “That’s my man’s party, not mine. ” Paul was like, “Well, you tell
him, ” and I cut him off again like, “Naw, here he is right here. If you have
something to say to him, you tell him, and I suggest you handle business
better next time, ” and I walked off. While we were in the car on the way
home, Slim got a call on his cell phone from Kim’s sister and, surprise,
surprise–Kim had been arrested for drunk driving in Troy. She blew a 3.
0 on the Breathalyzer. We had to go way out of our way to Troy to get her
because she was locked up in the back of a police car. Slim convinced the
police over the phone not to impound his car because he was on his way.
I told Slim that the police knew who he was so not to agitate them and to
just let them do all the talking, and we would get out of there.

Luckily, the police were fans of his, and everything worked out OK.
The police told him that normally they impound the car, but since it was
in his name they wouldn’t, but if Kim was ever caught again driving drunk,
they would take the car and her license because that would be her third
time. They also told Slim that if she would have hit or killed somebody
that he would end up broke because the car is in his name, and he would
be held responsible.That blew Slim away.The police let us go, and all they
wanted was a picture with Slim Shady and an autograph out of the deal.
Slim ended up going back to the apartment. I thought about everything
that had just happened and decided to go holler at my boys at the party
anyway. My boy who threw the party wanted to know where Slim was, and
I told him what happened. That was pretty much how my adventure with
Slim and Kim ended that night.

I called Slim’s apartment to see what was going on. I found out
that they hadn’t yet released Kim, whom they had clocked going eighty
mph in a twenty-mph zone, swerving, and it was a miracle that she hadn’t
killed herself or someone else. Pathetic. They also revoked her license
indefinitely, and it was possible that she would have to serve some jail time.
Slim was going to have to spend a lot of money, because he had hired a
lawyer and was trying to keep her out of jail, at least until after Christmas.
Kim is just a reckless person. You would think that Slim, being the wild
hip-hop star, would be the reckless one. He did his share of crazy shit,
but Kim was just outlandish. It was a bad reflection on him. Not only was
his mother suing him, but also he was going to have to shell out twenty
or thirty grand representing Kim in court, and Paul was controlling his
money. Plus, Kim might still have to do some jail time.

Kim is going to AA meetings to show she’s getting help, but how
long is that going to last? Knowing Kim, she is still going to keep drinking
and driving. Thinking back over all the past events that I witnessed, I
wondered why Slim stayed with her in the first place. She would drive a
normal man crazy. The biggest thing I fear for Slim is his life, because I
fear that she is either going to kill him or he is going to kill her, or she is
going to do something to make him go broke. I don’t know if she realizes
what she is doing, but she is doing it. I can recall one time in South
Carolina on the Warped Tour when Slim flew Kim and a few of her family
members out so they could enjoy themselves. He treated them real nice
and did a lot more than he had to do for them.

At one point, we were loading up the bus and suddenly I saw
Slim and Kim getting into this huge blowout fight. They had both been
drinking, but they weren’t overly drunk or anything.This wasn’t caused by
liquor, this fight stemmed from something else. I’m not quite sure what;
all I knew was they were both fuming. He was sitting at a table with his
legs up and his head against a mirror, and she was standing. He told her
that he was going to send her home tomorrow and, as usual, she flipped
the script and involved Hailey. She kept saying, “This is how you do your
daughter? You’re just going to send Hailey home??” She kept saying that
over and over. She always did that to make him seem like the bad guy. She
tried to twist everything and use Hailey against him. He really wanted to
spend all the time in the world with Hailey, but not with Kim, and I don’t
blame him. The bitch is crazy! He was like, “Kim, you got to go, you got to
get out of here. You are going home tomorrow. ” It got really ugly.

Slim was like, “Naz, will you get her out of here?” And I was like,
“Man, I told you before that I don’t like to get involved in this domestic
shit, and if y’all can handle this between yourselves, I would very much
prefer that. ” He was like, “Naz, she has to go!” So, everyone was looking
at me to get her off the tour bus. There I was, trying to coax Kim off the
bus, like, “Kim, we have to get on the road, you have to go. ” She was like,
“I’m not leaving. This is all the time he wants to spend with his daughter,
” and I was like, “Kim, it’s not that, it’s you. ” She was steadily ranting and
raving, and the whole scene was sick. I decided to go outside the bus and
tell her cousins what was going on and that Gus, the tour manager, had
arranged for them to leave tomorrow.We would give them some money if
they wanted to stay longer, that they would definitely be taken care of, but
Kim and Slim were getting into it. Slim was tired, and Kim was causing
too many problems on this tour. Kim’s relatives didn’t like it, but they
understood. I convinced one of Kim’s cousins to come get Kim off the
tour bus because I didn’t like to get involved in the domestic aspect of
the problem. She agreed, and by that time there were groupies gathering
in front of the hotel, and they could hear everything being said. They
were standing in awe because they were getting a real-life taste of what
he talked about on his album. They were like, “Wow that’s Hailey! That’s
Slim! That’s Kim! Wow this is just like the album!!”

I managed to convince some people to leave, but some remained,
staring.It was like some paparazzi shit.Kim’s cousin tried—unsuccessfully—
to get her to leave. Slim then stood up and said, “Kim, will you please
leave?” and she used this moment as an opportunity to try to provoke
him into a fight, saying, “Oh, you want to fight me now?” He just sat back
down and said, “No, Kim, I don’t want to fight you. I just want you to leave.
I will call you tomorrow. I just don’t want to go through this anymore.
” Suddenly, she was like “Fuck you, Marshall!” and slammed his head
into the mirror—BAM!! He sprang up from the chair with his fists balled
up, but he didn’t hit her. I could tell he wanted to beat the shit out of
her— and I wanted to help him—but he didn’t hit her.

By this time, I was standing between them, and he was yelling at the
top of his lungs for her to get off the bus, and she was trying to get at him
even more. I was like, “OK, Kim, you’ve proven your point, it’s time for you
to go. ” So she reached around me and pushed his head with her finger.
She was trying to irritate the hell out of him, and I know she was, but all
he was trying to do was not catch a case. At this point, I was guiding Kim
off the bus gently by her elbows, and she pushed me. I said, “C’mon, Kim,
this is between you and your husband, not me and you. I’m trying to make
the situation better, and you are trying to make it worse, ” etc. She was like,
“Fuck you, Naz. He’s not a good father. All you guys do is what he tells
you to do. You guys all kiss his ass!!” I was like, “Kim, I’m trying not to
hear that.You have put your hands on me now, and I am trying not to hear
that!” I stepped outside, because trying to be a gentleman to a total bitch
had made me reach my threshold of tolerance. She is the type of woman
who wants you to put your hands on her. She wants to fight.