A guy who toured with Slim Shady before his rise to stardom showed some pictures from his personal archive and tells stories about their backstage shenanigans.
24 years ago, Reddit user Chupacockbrah had a chance to join short legs of Marshall’s tour in California, which resulted in some unique and rare photos that this user introduced in his post with:
Long story but when I was 14-15 I went on multiple tours with Eminem. Even donned the mummy costume once. We got booed on stage at warped tour 99 after someone through a bottle of water and hit Em in the face, he stopped the show and we bounced “back stage” which was just trailers and tour buses. This was a few years before Eminem was a household name and megastar phenomenon. Most of my pics and polaroids were stolen from me over the years as his star grew and ppl got obsessed. Used to have a polaroid with proof and Em. Sad I don’t have it anymore, proof was the nicest dude ever, so was Kim, believe it or not. Anyways, I guess ama if you want.
Of course, fans were interested not only in these photos but also in stories he saw or heard on the road. And he had them a plenty:
I grew up with a friend that’s dad was his tour sound guy for a while. Took us on short legs of his California tours. Eminem was nice to people he knew. He always recognized me but don’t think he even knew my name. My name is Eric and my brother tells his nieces that in white america he’s talkin about me which is obv not true. But I did have bleached hair for a while so maybe I helped spawn the real slim shady lol. Kim chain smoked menthol 100’s but other than that she just hung out. Supported Em, she was only on tour with us once tho..I have a cool story/interaction with her that I’ll never forget, she tried to protect me, grabbed my hand and pulled me off stage when Em got booed off. He literally said “peace out cali” and booked it. Left us all on stage lol while people were literally throwing fireworks on stage (like the little flowers that spin) it was kinda scary tbh, I just wanted my clothes from the trailer cuz it had my camera and the film capsule if you guys are old to remember that. Had 40 bucks in it but they never found it. She asked how much money was in it and I said 40 bucks so she gave me 40 and my buddy always said I should have said 100. Eminem was never very warm to his fans. He’s always kinda been, how you say this, “the way he is”.
Not the nicest to fans. We stopped at a Jack n the box once in Bakersfield and he walked down the street and a couple kids recognized him and he wouldn’t even talk or make eye contact when they came up. But I will say, he loved my friend’s dad so he treated us kids really cool even tho it’s kinda lame to bring your kid and his friend on tour.
The show they prepared for the tour was surreal:
They had mushrooms on stage and I was the mummy walking around. Crazy side story: When we got back to the tour bus, some warped tour manager guy came in and said they had found the guy who threw the bottle and if Eminem wanted to press charges. Em said “nah” and that was the end of it. That was wild!
Booing Eminem off stage feels unreal now, but back then he was not famous at all and the Warped Tour audience was very diverse:
It was a bunch of punker metal dudes and they prob had no idea who he was.
Also, people always say they were jealous but it actually messed with my head a lot. I mean, sure, everyone at school thought we were Eminem’s homies but in reality if always left me feeling empty. It was sooooo cool to hang out and then we had to go home and back to school and I didn’t want it to end. Didn’t want to live a normal life. And they just kept going on tour and having fun, I just went back to a “normal” and boring life.
At this point it’s been so long, none of it even feels real, just a story I tell and have a few mementos I occasionally break out.
Another user asked Eric about drugs on tour or in general something that 14 years old shouldn’t see. And heard back a story about an unusual trophy Eric brought home after his time with Eminem:
Most people don’t believe me cuz I’m a digital artist that could easily photoshop these but they don’t exist anywhere else so. Also I just tell them to ask my mom lol she agreed to let me go, what could she say? She couldn’t deny me the opportunity.
No drugs really, just weed. I stole his pipe and took it to school. My mom found it washing my clothes and I told her I stole it from Eminem and she was like “welp, I believe that..you can have it when you’re 18” she lost it lol but yeah lots of weed..I went on tour with cypress hill so I’m sure you can imagine.
Other than beer and weed I never saw any drugs. And tbh I was doing some pretty gnarly drugs at the age so wasn’t oblivious at all.
For those who was curious about whether Eminem was funny in real life — Eric confirms:
Yeah he could have killed it as a comedian no joke, would freestyle on the bus. Also, he wrote The Watcher for Dre, heard him reciting the lyrics the year before the chronic dropped and was like whaaaa but I remember him rapping about Gus, the tour manager makin a fuss on the bus and some other rap I can’t recall. He really is as cool and legit as witty as he seems.
It’s been fun. My favorite memory would probably be meeting Em for the first time, he was with Dre and it was surreal. I don’t know if I would want my kid to go on tour with either, but I don’t think I could deny them the opportunity if they were dying to go like I was. My mom knew I was really into his music but she didn’t know enough about him or maybe she wouldn’t have allowed it.
