During his years on SNL, Pete Davidson became one of the show’s most reliable Eminem impersonators. Eminem and Slim Shady are still easy reference points in 2020s pop culture, and Pete had been preparing for that role since childhood.
On the recent episode of Netflix’s Pete Davidson Show, he said he became an Eminem fan very early. But to keep Eminem CDs in the house, he had to get creative.
I loved Eminem growing up, and I had to hide it. So what I would do was buy a Rod Stewart album, photocopy the front of the CD on computer paper, make a sticker, and put the sticker over The Eminem Show. Then I’d put The Eminem Show CD in the Rod Stewart case.
I did that for all the Eminem and 50 Cent albums, and I had like ten Rod Stewart albums, and my mom just thought I loved Rod Stewart.
The choice of disguise was not random. In 2022, when he told Kevin Hart the same story, Pete mentioned that his mother loved Rod Stewart. So hhe chose an artist his mother would never question.
Years later, it all came full circle. After playing playing Eminem-inspired characters on SN, Pete then appeared as himself doing a Shady-style impression in Eminem’s “Houdini” video.