Shady Bizzness: Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters

by Williams, Byron

  Slim and D-12 in Detroit outside “The Shelter” the T-shirt off the guy and beat his ass and threw him out of the concert. After the show, the guy was waiting at the bus in another ICP T-shirt, saying he wanted to talk to Slim, but I think he wanted to do something to Slim, to be honest. Slim said he wanted to go talk to the kid, but I knew he was going to go over there and beat the kid up so I didn’t let him. Next thing I knew, Gus (the tour manager) said he got a call from MGM security saying that a fifteen-year-old girl was missing who said she was coming to the concert and asked if we’d seen her. We said “no” and shrugged it off. That night the police called my room, and I told them we didn’t have any fifteen-year-old girls with us and got off the phone.The instant I hung up, they were knocking at our doors, searching our rooms. I told everyone we needed to leave because obviously they were trying to pin something on us—and since this was Vegas anything could happen. We got the hell out of there!

  May 8th, Los Angeles, California It was crazy that night! All of these people were in the VIP room— Slim’s people and Dre and his people—and my job was difficult, but Sarge and Rowe helped me out a lot. We kept getting a request from inhouse security for this fighter, Tank Abbots, to come up and meet Slim— he was demanding to meet Slim. The name sounded familiar, but we weren’t letting anybody else up in the room. We proceeded to do the show, and the electricity of that show was amazing! Slim had a chance to meet Dustin Hoffman earlier, and he convinced him to be the mummy as a stage prop that night. No one in the crowd knew that Dustin Hoffman was the mummy, and Dre did a surprise spot and performed “G Thing, ” as well. It was off the hook! Suddenly, we noticed the crowd part and these three goons making their way to the front. I knew then why the name Tank Abbots sounded familiar to me. He was one of the “Toughman” champions WCW-type muthafuckas. He and I were talking shit back and forth, and I knew that I had backup from Dre’s security, as well. DT busted Tank Abbots over the head with a bottle, and basically we were fighting him offstage for the whole concert. We found out that they came looking for us at the hotel that night, too, and we told hotel security about the earlier altercation and not to let those guys in. It was wild!

  On May 9, 1999, there was a hip-hop riot, and guess who started it? Slim Shady, of course! We were in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore when it happened. Slim was in the middle of a hype performance when a hater started heckling him. Slim took notice of the guy and retaliated by dissing him. The heckler continued, and Slim got pissed. The next thing I knew, Slim had jumped off the stage with a flying right cross. Unfortunately, he hit the wrong guy, and then it was on! The crowd swallowed Slim like a giant mouth, and I proceeded in after him. Slim was getting his ass whipped by the same people that helped him sell triple platinum! When I waded into the furious crowd, I was punched. I then turned to the SOB that struck me and beat him into bloody unconsciousness. I had forgotten all about Slim. I had beaten this guy until he was out cold. The crowd could no longer support his weak legs. Immediately, pandemonium broke out. There were more people fighting in the crowd. DJ Head jumped in to fight; Billy, the soundman, left the booth to scrap; the Interscope street team was throwing blows; and The Beatnuts were kicking some ass.Young Z from the Outsidaz and I were back-to-back knocking muthafuckas out! Finally, I noticed Slim on the bottom of a shit-kicking pile with this big fella on top of him. Proof and I started whaling on this idiot. Proof kicked the guy in the head a few times, and I gave this dude some nice rib shots he won’t ever forget. Finally, we picked Slim up and threw him back on the stage.We all had to fight to get to safety because the crowd had turned against us. I rushed Slim to the side of the stage and told Gus that we needed to get the fuck out of there! Gus said, “The show must go on, or they’re going to kill our ass!” and we all reluctantly agreed. We attempted to brush it off as the crowd shouted, “FUCK YOU, SLIM! FUCK YOU, SLIM!” Proof came to the rescue by grabbing the mic and hyping the crowd to another level. He said, “Ya’ll muthafuckas like that shit!” They screamed, “HELL, YEAH!” Proof stood side by side with George Clinton of the P-Funk Allstars. He continued by telling the crowd that Detroit muthafuckas whoop ass! The crowd went nuts. DJ Head ripped the

  turntables with some hype mixing and scratching. When Slim came back on stage the crowd showed genuine love like the riot never happened. Slim made the crowd go into overdrive by performing “Still Don’t Give A Fuck!” The energy was unbelievable. Everywhere you looked, fans were crowd surfing and moshing in the pit. It was amazing to see a fickle crowd cause chaos then release love for Slim. Slim gave the crowd two ovations that night, and they deserved it! After the show, a satisfied crowd mobbed us. Some groupies actually thought that the big brawl was part of the show. We told them that we always do that! That next day we awoke with bumps, bruises, and scratches from the unforgettable riot.

  Sunday, May 16th, Minneapolis, Minnesota The show was off the hook, and the crowd was feeling us. We had the super groupie at this show. During the autograph session at this show in the main lobby, she got down on her knees in front of everybody and tried to suck Slim’s dick. She unzipped his pants and everything, but he wouldn’t let her. Rumor has it that some of the guys from the opening acts took her back to the hotel and got her drunk and, from what I understand, ran bustos on her while she was unconscious and left her in her own vomit. When she came to, she was ready to fight and call the police, but

  MC Proof saves the show once again in Texas.

  Slim is high and DT takes the credit. they somehow convinced her not to. I know she was a freak, but no one deserves to be taken advantage of like that. The most tripped out part about it is that somehow the soundman, Billy, hooked up with her and ended up falling in love with her. She was the same freak everybody ran through. He even brought her on tour with us. Everybody was freaking out that Billy chose to turn a ho into a housewife, but that was his thing. To make a long story short, Billy married her. And she was still trying to fuck and suck on the whole crew!

  Monday, May 17th, Lawrence, Kansas On this day and in this city and state, I didn’t expect to see anything I saw. First of all, Slim’s mother lives in Kansas with her family. Slim and his mom actually communicating was something to see. I told him up front that I wouldn’t get involved in any domestic shit. I wasn’t going to throw her off the bus or anything like that, no matter what she did, because that was his mom. So his mom and a lot of other relatives showed up, not because they were happy to see him but because they all wanted something from him. Gus booked us in this hotel that was old and had a plantation feel to it. The room I was in had these doors that would keep opening all the way back up even though I would keep shutting them. I would hear knocks at the door, and no one would ever be there, and that shit was eerie to me. When the crew and I kicked it, we found that we all had been experiencing the same problems. When we asked the lady at the front desk for directions to the post office, we told her what was happening. She was surprised that we didn’t know this hotel was haunted, and she proceeded to show us pictures in a photo album—all having this ghastly image of half a man or a man with no head in the background. We were all freaked out by that but weren’t too worried, mostly because everyone was going to be tore down that night anyway.

  Before the show, Slim was getting high and drunk on the tour bus, as usual. Everyone was enjoying himself or herself listening to Tupac, which was a ritual. The fun began when Slim’s twenty relatives came to the bus. We kicked the groupies off the bus to make room for his family, who were all drunk as hell. I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. It was like “South Park” mixed with “The Beverly Hillbillies. ” I met his mom, who was like eighty pounds soaking wet with boots on. She appeared to be a nice lady, but she brought a photographer with her and charged people $20 to take pictures with her son and sold pictures to the local news for future stories. Slim told me not to let his mom on stage with him because she would surely try to become part of the show. I put DT on that job, and the show went ov
er well. On the tour bus afterward, Slim and his relatives reminisced—with minor altercations—until he had them leave so that he could have some real fun.

  I never saw so many free-spirited groupies who were willing to do whatever you asked them before in my life. I never saw so many young lesbians together all at one time, either. These three girls, two blond and one mixed black and Indian, showed up at the tour bus saying how they wanted to fulfill a fantasy of all three of them by sleeping with Slim. And they were hot, too. I told Slim about the proposition, and he said that he was with it, so I took the girls up to the hotel room, and the age-old thing happened—a call from the girlfriend back home. Slim’s then-girlfriend, Kim Scott, called him, and they went through their usual argument rituals—he hung up on her, she hung up on him, etc. I situated the girls, who got buck-naked and start sucking one another’s juicy breasts and rubbing one another’s clitoris’. The ladies were getting busy on the bed while Slim was in the bathroom arguing with Kim. I had my camera ready because that’s all the fun I was allowed to have. I kept the photos on file for any future court dates or false accusations of rape. I was still trying to hurry Slim out of the bathroom.The girls were eating one another out and were getting wetter by the minute.They were anxious and impatient waiting on Slim. One girl screamed in hot orgasmic pleasure, as her friend tantalized her hole with her tongue, “Oooh, Oooh! Where is Slim?” I rushed to get Slim again, and suddenly he said he wasn’t doing it! I went out to try to delay the ladies. I said, “Slim’s going to be longer than expected, but there are some other fellas who would gladly keep you company meanwhile. ”

  These girls totally ignored me in the midst of their smorgasbord. Their whole mind set was about having sex with Slim. I was frustrated because I couldn’t do anything. Slim was in the bathroom on the phone arguing with Kim. The rest of the fellas were mad because the girls they were with weren’t putting out. I told the girls, “Slim won’t be boning you this evening, due to some unforeseen circumstances. But the DJ and a couple of the other guys want to break you off a little something. ” Slim basically could have delegated an orgy that night, but Kim stole his mojo! I gave the ladies Slim’s message, “Ladies, hook up with my boys, and I’ll try to get with y’all a little later. ” I said, “Ain’t no use in being stingy with it. ”The ladies were like, “Naw, fuck that! We just wanna get with Slim.You got us up here!” and I was like, “No, I didn’t force y’all up here. You came up here by your own choice. Ladies, you decided to get butt-ass naked and start eating one another out. Therefore, if y’all ain’t fuckin, y’all got to go!” They were like, “Just like that?” I said, “Yeah, just like that!” The ladies said, “Well, it ain’t that kind of party. ” “So then! Well, your clothes are out in the hallway, then!” and I kicked them out. Everybody was like, “Damn, Naz, why you do that?” and I said, “Look, they wanted to get with Slim! They couldn’t get with Slim. They didn’t want to get with any of the fellas. So, I just diffused the problem right there. They had to go. We avoid things escalating and them possibly yelling rape at some point, so I nipped the problem in the bud. ” Unfortunately, not everyone saw it like that, but oh well.

  But the night was still young. By this time, most everyone was passed out from being drunk, and I was sober, as usual, so I decided to go down to the bus to get a brew. There was another party going on in the bus. The bus driver was there and a bunch of college girls and their boyfriends, and once again the girls were getting busy with one another. I was like, damn, there must be something in the air tonight! As usual, I had my camera— the only fun I got to have—and I was like, “Yo, can I get some pictures for my scrapbook?” That was one of the reasons, but another reason was in case someone tried to holler rape, I would have pictures of them doing voluntary sexual acts. So I got pictures of them flashing one another, showing their body piercings and tattoos, and basically just demeaning themselves. One girl got feisty and started feeling on her girlfriend’s breasts while they were dancing. Everybody was drunk, and this one guy decided he wanted to get freaky with someone other than his girlfriend, and his girlfriend was like, “That’s fucked up, but it’s cool. ” So then she tells me and G (the bus driver) that she wants to show us something, so she leads us to the rear. We were wondering what the hell she was going to show us, so I had my camera ready. So she bends over and shows us this tattoo on her ass, she shows us her nipple rings, and she pulls off her

  The Kansas State threesome that wanted to sleep with Slim. Daisy Duke shorts and gets in the spread-eagle position and shows us her clitoris ring. Of course, every position was a Kodak moment for me. It was a beautiful clitoris ring, needless to say. I took it upon myself to leave at that time because things were getting out of hand. I was reaching the point of temptation that I didn’t want to get too close to, so I went ahead and retired for the night. So, if you’re ever in Lawrence, Kansas, and you’re looking for some young ladies, go to the university there.There’s only one university, and that’s where the action is.

  May 19th, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Club Rain) Nothing major happened that night as far as the show. However, that night I learned much about the people around me, as well as myself. I was eager that night because the next day I was going home to spend a few days with my wife and my kids. It felt good to be close geographically to Michigan, and I was looking forward to going home. We were loading the bus and, as I told you before, DT, Eminem’s road manager, and I were always at odds. Our conflict was mainly due to putting Eminem’s safety at risk. That night, we left Wisconsin to go to DC, and DT had left his tour book behind without realizing it. Proof, Eminem’s hype man and a friend of mine, told me that DT had written some negative things in that book about me. He was taking notes about anything anyone did that he found negative, and he had a lot of negative things written about everyone in that book. He kept it as “evidence” of how everyone else was incompetent, so that he could gain Slim’s confidence so that Slim would give him comanagement. It justified a lot of his previous actions of undermining Paul and a lot of other people. I didn’t turn the book in to Paul because I didn’t want to appear as though I was trying to spill the beans on DT because that seemed petty to me. Proof and I were the only ones who knew what was in that book. All I did was gather the information that I needed and make a mental note of it. From that point on, I watched DT because I knew he was the conniving son of a bitch I always thought he was. Later on, DT’s true colors showed themselves, and the other guys saw that I was right about him in the first place. At one point, Paul came and asked me how I felt about DT. Since they were firing DT, I told him that I had read the negative things DT wrote about him, me, and a lot of other people, and that if we weren’t going to work as a team I couldn’t be comfortable under those circumstances because I knew I was doing my job. That was probably the only time Paul and I were on the same page and ever really communicated with each other.

  May 20th Home, sweet home, and it felt good. I got to play with the kids and see the wife, but little did I know that the 21st would be a day of drama. I thought a simple trip to Grand Rapids would go smoothly, but I was wrong. It was cool because I drove my own car to the venue rather than ride with the rest of them. Slim did one of the dumbest things ever: he had one of his mistresses stay with him an extra day. Now, everyone knows a real playa wouldn’t play it that close. He was only two hours away from home, in his home state, and he wanted to have one of his mistresses stay with him, knowing how crazy Kim was! He underestimated Kim. Kim told him she didn’t want to come to Grand Rapids, so he decided to have his mistress, Kessia, a young lady from Florida, stay an extra day with him. She was cool, and we regarded her as more than just a groupie, and she was definitely more mentally stable than Kim. Of course, the first thing I noticed was the mistake Slim made by still having Kessia there. Everyone was trying to convince him to get rid of Kessia in case Kim changed her mind and decided to come to Grand Rapids, which is exactly what happened. So we had to hurry up and get Kessia on the first flig
ht out, and she understood because she knew about Kim, while, of course, Kim didn’t know about her. Now the whole crew was on lie patrol just in case Slim got caught up, which I didn’t like at all because Kim raises hell as it is anyway since she hates the fact that Slim is always on the road. She hates the fact that he has groupies, and she really doesn’t know how to deal with Slim’s success. So Kim checked into the room, and the first thing she noticed was a message for Slim on his phone. So, her being his girlfriend and all, she decided to play the message. As luck would have it, it was a lovey-dovey message from Kessia, saying how she misses him and can’t wait to come see him again, etc. So Kim got pissed. I mean she went through the roof! We got hip to her finding out ahead of time by the crew manager while we were at a sound check. So Slim started the lie, and we all put our heads together to come up with a lie that would keep Kessia out of it as much as possible, since she was such a nice girl. The lie we came up with was that Kessia was a stalker who was madly in love with Slim, and she called every hotel and would say and do anything to get to him. When we got back to the hotel, we saw Kim sitting at the bar, letting some guy push up on her. The first thing out of her mouth was, “What the fuck is some bitch doing on your answering machine, Marshall, and you know about it!” So, we all were like, “What? Oh, that’s Amy, the stalker bitch. ” I’m telling you, that day we all lied so good, it became the truth to us. I mean we all should have won Oscars for our acting jobs. However, Kim wasn’t really buying it, so I pulled her aside and did a little extra bullshitting to convince her, saying that even though she dogs Slim out he would never do anything to jeopardize what they have because he loves her, blah, blah, blah. This was one of the few times they kissed and made up, even though she threw it in his face a few times throughout the day. Somehow we made it through that one. Lying for Slim just doesn’t always pay off.