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

by Williams, Byron

  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.

  6

  HOME SWEET 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 co
nvinced 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.

  Slim is trying to impress Kessia with the $7, 000 he spent on her plane ticket to Berlin, Germany. 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.