Eminem's Mother Debbie Nelson Dies: How Rapper's Turbulent Relationship With Her Shaped His Career

Eminem's Mother Dies: Debbie Nelson has passed away. She was 69. Eminem’s longtime representative Dennis Dennehy confirmed Nelson’s death in an email on Tuesday. He did not provide a cause of death, although Nelson had battled lung cancer.

Eminem's rocky relationship with mother inspired his songs

Nelson was born in 1955 on a military base in Kansas. Her fraught relationship with her son, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, has been no secret since the Detroit rapper became a star. Eminem has disparaged his mother in songs such as the 2002 single Cleaning Out My Closet. Eminem sings: “Witnessin’ your mama poppin’ prescription pills in the kitchen. ... My whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn’t.”
 

In lyrics from his Oscar-winning hit Lose Yourself from the movie 8 Mile, his feelings seem to have simmered, referencing his “mom’s spaghetti.” The song went on to win best rap song at the 2004 Grammy Awards. Nelson brought and settled a pair of defamation lawsuits over Eminem’s statements about her in magazines and on radio talk shows. In her 2008 book, “My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem,” she attempted to set the record straight by providing readers details about the rapper’s early life, writing that Eminem had forgotten the good times they had. “Marshall and I were so close that friends and relatives commented that it was as if the umbilical cord had never been cut,” she wrote.

Nelson-Eminem's reconciliation efforts 

Eminem and his mother went through a turbulent relationship during his childhood and into his Hall-of-Fame career. Nelson considered reconciling with her son in a 2008 interview with The Village Voice. "There's hope for everybody," she said at the time. "It's a matter of just basically swallowing your pride. It's like a cashed check. It's over, it's done. You need to move on." In 2013 when the rapper released Headlights, fans speculated that it was his apologizing to Nelson. "And I'm mad I didn't get the chance to thank you for being my mom and my dad," he sings in one part of the song. “So Mom, please accept this as a tribute I wrote on this jet.”

She celebrated Eminem from afar in recent years. When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, she congratulated him online. "Marshall, I want to say, I could not let this day go by without congratulating you on your induction into the Hall of Fame," she said in a since-deleted video. Along with Eminem, Nelson is survived by son Nathan Mathers.

(With inputs from agencies)