Free "Shady Bizzness: " Life as Eminem's Bodyguard in an Industry of Paper Gangsters" by Byron Williams Page B

an abuser. It’s no secret. I
can recall one day during the Warp Tour where he took fourteen different
drugs. It started with Ecstasy, then liquor, Vicodin, Valium, shrooms,
marijuana,Tylenol 3,Whip-Its, and a host of other over-the-counter drugs.
He was scared to go to sleep that night. Then there were times when he
would be selective and claim he was cutting back. “Today I’m only doing
Ecstasy! ”Slim would say. That would last for twelve hours. I’ve always
seen Slim as an unloved little boy who throws tantrums. He has to have
his way or everyone will be miserable. One time we were running late for
a flight, and he had to have a vegetarian Whopper from Burger King. We
missed the flight! Needless to say, Paul wasn’t happy.
    Slim can be very bold at times, like when were in San Diego. There
was this mother and two teenage kids who claimed they were his stepfamily from his dad. They made it known that they didn’t want anything
from him, they just wanted to be acknowledged. This family had pictures
of Slim’s dad and themselves. The photos had a very strong resemblance
to Marshall. I was given the honor to present this to Slim to see if he
was interested in meeting them. He glanced at the photos and said he
didn’t want anything to do with his dad. He then turned and threw the
photos out the bus window where the family was waiting. The crew tried
to convince him to at least hear their story, but he refused. It was sad
because that might have been his only chance to learn about his dad. But
in retrospect his father might have set the whole thing up. Who knows?

4
    TROUBLE IN PARADISE
    Death Row at the Dr. Dre Break Up to Make Up Reunion, September
24, 1999. My wife and I were out, as kind of a make-up thing for me having
to miss her birthday due to touring. My wife, the whole Shady Tours crew,
and I were loaded up to go to Hawaii, a six-hour flight from LA. It was
a beautiful flight going out, and everybody was having fun talking about
what they were going to do: this, that, and the other. That changed very
quickly because as soon as the plane doors opened, airport security and
Honolulu police were there to escort us from our airplane safely to our
vehicles, telling us they would send our luggage later. We couldn’t figure
out what was going on, we just thought they were giving us extra escorts.
But they were like, “No, we are coming to inform you that there are like
thirty guys here from Death Row Records, and from what we understand
they were on the same plane as Snoop Dogg, and they were antagonizing
him, talking some shit. ” I’m thinking, Man, we are in Hawaii, trying to chill!
Damn! The whole mood went from having a good time to drama. When
the plane doors opened, everything changed. It was like we walked into a
jungle of fire. Things just got hot quickly, and I’m telling myself, This shit
is not happening! This is not happening. Immediately, I’m thinking, OK
I need to send my wife back home. She is going to be mad, but this shit
is about to get ugly. Anytime you got thirty Death Row guys flying from
Cali to Hawaii to try to start some shit, to try to pause the Break Up to
Make Up Reunion, man you know there’s about to be some shit.That took
some masterful planning. Anybody that does that, you got to have much
respect for.You got to have much respect for that because that’s organized.
They got long arms!! That told me right there that they could reach out
anywhere at any given time and get to you, whether it be Dre, Snoop, or
Eminem. They didn’t give a fuck! I learned that real quickly. SHIT! I was
totally blown away. And if I had to say there was one time I was scared, that
was the time, because they caught me totally by surprise for the second
time. I wasn’t expecting to see them there. You know, you are in Hawaii
and you are expecting to enjoy the beach, the sun, the food, but all that
shit quickly changed. The whole setting changed because