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My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem: Setting the Record Straight on My Life as Eminem's Mother
Debbie Nelson is not a household name, but her son, Eminem, is one of the world’ s most famous rappers. Unfortunately, her son’ s defamatory references to her at one time labeled Debbie the most hated mother in America. In My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem , Nelson sets the record straight. Filled with details of the rapper’ s early life and rare photos of both him and his mother, this memoir reveals a story that provides insights into who Marshall was and what motivated him to become the superstar that he is.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published September 3, 2007
66 people are currently reading
1070 people want to read
About the author
Debbie Nelson
10 books11 followersDeborah Rae Nelson, also known as Debbie Mathers, was an American author. She was the mother of American rapper Eminem. Nelson was known for her troubled relationship with her son, and also gained recognition for her autobiography My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem, in which she shared her experiences and perspective on their family. She sued Eminem in 1999, and filed a defamation lawsuit against him in 2002, citing distress caused by his lyrics, including mentions of drug abuse and neglect.
Nelson had lung cancer from September 2024, and Eminem provided her with financial support, with the two having reportedly reconciled their relationship.
Nelson had lung cancer from September 2024, and Eminem provided her with financial support, with the two having reportedly reconciled their relationship.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
November 4, 2011
This is a joke. I'm still a little shocked at all I read it. This woman should be mortified she wrote this. I don't even know what to say about the person that would believe this woman's words. It's that crazy.
First I'll give my opinion on Em and his statements before reading this. I basically formed the opinion most others probably did. That he had a bad childhood, that most of what he's said is true but that he's taken some 'lyrical license' (to use the authors words) and has embellished a bit. Or a lot. But, I did think there was mostly truth to what he's said.
I still do. And if you have a brain, you will also after reading this.
So, I'll go in order of the book because I made notes about the things that caught my attention the most. Sorry if this is jerky.
Okay, nothing is ever Nelson's fault. Every time she took drugs? Not her fault. She didn't know. Every time she drank? (Besides once, not her fault. She didn't know.) Nelson was at a Talking Heads concert - with Em, mind you - when she decided to puff on a "cigarette" that "someone had passed to" her. "Everyone was smoking a cigarette" according to Nelson. (pg. 63) Now, I've been to concerts. I have yet to see people sharing CIGARETTES with strangers. Come the hell on. My daughter is 6 years old and knows nothing about drugs besides they're bad. SHE would know not to take a "cigarette" that "someone" gave her. So she starts to feel weird, supposedly asks the guy what was in it and finds she's just smoked weed laced with elephant tranq. in it. That alone, IMO, constitutes bad parenting. But oh, does it get weirder.
Here's some great parenting here. Nelson is minding her business, grilling some food, when all of a sudden, out of the blue and unprovoked, her "cousin" (or some such person. It's confusing.) grabbed a neighbors baby out of her heads, threw him or her to the floor, and started beating the shit out of Nelson. She says that she "yelled but Marshall, in his room with a couple of friends, had his Nintendo turned up loud." Now, personally, if someone stormed into my home, threw a baby on the floor and proceeded to beat my ass, I don't think I'd call attention to the fact that there were other children in the house. Marshall finally comes out, sees him mom all shredded up and throws rocks at the leaving car. (pg. 71)
Oh, side note here, Nelson is one of those people who will be behind you in line at the store and, having never even seen you before, will go into their full medical history. Even when you can tell they're adding shit in for the fun of it. According to Nelson she's had to "relearn" to walk and talk about 8 times. Eminem had to also. I think her "relearning" is what those normal among us call "a normal amount of rehabilitation". Actually some of the most amusing parts of the book are when she goes into these parts. So, she had a concussion, a broken nose, a dislocated shoulder, three or four broken ribs, and gravel embedded in the gashed on her face, arms and legs, along with an injury to her back that she wasn't yet aware of. (pg.72)
The police refused to do anything because of a statement made by Betti that Nelson had came at her first. Hmmmmm. So, Nelson has all these injuries, as related in a report by the hospital, Betti has nada in injuries, and the police just do nothing. Well okay.
Eminem's younger half-brother, Nathan, had to have four of his baby teeth removed due to a "rare bacterial infection" yet he "refused to be parted from his bottle, sucking on it even when it was empty" until he was 3 years old. (pg.80)
WHO is the PARENT here. My daughter didn't want her bottle taken away. But it was. My daughter didn't want her binky taken away. BUT IT WAS. How dare she say he "refused". HE WAS A BABY. I'd bet a large sum of money that the teeth were pulled due to lack of care and THAT, IMO, is a form of child abuse. If a child has to go through the torture of having teeth pulled because "mommy", "daddy", "whoever" isn't doing their job, it's child abuse, plain and simple.
Here we go, this is a perfect example of perfect parenting - (pg. 112). Nathan, at 6 years old, came home one day with some friends saying that one of the friends moms, who was drunk, had hurt her son and Nathan. What does the author do? Does she keep the children there, safe, until the police arrive? Does she follow up with a call to CPS herself? No! Duh! She loads up Em and Kim and goes to "confront her". And then she boasts that she beat this ex-military woman who was twice her size. But oh, she's not violent. She's just a "tiger when it comes to kids". Give me a fucking break. She's a trashy skank and that's about it.
Here's another good one (pg. 135), Nathan gets taken away because of a "false" CPS statement made about her. I won't get into it - it's actually boring - but so Nathan gets taken away and Nelson uses some old family info about them being part Indian to get him back. Apparently children can't be taken away if they're Indian because of a Native American Child Welfare Act. That's classic. But anyway, so Nathan gets to go home and what does Debbie decide? She said to someone that she "was going to fight on, using the Native American Child Welfare Act to make sure no other Native American would be removed from a family member."
Um, Debbie? Did you care, even an iota, about being Native American before? Huh huh didja didja huh? (In the words of Dori.) Allow me, no. You didn't. How dare you pretend to care about these children, this one type of children, when ALL children need people to fight for them. It really doesn't matter because I'll get struck by lightening before Debbie Nelson does anything for anyone else but herself. But it is funny is a sad, sad way.
Real good one coming! Alert! Alert! That lawsuit against Em for the 10 million? Not her fault! Her lawyer did that without her knowledge of course. Duh people! She wasn't aware of it until Em supposedly called her claiming that she was trying to take food out of my daughter's mouth!" (pg. 159)
How exactly does one not know they're suing someone else for 10 million dollars? How does that happen exactly? And more importantly, let's just say that this happened to a normal person. What would the first action be? "OMG! Are you kidding me?! That's NOT what I meant to do. I meant to only have my lawyer get you to stop making these statements against me. I am so sorry and I'll have it stopped - no matter what it takes - right away." Normal persons next move would be to call the lawyer and demand he stop this insanity. No? He won't? Cool. New lawyer to sue HIM.
Now, on the flip-side, what does Debbie Nelson do? Nothing. But, uh, she didn't want the money.
The "song" she made for Em. (pg. 165) What a joke. She claims they gave her five minutes to pen an open letter to her estranged son. If that was the case why do it? She said what she said, how she said it, because she was caught off guard and given no time. But I don't recall her saying a gun was put to her head and she was forced to do it. Say no. Write something your damn self and send it to any media outlet in the free world and it'll be put out immediately. Especially back then when this was going on. But no, Nelson does what she does and then it's everyone else's fault. For the thousandth time.
Oh, I forgot, about the lawsuit. She didn't want the 10 million but she settled for 25 thousand. (pg. 183) Um, if you don't want the money, just want to end the lawsuit as she claimed, why not settle for nothing Debbie? Right. Because that's something normal folks would do and Debbie Nelson just is not normal.
On pg. 206 she actually has the balls to say that "aside from the Fred Gibson lawsuit... there were only two other occasions when I sued someone. I think I remember counting four but hey, who cares right. The funny part of that is - most people don't sue people three or four times. But she thinks this is normal action on her part.
And one of the lawsuits was because of her "mane of long blonde hair... that "was my image". I could pee myself. I could just pee on myself. Apparently the stylist was so jealous of her "mane" and Nelson's "skinny" frame she hacked her hair off. But again, Debbie couldn't stop her. I guess she didn't notice someone chopping all of her hair off. I tend to watch that sort of stuff but who the hell am I, right? She took her to court because she "didn't want her doing it to anyone else." As if. (pg. 207)
Then she went for root canal surgery and the dentist made a mess of it. From what she says here this *may* be the only actual legit lawsuit the woman had. Wait, possibly the school one when Marshall was one also. The rest? Bullshit.
(pg. 216) This is a pretty good one also. Nelson gets carjacked in Detroit and for whatever reason she supposedly has almost $4,000 in her purse. (Yeah, I'd have a couple thou extra too if someone robbed me.) Besides that she had "every last stitch" of personal I.D. from her entire life in her purse. Old drivers licenses, her sons "birth bands" (I assume she means the bracelets babies wear in the hospital), her sons licenses, blah, blah, blah. Who carries that shit around with them on a day to day basis?
So anyway, she's thrown out of the car and he's gone. Wait, twice before he left he was going to shoot her. And he was going to shoot her dog too. But uh, no one actually got shot. So he's gone now. She goes to call 911 and is crying so hard the operator can't hear her.
Again, normal person scenario: The person tries to calm down in order to speak more clearly so help can arrive.
Debbie Nelson/trash scenario" "I'm Eminem's mom!!!!!!"
And? Nobody cares about your slimy ass. So Eminem's name is shouted out and people then think HE was carjacked. They find the kid who carjacked her but alas! All the money was gone. All of her papers were gone. Yet he was found a block away, in the car still, purse still in the car. The cops never gave her the purse back. I think she was trying to insinuate they wanted these documents for their "Em" value and the money for.. well, because it's money. And she's the victim if she was stolen from.
Nelson has a REALLY annoying habit of turning all of the weights she writes about into kilos and "stones". Like, she lost 10 pounds and her weight was about 84 pounds. (38 kilos, or 6 stone.) Damn. If someone wants all that they can find it themselves. We do have the information at our fingertips these days you know. It annoyed the hell out of me.
Besides that I think she has some sort of fascination with the U.K. There were a number of times I noticed her trying to "speak" or write like someone from there. Weird but I guess if I was her I'd want to be someone else too.
That's all I got. Actually, it's not. If the desire were there I could go on and on. I could pick this book apart by the paragraph and let loose. But it's old and annoying now. I believe Eminem's words are more truth than anything else and Nelson never for a second imagined it would all be public knowledge. I believe she was, and is, a bad mother. I believe she's a liar, that she's a trashy slut who put men before her sons, I believe she's only out for herself with no regard for who she may hurt in the process. I think she thinks she's such a smart, great person that people will automatically feed the lies she's spewing, What she doesn't realize is that belief is making her spew "bad" lies. They aren't remotely near being believable. If she would give herself a little less credit she'd probably be aware that she's not so smart and she'd work a little harder on those lies. In return she may get *some* people to actually believe her.
I don't doubt she had a hard childhood herself. That's not an excuse in my book. I do think at the very least she's embellished about her mother/step-father/Betti-whoever-the-hell-she-was, etc.
I think Eminem did the right thing in removing himself from the situation and probably the best thing he's ever, ever done was make sure this woman can't have access to Hailie. This woman shouldn't be around any children period.
It's a bad situation and it sucks but it is what it is. If anyone reads this and believes it, have your head checked. She couldn't have made her lies any more clear if she's admitted it.
First I'll give my opinion on Em and his statements before reading this. I basically formed the opinion most others probably did. That he had a bad childhood, that most of what he's said is true but that he's taken some 'lyrical license' (to use the authors words) and has embellished a bit. Or a lot. But, I did think there was mostly truth to what he's said.
I still do. And if you have a brain, you will also after reading this.
So, I'll go in order of the book because I made notes about the things that caught my attention the most. Sorry if this is jerky.
Okay, nothing is ever Nelson's fault. Every time she took drugs? Not her fault. She didn't know. Every time she drank? (Besides once, not her fault. She didn't know.) Nelson was at a Talking Heads concert - with Em, mind you - when she decided to puff on a "cigarette" that "someone had passed to" her. "Everyone was smoking a cigarette" according to Nelson. (pg. 63) Now, I've been to concerts. I have yet to see people sharing CIGARETTES with strangers. Come the hell on. My daughter is 6 years old and knows nothing about drugs besides they're bad. SHE would know not to take a "cigarette" that "someone" gave her. So she starts to feel weird, supposedly asks the guy what was in it and finds she's just smoked weed laced with elephant tranq. in it. That alone, IMO, constitutes bad parenting. But oh, does it get weirder.
Here's some great parenting here. Nelson is minding her business, grilling some food, when all of a sudden, out of the blue and unprovoked, her "cousin" (or some such person. It's confusing.) grabbed a neighbors baby out of her heads, threw him or her to the floor, and started beating the shit out of Nelson. She says that she "yelled but Marshall, in his room with a couple of friends, had his Nintendo turned up loud." Now, personally, if someone stormed into my home, threw a baby on the floor and proceeded to beat my ass, I don't think I'd call attention to the fact that there were other children in the house. Marshall finally comes out, sees him mom all shredded up and throws rocks at the leaving car. (pg. 71)
Oh, side note here, Nelson is one of those people who will be behind you in line at the store and, having never even seen you before, will go into their full medical history. Even when you can tell they're adding shit in for the fun of it. According to Nelson she's had to "relearn" to walk and talk about 8 times. Eminem had to also. I think her "relearning" is what those normal among us call "a normal amount of rehabilitation". Actually some of the most amusing parts of the book are when she goes into these parts. So, she had a concussion, a broken nose, a dislocated shoulder, three or four broken ribs, and gravel embedded in the gashed on her face, arms and legs, along with an injury to her back that she wasn't yet aware of. (pg.72)
The police refused to do anything because of a statement made by Betti that Nelson had came at her first. Hmmmmm. So, Nelson has all these injuries, as related in a report by the hospital, Betti has nada in injuries, and the police just do nothing. Well okay.
Eminem's younger half-brother, Nathan, had to have four of his baby teeth removed due to a "rare bacterial infection" yet he "refused to be parted from his bottle, sucking on it even when it was empty" until he was 3 years old. (pg.80)
WHO is the PARENT here. My daughter didn't want her bottle taken away. But it was. My daughter didn't want her binky taken away. BUT IT WAS. How dare she say he "refused". HE WAS A BABY. I'd bet a large sum of money that the teeth were pulled due to lack of care and THAT, IMO, is a form of child abuse. If a child has to go through the torture of having teeth pulled because "mommy", "daddy", "whoever" isn't doing their job, it's child abuse, plain and simple.
Here we go, this is a perfect example of perfect parenting - (pg. 112). Nathan, at 6 years old, came home one day with some friends saying that one of the friends moms, who was drunk, had hurt her son and Nathan. What does the author do? Does she keep the children there, safe, until the police arrive? Does she follow up with a call to CPS herself? No! Duh! She loads up Em and Kim and goes to "confront her". And then she boasts that she beat this ex-military woman who was twice her size. But oh, she's not violent. She's just a "tiger when it comes to kids". Give me a fucking break. She's a trashy skank and that's about it.
Here's another good one (pg. 135), Nathan gets taken away because of a "false" CPS statement made about her. I won't get into it - it's actually boring - but so Nathan gets taken away and Nelson uses some old family info about them being part Indian to get him back. Apparently children can't be taken away if they're Indian because of a Native American Child Welfare Act. That's classic. But anyway, so Nathan gets to go home and what does Debbie decide? She said to someone that she "was going to fight on, using the Native American Child Welfare Act to make sure no other Native American would be removed from a family member."
Um, Debbie? Did you care, even an iota, about being Native American before? Huh huh didja didja huh? (In the words of Dori.) Allow me, no. You didn't. How dare you pretend to care about these children, this one type of children, when ALL children need people to fight for them. It really doesn't matter because I'll get struck by lightening before Debbie Nelson does anything for anyone else but herself. But it is funny is a sad, sad way.
Real good one coming! Alert! Alert! That lawsuit against Em for the 10 million? Not her fault! Her lawyer did that without her knowledge of course. Duh people! She wasn't aware of it until Em supposedly called her claiming that she was trying to take food out of my daughter's mouth!" (pg. 159)
How exactly does one not know they're suing someone else for 10 million dollars? How does that happen exactly? And more importantly, let's just say that this happened to a normal person. What would the first action be? "OMG! Are you kidding me?! That's NOT what I meant to do. I meant to only have my lawyer get you to stop making these statements against me. I am so sorry and I'll have it stopped - no matter what it takes - right away." Normal persons next move would be to call the lawyer and demand he stop this insanity. No? He won't? Cool. New lawyer to sue HIM.
Now, on the flip-side, what does Debbie Nelson do? Nothing. But, uh, she didn't want the money.
The "song" she made for Em. (pg. 165) What a joke. She claims they gave her five minutes to pen an open letter to her estranged son. If that was the case why do it? She said what she said, how she said it, because she was caught off guard and given no time. But I don't recall her saying a gun was put to her head and she was forced to do it. Say no. Write something your damn self and send it to any media outlet in the free world and it'll be put out immediately. Especially back then when this was going on. But no, Nelson does what she does and then it's everyone else's fault. For the thousandth time.
Oh, I forgot, about the lawsuit. She didn't want the 10 million but she settled for 25 thousand. (pg. 183) Um, if you don't want the money, just want to end the lawsuit as she claimed, why not settle for nothing Debbie? Right. Because that's something normal folks would do and Debbie Nelson just is not normal.
On pg. 206 she actually has the balls to say that "aside from the Fred Gibson lawsuit... there were only two other occasions when I sued someone. I think I remember counting four but hey, who cares right. The funny part of that is - most people don't sue people three or four times. But she thinks this is normal action on her part.
And one of the lawsuits was because of her "mane of long blonde hair... that "was my image". I could pee myself. I could just pee on myself. Apparently the stylist was so jealous of her "mane" and Nelson's "skinny" frame she hacked her hair off. But again, Debbie couldn't stop her. I guess she didn't notice someone chopping all of her hair off. I tend to watch that sort of stuff but who the hell am I, right? She took her to court because she "didn't want her doing it to anyone else." As if. (pg. 207)
Then she went for root canal surgery and the dentist made a mess of it. From what she says here this *may* be the only actual legit lawsuit the woman had. Wait, possibly the school one when Marshall was one also. The rest? Bullshit.
(pg. 216) This is a pretty good one also. Nelson gets carjacked in Detroit and for whatever reason she supposedly has almost $4,000 in her purse. (Yeah, I'd have a couple thou extra too if someone robbed me.) Besides that she had "every last stitch" of personal I.D. from her entire life in her purse. Old drivers licenses, her sons "birth bands" (I assume she means the bracelets babies wear in the hospital), her sons licenses, blah, blah, blah. Who carries that shit around with them on a day to day basis?
So anyway, she's thrown out of the car and he's gone. Wait, twice before he left he was going to shoot her. And he was going to shoot her dog too. But uh, no one actually got shot. So he's gone now. She goes to call 911 and is crying so hard the operator can't hear her.
Again, normal person scenario: The person tries to calm down in order to speak more clearly so help can arrive.
Debbie Nelson/trash scenario" "I'm Eminem's mom!!!!!!"
And? Nobody cares about your slimy ass. So Eminem's name is shouted out and people then think HE was carjacked. They find the kid who carjacked her but alas! All the money was gone. All of her papers were gone. Yet he was found a block away, in the car still, purse still in the car. The cops never gave her the purse back. I think she was trying to insinuate they wanted these documents for their "Em" value and the money for.. well, because it's money. And she's the victim if she was stolen from.
Nelson has a REALLY annoying habit of turning all of the weights she writes about into kilos and "stones". Like, she lost 10 pounds and her weight was about 84 pounds. (38 kilos, or 6 stone.) Damn. If someone wants all that they can find it themselves. We do have the information at our fingertips these days you know. It annoyed the hell out of me.
Besides that I think she has some sort of fascination with the U.K. There were a number of times I noticed her trying to "speak" or write like someone from there. Weird but I guess if I was her I'd want to be someone else too.
That's all I got. Actually, it's not. If the desire were there I could go on and on. I could pick this book apart by the paragraph and let loose. But it's old and annoying now. I believe Eminem's words are more truth than anything else and Nelson never for a second imagined it would all be public knowledge. I believe she was, and is, a bad mother. I believe she's a liar, that she's a trashy slut who put men before her sons, I believe she's only out for herself with no regard for who she may hurt in the process. I think she thinks she's such a smart, great person that people will automatically feed the lies she's spewing, What she doesn't realize is that belief is making her spew "bad" lies. They aren't remotely near being believable. If she would give herself a little less credit she'd probably be aware that she's not so smart and she'd work a little harder on those lies. In return she may get *some* people to actually believe her.
I don't doubt she had a hard childhood herself. That's not an excuse in my book. I do think at the very least she's embellished about her mother/step-father/Betti-whoever-the-hell-she-was, etc.
I think Eminem did the right thing in removing himself from the situation and probably the best thing he's ever, ever done was make sure this woman can't have access to Hailie. This woman shouldn't be around any children period.
It's a bad situation and it sucks but it is what it is. If anyone reads this and believes it, have your head checked. She couldn't have made her lies any more clear if she's admitted it.
January 11, 2009
About what you'd expect from, well, Eminem's mom.
December 30, 2011
Train wreck of a book! Horribly written! This woman is clearly delusional, on drugs, just as Eminem claims and straight up crazy! There were lies after lies that have been proven to be truth yet she rambled on in this book on how horrible get son was yet how much she loved him! She glamorized herself as a model when clearly she was and still is trailer trash! Her need to write this book was a pathetic attempt to make her son the Evil of the two! How could there possibly be this loving strong bond she claims they had when he was a child when he himself is estranged from her! Granted he plays up his hate for his mom in his music but it foes have much truths to it! She is mentally I'll and suffers from Munchuosin by proxy which she basically proved herself! She made herself look like a fool! I only purchased this book to see how crazy she really was! I truly feel sorry that Eminem grew up in this environment and though he is successful he still is suffering from the demons cause by his monster of a mother
November 25, 2015
Horribly written.. And I especially love it when nothing is ever her fault.. Accidentally taking drugs, leaving kids at places, confronting the horrible child beating woman herself and then boasting about it rather than calling the police. Eminem did the right thing going away from her.
April 28, 2014
I believe that Debbie believes the things she writes and yeah maybe some of it is true...but there's always two sides to every story and honestly only the close family etc will ever know the full truth
December 24, 2008
Sad, sad, sad.
December 29, 2014
like reading a DSS case file; just as delusional as the clients on my caseload.
October 12, 2023
"Over the following chapters I’ll not only explain how I came to be tarred as a pill-popping alcoholic but will also tell the real stories behind my son’s lyrics, along with the happy times and the tragedies that touched our lives. Two of my three brothers died young, violent deaths. I want to tell their stories, too. I’m a fighter, and I will never give up. My beloved Nan had a wonderful old saying: “The truth will stand when the world’s on fire.”
This book is all about that."
My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem was an interesting book. I wasn't sure what to expect of it going in, given all the negative reviews here... While I did enjoy the writing, I felt that Debbie left quite a lot of material out of the book. More below.
Author Debbie Nelson, aka Debbie Mathers, aka Debbie Mathers-Briggs is the mother of the famous rapper Marshall Mathers III, aka Eminem. She is the subject of a lot of the material in his songs.
A young Marshall and Debbie Mathers:
I have followed the rise of Eminem from his humble beginnings, to his massive success. I first heard his song "Just Don't Give a Fuck" sometime around 1998 or 1999. I remember being captivated by how well he could rap. How he put together rhymes and verses that didn't seem possible. He was clearly a cut above absolutely anyone else in the industry at that point.
As any fans of his know, his personal life made for great source material. He rapped about his mother quite a lot, as well as his on-and-off again wife, Kim, and their daughter, Hailie Jade; among others. His mother is painted as an alcoholic drug abuser whom Eminem hates deeply for all the damage she did to him. He wrote the song "Cleaning Out My Closet" about her.
I recently finished two of the most accredited books on the life of the famous rapper: Anthony Bozza's Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem and Not Afraid: The Evolution of Eminem. I didn't really like those books, unfortunately. When I came across this one, I thought I'd check it out, to read the other side of the story told so famously in Eminem's music.
Debbie Nelson grew up in an abusive household, and came from a broken family, something that sounds like it became generational. She married Marshall's father when she was just 15, and had Marshall not too long afterwards.
I'll say right up front that quite a lot of the story told here by Debbie sounds incomplete at best, and dishonest and false, at worst. Told through her eyes, there is no doubt much valuable content and context omitted, likely to not make herself look bad.
There are many strange stories told in the book. Strange as in they are glaringly missing proper contextual details. For example, she launches into a story where she was attacked by her half-sister and some men, resulting in serious injuries, including a broken nose and broken ribs. No possible motive for the attack was given.
Another one that sounds completely wild was this one. Here is a direct quote from the book:
Although the character Mike Harris comes back into the story later, there is likely a lot missing from this account.
There was another very strange story about a carjacking where she lost all her ID, and $4,000 in cash. Who carries $4,000 in cash and all their and their children's formal ID around for no reason?
She also mentions the $10 million lawsuit that she launched against her son, but incredibly, instead of providing a rationale for it, she says that she didn't know she was suing him. Apparently, it was all concocted by her lawyer, without her knowledge. This sounds absurd on its face. And, even if it were true, she could have just as easily dropped the suit, if she didn't want to pursue it. The inclusion of this story pretty much punches a huge hole in any kind of credibility that she was hoping to establish, IMHO.
This brings us around to the bigger issue here: How much of this story is true, and how much is not?? I wish I knew the answer to that question. I will say that the general impression I got here reading this book was that 1) Debbie Mathers left quite a lot of relevant information and context out, and 2) She wasn't completely the horrible monster that her son rhymed about. However, these two things can both be true. They are not mutually exclusive.
On the positive side, it is clear in her writing here that she loves her son. She fought hard for him many times. She also supported his dream of becoming a famous rapper. She did her best to raise him, despite the fucked up circumstances of their lives.
She says that they did not grow up in a trailer, and that she wasn't an alcoholic. They lived in a house, and took vacations regularly. She actually hated alcohol, because it destroyed her family, with her stepdad abusing her when he was drunk. She admits to using prescription meds, but says that they were to help her to cope with all the stress she had. She claims Marshall lived with her until he was 26. He says that he left home at 17.
She also mentions that she took in many other children and cared for them as best she could, out of love. This part of the story is undeniable, as her actions speak louder than any words could.
Which makes for a nice segue into Kim Scott. Marshall first met her when he was 16, and she was just 13. They ended up marrying, then getting divorced, then marrying and getting divorced again. They had a daughter, the aforementioned Hallie Jade. She is Eminem's only biological child. Kim ended up moving in with Debbie and Marshall, after leaving an abusive stepfather. Debbie took her in out of kindness, and everything seemingly went downhill after that...
Although the details are too long to fit within the scope of this review, Debbie says that Kim was manipulative, a liar, and not faithful to her son. She said that she would demean Marshall all the time, and tell him he would never make it. To be honest, Kim does not come across very well in this book. She sounds like a real piece of work. Judging by what she has done with herself since this book's publication, that theory seems to hold up.
Kim cheated on Eminem while he was on tour, and worked at a shady "massage parlour." Debbie says she went there only to discover that it was basically a rub-and-tug. Kim's role as a "receptionist" is questioned. She would eventually give birth to another man's child while she and Em were separated. That father sounds like a garden-variety scumbag drug dealer who ended up dying early, with Marshall and Kim sharing custody of that daughter, Whitney.
Debbie mentions a lot of friction between the two of them, and details numerous incidents. She also says that Kim had a hold on Em, partially (or mostly?) because they shared a daughter together that he loved more than anyone else in the world.
Kim is described as using Hallie against Em many times, going after Em for money, and generally being a nasty person (to put it nicely).
She writes this about Kim near the end of the book:
Although the humble reader can only speculate, the results speak for themselves. Much of the anger towards women Em raps about stems from his relationship with Kim. And, despite being one of the most famous music stars in the world, he has never seriously dated or remarried after Kim. Debbie says that she knew how to manipulate him, and paints Kim as a toxic person.
If I am to be honest, I would describe most of this entire story as toxic, and many of the characters; the same. The book is full of ridiculous drama, violence, tragedy, and dysfunctionality.
Like Leo Tolstoy famously wrote in Anna Karenina "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way..."
********************
My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem was an eye-opening look into the life of Marshall Mathers III.
Although I don't know how much of this account is true, or how much was omitted, it definitely was an interesting read.
Disregard the other negative reviews here, and check the book out for yourself, if you're a fan of Eminem.
4 stars.
This book is all about that."
My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem was an interesting book. I wasn't sure what to expect of it going in, given all the negative reviews here... While I did enjoy the writing, I felt that Debbie left quite a lot of material out of the book. More below.
Author Debbie Nelson, aka Debbie Mathers, aka Debbie Mathers-Briggs is the mother of the famous rapper Marshall Mathers III, aka Eminem. She is the subject of a lot of the material in his songs.
A young Marshall and Debbie Mathers:
I have followed the rise of Eminem from his humble beginnings, to his massive success. I first heard his song "Just Don't Give a Fuck" sometime around 1998 or 1999. I remember being captivated by how well he could rap. How he put together rhymes and verses that didn't seem possible. He was clearly a cut above absolutely anyone else in the industry at that point.
As any fans of his know, his personal life made for great source material. He rapped about his mother quite a lot, as well as his on-and-off again wife, Kim, and their daughter, Hailie Jade; among others. His mother is painted as an alcoholic drug abuser whom Eminem hates deeply for all the damage she did to him. He wrote the song "Cleaning Out My Closet" about her.
I recently finished two of the most accredited books on the life of the famous rapper: Anthony Bozza's Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem and Not Afraid: The Evolution of Eminem. I didn't really like those books, unfortunately. When I came across this one, I thought I'd check it out, to read the other side of the story told so famously in Eminem's music.
Debbie Nelson grew up in an abusive household, and came from a broken family, something that sounds like it became generational. She married Marshall's father when she was just 15, and had Marshall not too long afterwards.
I'll say right up front that quite a lot of the story told here by Debbie sounds incomplete at best, and dishonest and false, at worst. Told through her eyes, there is no doubt much valuable content and context omitted, likely to not make herself look bad.
There are many strange stories told in the book. Strange as in they are glaringly missing proper contextual details. For example, she launches into a story where she was attacked by her half-sister and some men, resulting in serious injuries, including a broken nose and broken ribs. No possible motive for the attack was given.
Another one that sounds completely wild was this one. Here is a direct quote from the book:
"...In the seventh month of my pregnancy I was talking to my brother Todd when a crazy man called Mike Harris appeared from nowhere. He grabbed me, pulled up my top, held a knife to my belly, and growled, “I’ll cut the baby out and hand it to you.”
I saw his eyes—they were fiery. He was clearly high on drugs. My legs buckled underneath me. Todd beat him off and chased him down the street. Then, as I was gasping for air, he helped me back into my car. The doctor sent me to the hospital, ordering me to stay there for the remainder of my pregnancy. The baby’s food supply had somehow got cut off and he wasn’t growing properly. It was the shock of the knife attack."
Although the character Mike Harris comes back into the story later, there is likely a lot missing from this account.
There was another very strange story about a carjacking where she lost all her ID, and $4,000 in cash. Who carries $4,000 in cash and all their and their children's formal ID around for no reason?
She also mentions the $10 million lawsuit that she launched against her son, but incredibly, instead of providing a rationale for it, she says that she didn't know she was suing him. Apparently, it was all concocted by her lawyer, without her knowledge. This sounds absurd on its face. And, even if it were true, she could have just as easily dropped the suit, if she didn't want to pursue it. The inclusion of this story pretty much punches a huge hole in any kind of credibility that she was hoping to establish, IMHO.
This brings us around to the bigger issue here: How much of this story is true, and how much is not?? I wish I knew the answer to that question. I will say that the general impression I got here reading this book was that 1) Debbie Mathers left quite a lot of relevant information and context out, and 2) She wasn't completely the horrible monster that her son rhymed about. However, these two things can both be true. They are not mutually exclusive.
On the positive side, it is clear in her writing here that she loves her son. She fought hard for him many times. She also supported his dream of becoming a famous rapper. She did her best to raise him, despite the fucked up circumstances of their lives.
She says that they did not grow up in a trailer, and that she wasn't an alcoholic. They lived in a house, and took vacations regularly. She actually hated alcohol, because it destroyed her family, with her stepdad abusing her when he was drunk. She admits to using prescription meds, but says that they were to help her to cope with all the stress she had. She claims Marshall lived with her until he was 26. He says that he left home at 17.
She also mentions that she took in many other children and cared for them as best she could, out of love. This part of the story is undeniable, as her actions speak louder than any words could.
Which makes for a nice segue into Kim Scott. Marshall first met her when he was 16, and she was just 13. They ended up marrying, then getting divorced, then marrying and getting divorced again. They had a daughter, the aforementioned Hallie Jade. She is Eminem's only biological child. Kim ended up moving in with Debbie and Marshall, after leaving an abusive stepfather. Debbie took her in out of kindness, and everything seemingly went downhill after that...
Although the details are too long to fit within the scope of this review, Debbie says that Kim was manipulative, a liar, and not faithful to her son. She said that she would demean Marshall all the time, and tell him he would never make it. To be honest, Kim does not come across very well in this book. She sounds like a real piece of work. Judging by what she has done with herself since this book's publication, that theory seems to hold up.
Kim cheated on Eminem while he was on tour, and worked at a shady "massage parlour." Debbie says she went there only to discover that it was basically a rub-and-tug. Kim's role as a "receptionist" is questioned. She would eventually give birth to another man's child while she and Em were separated. That father sounds like a garden-variety scumbag drug dealer who ended up dying early, with Marshall and Kim sharing custody of that daughter, Whitney.
Debbie mentions a lot of friction between the two of them, and details numerous incidents. She also says that Kim had a hold on Em, partially (or mostly?) because they shared a daughter together that he loved more than anyone else in the world.
Kim is described as using Hallie against Em many times, going after Em for money, and generally being a nasty person (to put it nicely).
She writes this about Kim near the end of the book:
"My biggest regret is taking Kim in. In the beginning I thought everything would be wonderful. She was the daughter I’d always wanted. I had so many plans and dreams and hopes for her. I figured we would be one big happy family. But it wasn’t to be. In my opinion, Kim destroyed everything, and I wish to God I’d never let her through my front door. That girl destroyed Marshall. If she had been nice, it would have been different.
MTV once said that he’d destroyed the two women who loved him most— that’s Kim and me. But as far as I’m concerned, Kim destroyed Marshall and me..."
Although the humble reader can only speculate, the results speak for themselves. Much of the anger towards women Em raps about stems from his relationship with Kim. And, despite being one of the most famous music stars in the world, he has never seriously dated or remarried after Kim. Debbie says that she knew how to manipulate him, and paints Kim as a toxic person.
If I am to be honest, I would describe most of this entire story as toxic, and many of the characters; the same. The book is full of ridiculous drama, violence, tragedy, and dysfunctionality.
Like Leo Tolstoy famously wrote in Anna Karenina "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way..."
********************
My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem was an eye-opening look into the life of Marshall Mathers III.
Although I don't know how much of this account is true, or how much was omitted, it definitely was an interesting read.
Disregard the other negative reviews here, and check the book out for yourself, if you're a fan of Eminem.
4 stars.
October 11, 2024
Debbie enters stage left.
"Oh, a box of soap!" She steps on to it.
"I am Debbie and my son Marshall is Eminem, I love him so much it hurts. I am a saint. I don't drink or do drugs and never have except when I did it on accident or prescribed by a doctor because that means it's not dangerous at all and you can't get addicted (pgs. 81, 101, and 164). I also brought many drunk abusive men into my son's life throughout the years but I never did anything to endanger Marshall. I sued my son for 10 million dollars but that wasn't my fault either, of course. I help everybody and never ask for anything, I am a great mother, woman, and philanthropist. I blame Kim, at the time, a 13 year old girl for getting in the way of my son and I's relationship, she ruined everything and took my son away from me. I don't understand why he hates me so much, I love him so much it hurts.
In conclusion, I am an amazing mother who is clearly delusional and can do no wrong. I created the best environment for my children to grow up in and I am a saint in all ways. I wrote this book to hopefully make a lot of money because I can't seem to keep a job and the easiest way is to use my son's fame. If all goes well, Marshall will read it and it will confirm that I love him so much it hurts and he will want me to be in his life again, possibly leading to more money.
Thank you."
She steps down and exits stage left.
"Oh, a box of soap!" She steps on to it.
"I am Debbie and my son Marshall is Eminem, I love him so much it hurts. I am a saint. I don't drink or do drugs and never have except when I did it on accident or prescribed by a doctor because that means it's not dangerous at all and you can't get addicted (pgs. 81, 101, and 164). I also brought many drunk abusive men into my son's life throughout the years but I never did anything to endanger Marshall. I sued my son for 10 million dollars but that wasn't my fault either, of course. I help everybody and never ask for anything, I am a great mother, woman, and philanthropist. I blame Kim, at the time, a 13 year old girl for getting in the way of my son and I's relationship, she ruined everything and took my son away from me. I don't understand why he hates me so much, I love him so much it hurts.
In conclusion, I am an amazing mother who is clearly delusional and can do no wrong. I created the best environment for my children to grow up in and I am a saint in all ways. I wrote this book to hopefully make a lot of money because I can't seem to keep a job and the easiest way is to use my son's fame. If all goes well, Marshall will read it and it will confirm that I love him so much it hurts and he will want me to be in his life again, possibly leading to more money.
Thank you."
She steps down and exits stage left.
March 25, 2016
Everyone remembers the hit "Cleanin' Out My Closet", the sad and shocking story of a mother who abused and neglected her son. The material was fitting enough for a LifeTime Movie. Now Debbie Nelson tells her side of the story, claiming the song fabricated much of their lives and neglected to show the "happy times" they shared.
Debbie Nelson starts off her book claiming she was a good mom and that Marshall made up a lot of stuff just to spite her. It put me off right then and there. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, to hear her side of things and how it compared with the hit song. However, every grievance that ever fell on the family was someone else's fault. Debbie constantly played the victim, often over-dramatizing events with a ton of descriptions of "fearing for her life". Every abusive relationship was a shock and she didn't know why her marriage of 3 months failed. And when Marshall brought Kim home, she was trash, she is the reason Marshall became so hateful...not the constant moving or the abusive men constantly in their home...She never owned up to her mistakes. Instead she threw everyone under the bus saying she was the one hurt by all this...no one else. Just her. It was a whole book of whining...
Debbie Nelson starts off her book claiming she was a good mom and that Marshall made up a lot of stuff just to spite her. It put me off right then and there. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, to hear her side of things and how it compared with the hit song. However, every grievance that ever fell on the family was someone else's fault. Debbie constantly played the victim, often over-dramatizing events with a ton of descriptions of "fearing for her life". Every abusive relationship was a shock and she didn't know why her marriage of 3 months failed. And when Marshall brought Kim home, she was trash, she is the reason Marshall became so hateful...not the constant moving or the abusive men constantly in their home...She never owned up to her mistakes. Instead she threw everyone under the bus saying she was the one hurt by all this...no one else. Just her. It was a whole book of whining...
August 4, 2011
Okay, before you think I'm crazy, I needed to read this for a project I'm working on. However, in its disjointed, slightly lunatic writing, cheap packaging, and utterly Dickensian tale of woe, tis book kind of transcends its cheesiness and beomes an odd work of art.
March 10, 2017
It seems like most of the other reviewers have fallen for the Eminem MTV brainwashing. I can't help it, but after reading this book I actually like this woman.
Eminem always pretends to tell the truth, and because he gets so angry you tend to believe him. But it seems he has been telling a lot of lies just to create a "tough guy" image for himself. And that sadly included badmouthing and insulting his own mother - he didn't have many other people to insult I guess. Wow. just think about it objectively for one minute if you can: character assassination of your own mum as a career move? How desperate can you get?
No matter how bad a mother she must have been, she came from a very dysfunctional home herself, and had an incredibly hard life. So who is he to judge her? If he couldn't stand living with his mum then why did he stay at home until the age of 26?..
It does seems drama is what they thrive on in that family. Spousal abuse, guns, drugs, law suits, murder.....
Rhyming about his mum using drugs was actually a smart move, because it kept all the attention on her and off his own escalating drug use - until it nearly killed him.
I feel although a lot may have been left out, there was a lot of truth in this book.
It made me think about fame, and how our culture values celebrity above all else.
And this book leaves you wondering: is celebrity really a good thing? Something to be chased after?
Eminem always pretends to tell the truth, and because he gets so angry you tend to believe him. But it seems he has been telling a lot of lies just to create a "tough guy" image for himself. And that sadly included badmouthing and insulting his own mother - he didn't have many other people to insult I guess. Wow. just think about it objectively for one minute if you can: character assassination of your own mum as a career move? How desperate can you get?
No matter how bad a mother she must have been, she came from a very dysfunctional home herself, and had an incredibly hard life. So who is he to judge her? If he couldn't stand living with his mum then why did he stay at home until the age of 26?..
It does seems drama is what they thrive on in that family. Spousal abuse, guns, drugs, law suits, murder.....
Rhyming about his mum using drugs was actually a smart move, because it kept all the attention on her and off his own escalating drug use - until it nearly killed him.
I feel although a lot may have been left out, there was a lot of truth in this book.
It made me think about fame, and how our culture values celebrity above all else.
And this book leaves you wondering: is celebrity really a good thing? Something to be chased after?
June 11, 2012
This book is awful. She constantly repeats herself over and over. She makes herself seem like an innocent angel. I am a mother to 2 boys and I know that we all make mistakes as parents. According to Debbie she never made any mistakes. She manages to find a way to blame someone else each time. I was hopeing that this would be an honest book, but I highly doubt that it is. I know that everything in the world can not be her fault, but goodness noone is an innocent angel in life!
September 25, 2013
It was okay but is hard to know whether she is telling the truth all the time!
November 30, 2019
The book was confusing and not well edited. I want to believe some of what she said but she makes it hard to. She tries to make herself come off as a saint but I mostly saw a narcissist. She had so many bad things happen to her but never takes any responsibility for any of it. I don’t want to ruin any of it for someone wanting to read it but there were so many situations she found herself in that made me go hmm she had to have done something to make that happen, but nope it’s always someone else’s fault or never mentioned what caused it. The book is like a bad accident you shouldn’t (waste) time reading it but you will cause you can’t help it. I have no interest in reading it again.
December 26, 2010
I read this because I adore Eminem. It was written by his mother and gives her account of his childhood. While I don't know whether she's telling the truth or he is, it is very interesting to have more insight into his life. I would recommend this to anyone who knows anything about Marshall Mathers and wants to know more.
September 7, 2009
This book was somewhat interesting..since I have not read a book about Eminem/Marshall Mathers yet. But his mom Debbie really should not be writing books. She repeated herself alot in this book.. and talked about things that really were off topic.
Read
June 2, 2018I got given this abysmal cowpat of a book in a Crap Secret Santa swap years ago... just found it again while clearing out a bookcase. Even in the 'estranged relative looking to cash in' stakes, how this tripe ever got published is anyone's guess.
January 8, 2013
Interesting information.
March 18, 2015
who knows ?
Pretty good but who knows what is real here . Worth reading anyways. Book gives a good background on Marshal's life as a kid .
Pretty good but who knows what is real here . Worth reading anyways. Book gives a good background on Marshal's life as a kid .
Read
September 16, 2019This is disgusting. I won’t even bother reading this piece of trash book. Parents of celebrities need to stop trying to cash in on their kids, especially parents who obviously abused their child.
June 7, 2024
How can you, seriously say with a straight face, you didn't know you were suing your son?
July 28, 2023
Okay so yeah, Debbie is delusional and contradicts her own “facts” constantly, so you can’t really believe anything in this story but as a case study this book is insanely interesting. I could see sections of this being required reading for social work students. Ultimately I feel bad for this mentally unwell woman, and it even made me feel sorta bad for Eminem. Deeply interesting.
July 27, 2024
This is apparently an account of Eminems mother, who paints him as a horrible person and heartless father. Now, I don't know Eminem personally, but I listen to his music a lit, and in his earlier songs he paints his mother as a pill-popping alcoholic. Now, reading this book I don't know what to believe, but I am quite sure Ms. Debbie Nelson is delusional and blames her son for all the bad things in life instead of taking actions into her own hands.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2008
Written by his infamous mother -- who once released a rap CD called "Dear Marshall" -- this should have been a train wreck of sublime proportions. However, it's unforgivably bland. Two stars for the (not very believable, frankly) dirt on Kim, the occasional diverting tall tale, and the great photo insert.
July 6, 2021
Shut the f*ck up! (in EMINEM's voice).
It was nice to know a little about Eminem's personal life. However, since it's from the viewpoint of his abusive mother, one can't really trust the claims in this book. In short, this book is biographical garbage. Terribly written, frustrating repetition, and stupid claims. HORRIBLE
It was nice to know a little about Eminem's personal life. However, since it's from the viewpoint of his abusive mother, one can't really trust the claims in this book. In short, this book is biographical garbage. Terribly written, frustrating repetition, and stupid claims. HORRIBLE
November 21, 2013
i think its an best book cause i wanna be a rapper like him. and the biography of him i think it is very interesting so i really like it i wanna read the things he did in his teenage and his hard work over rap...............................................................
January 9, 2017
Rap God Eminem blamed his mother in his interviews and also in his songs, making Debbie Nelson the most hated woman in USA. This is Debbie's story. Although Debbie was in damage-control mode throughout this book, her psychological issues were all too apparent in this book.
November 8, 2018
omg, never imagined I could be so so into Eminems life told by his mom
highly recommend, its amazing
highly recommend, its amazing
June 21, 2021
Basically anything questionable that ever happened, it wasn't her fault. 🙄
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