How Eminem & Elton John’s Grammy performance came together.
It has been over 20 years since the iconic Eminem and John Elton’s performance of ‘Stan‘ took place at the Grammy 2001 event. Eminem was the hottest — and most controversial — musician of 2001. The rapper’s critically praised record, ‘The Marshall Mathers LP,’ garnered him numerous Grammy awards as well as a lot of backlash for its homophobic lyrical content.
A lot of groups also protested outside the event, criticizing the Detroit Rapper over the homophobic lyrics in his tracks. Yahoo recently took a rewind of the iconic moment as they talked to former Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich about how the Eminem and John Elton’s performance came together.
During the chorus, John delivered Dido’s vocal part from a keyboard behind Eminem on stage. Longtime Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich remembers to Yahoo 20 years later, ‘That was the way Elton wanted it.’
“I produced the show, so a lot of it was my decision. We wanted him, there wasn’t any question,” Ken recalls. “Granted he was, I don’t want to even use the word controversial. He was an extremely unique artist who was not hesitant about expressing his point of view. And by the way, some of that point of view was pointed at the Grammys.”
According to Ehrlich, both he and Eminem had the vision that he’d perform with another musician. Whose idea it was to recruit John differs a bit.
“I was like, ‘The only way I’ll perform at the Grammys is with Elton John,’” Eminem told MTV News in 2001. “And I was saying it in kind of jest, thinking it would never happen. The idea of it started becoming more, ‘OK, this is a way to really flip it around and really f*** people’s heads up.”
Ehrlich tells Yahoo, “Well, I don’t want to rewrite history if he says that that’s fine. It’s not exactly the way I remember it. But, you know, great ideas have many fathers.”
“I remember getting a call,” Ehrlich continues, “It might have been someone at the label, it might’ve been someone from [Eminem’s team], but I think we had already been thinking about it, just not necessarily in those terms. We were looking for a duet partner because they had expressed to us that he was interested in performing with another artist.”
Ehrlich had a decades-long relationship with John, so he says “it was easy to talk to Elton” about the potential collaboration. The iconic singer took to the idea immediately.
“As soon as we got the message to Elton that we were interested, he sparked to it,” he recalls. “Elton said, ‘This is exactly the kind of thing that I want to do. I want to break down these barriers. If [Eminem’s] OK with it and he wants to do it. I’d love to do it.’”
“I believe it was Marshall’s concept as to how to integrate Elton into it,” Ehrlich remembers. (John sang the chorus vocals performed on the original track by Dido.) “It was Eminem’s moment. So what I didn’t want to do, and by the way, neither did Elton, was to step on that. So Elton was in the background. That was the way he wanted it. He didn’t want to take the spotlight away from what Marshall was doing. It worked out for everybody.”
Eminem reunited with Elton John at last year’s Grammys.
I got to see my Uncle Elton tonight at the Oscars. Congrats on your win too, Sir! @eltonofficial pic.twitter.com/9HsQHvGzM4
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) February 10, 2020
“It was a word I don’t often use. It was palpable,” Ken says of Eminem and John’s chemistry. “You could see that they were both big fans of each other’s.”
Eminem missed out on the night’s biggest accolade, Album of the Year, after going three for three. (Which, no insult to Steely Dan, is still debatable.) The performance was dubbed “anticlimactic” by several critics since there was little on-stage drama after all the build-up. The performance, however, did not placate protestors, who described it as “Barbra Streisand hugging Eva Braun” to the Guardian at the time.
While Eminem and John’s performance was memorable, they both gained a lot more than just headlines out of it. A true relationship blossomed between the two. After relapsing in 2008, Eminem said that John was essential in his recovery. In recent years, John has functioned as his sponsor.
Check out the full thing here on Yahoo.
