Story Behind How The Legendary Elton John & Eminem Performance Happened

Eminem is arguably one of the most complex figures in rap and hip hop history. While he has been deemed a legend since the last decade or so, he was one of the most offensive & feared musicians in the world.

While he went out of his way to trigger anyone he could and attacked their sensitivities, he was always liked by his fans. That’s why Gen Z attempted to cancel him recently, but failed miserably.

There was one defining performance in Eminem’s career that despite his behavior and overall attitude, helped create an image of his that could be universally liked by anyone. His performance at the end of 2001 Grammys with Elton John helped in appealing him to the public in a finer light.

Ken Ehrlich, the Grammy producer spoke to Yahoo Entertainment about the performance where both the artists performed a different version of ‘Stan.’ Since the duo appeared together again, it became important to revisit the memory.

We were looking for a duet partner because they had expressed to us that he was interested in performing with another artist. As soon as we got the message to Elton that we were interested, he sparked to it He said, ‘This is exactly the kind of thing that I want to do. I want to break down these barriers. If Eminem is OK with it and he wants to do it. I’d love to do it.

He explained that there were concerns since the LGBTQ+ community had been protesting against Em’s nominations. However, both Elton & Marshal were interested in making it work. They also didn’t want it to seem like it was too exploitative since it’s such an unexpected match up, but it ended up working since they were both passionate about it.

Both of them were very careful about what we could do because they didn’t want it to feel too exploitative, which I don’t think it did,” Ehrlich said. “We honored what we said we would do.