Why Eminem Is Really Nervous About His Super Bowl Halftime Performance
While Eminem's rise to fame hasn't been an easy one, a lot of his longtime fans would agree that he is a rap legend in the making. After all, he's the same person who belted out hits such as "The Real Slim Shady" and "Lose Yourself" from the 2002 hit film "8 Mile," which he also performed in front of the audience at the 2020 Oscar Awards, much to everyone's surprise.
Eminem told Variety in an interview that the performance was a long time in the making, seeing how he won an Oscar in 2003 for Best Song. "I kinda figured maybe since I didn't get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool," Em said. "Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed 'Lose Yourself' on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn't think it was a good idea."
Even though Eminem is someone who has done countless tours, concerts, and award shows, along with making plenty of public appearances throughout his career, he recently admitted that he's really nervous about his Super Bowl halftime performance — and that's not just because he's sharing the stage with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and more.
Eminem doesn't want anything to go wrong during his live performance
When Eminem takes the stage for one of his performances, his fans talk about it for weeks and months, if not also years — just like they did after his iconic 2000 MTV Video Music Awards opening in which several dozen Eminem clones joined him for a rendition of "The Real Slim Shady." However, when it comes to the 2022 Super Bowl, the rapper is a bit worried that something might go wrong on live television. In an interview with SiriusXM's "Sway in the Morning," Eminem admitted, "I'mma tell you, it's f**king nerve-wracking ... There's nothing more final than live TV. So, if you f**k up, your f**k up is there forever."
Em also made it no secret that he's stoked to be sharing the stage with Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar. "When the whole thing started going down and we were like, 'Okay, this might be actually serious.' I was trying to envision what Dre. might do," he said. "I was thinking like, yeah, that's dope that all of us are gonna rap together, right, and that kind of thing, but I didn't expect the production to be like this."
If anything, Eminem can always take Snoop Dogg's approach when he added a post on Instagram that said, "I heard there is gonna be a football game at the Eminem, Dr. Dre and Snoop Concert."