The friendship between Marshall Bruce Mathers III, 44, who is professionally known as Eminem, and Sir Elton John, 69, is an unlikely one. The former has been accused of being homophobic because of his rap song lyrics while the latter is an openly gay musician married to David Furnish.
"Eminem just did a show in which Drake introduced him in Detroit as the greatest rapper of all time," John said in his Apple's Beats 1 station semi-regular show titled "Rocket Hour." "It's very hard to disagree with that. I love him, and he's a dear friend."
In 2001, John and Eminem appeared at the Grammy Awards. They had a performed "Stan," a collaboration song of Eminem and Dido.
In an interview with MTV in 2010, Eminem talked about his "Stan" performance with John at the 2001 Grammy Awards. The Detroit rapper revealed that there was a debate before the performance.
"I was like, 'The only way I'll perform at the Grammys is with Elton John,' and I was saying it in kind of jest, thinking it would never happen," Eminem said. "The idea of it started becoming more, 'Okay, this is a way to really flip it around and really f--- people's heads up."
In 2009, Eminem revealed that he turned to John for help when he disappeared from the music scene for several years due to drug addiction. The former said he knew that the latter also had suffered from the same addiction and was able to overcome it.
"We became friends and I talk to him about things, career wise," Eminem told Metro, referring to John. "Me and him have had similar lives and stuff, so I reached out to him and told him, 'Look, I'm going through a problem and I need your advice.'"
Watch a clip of Eminem trying to imitate John here: