TMZ has reported that Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. passed away earlier this week at home in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Famous rapper Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, didn’t have a good relationship with his father - if he had any relationship at all. The late Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. moved to California after splitting up with from Eminem’s mother when he was a baby. His mother Debbie and her children then settled in Detroit, which inspired Eminem’s film “8 Mile.”
In the popular song “Cleanin’ Out My Closet”, Eminem raps about his father abandoning him as a child, his turbulent affair with his ex-wife Kim, and his irreparably damaged relationship with his mother Debbie.
In 2001, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. told the Mirror he was desperate to get to know the son he walked out on as a baby. "I'm not interested in his money. I just want to talk to him. I want him to know that I'm here for him if he lets me back into his life."
However, his plea fell on deaf ears.
The Mirror reported that for years when he was a child Eminem had sent letters to his father because he was bullied at school but had never received a reply. For his part, Bruce’s only known attempt at contacting his son came in 2001 when he wrote an open letter in which he accused Eminem’s mother Debbie of keeping him away.
"I don't know anything about my dad and I don't care," the paper reported the singer as saying.