Eminem's estranged father Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. dies from a heart attack aged 67
Eminem's father, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr., has died aged 67.
TMZ reports that Mathers Jr. suffered a heart attack while at home near Fort Wayne, Indiana, this week.
The 46-year-old rapper, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, regularly rapped about being abandoned by his biological father and having never met him in person.
His songs My Name Is and Cleanin' Out My Closet feature lyrics about his grudge towards his dad.
Eminem's mother Debbie married Bruce when she was just 15 and he was 22 and they welcomed their son two years later - but split shortly after he was born.
While Debbie and Eminem lived between Missouri and Michigan, Bruce moved to California where he started a new family, fathering two children.
Bruce had spoken out in 2001 to say he had tried to reach out to his son but blamed Eminem's mother for keeping him away.
That year Bruce told the Mirror: 'I desperately want to meet my son and tell him that I love him. 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.'
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Around the same time Eminem said of his estranged dad: 'don’t know anything about my dad and I don’t care.'
Eminem had said in previous interviews that he would write his dad letters as a child but they would come back 'return to sender'.
Eminem is father to 23-year-old Hailie Scott Mathers, who he shares with ex-wife Kim.
In Cleanin' Out My Closet he raps 'My fa***t father must've had his panties up in a bunch ‘Cause he split, I wonder if he even kissed me goodbye/ No, I don't, on second thought, I just f**kin' wished he would die/ I look at Hailie, and I couldn't picture leavin' her side.'
Eminem has spoken about Hailie in only a few rare interviews and cited her as his biggest inspiration when he was broke and starting out rapping in run-down Detroit.
Back in 2002, he said: 'She has been my main source of drive and motivation, especially when she was first born. I didn't have a career yet, I didn't have money, I didn't have a place to live. I think that kicked me in the a*** harder knowing, 'How am I going to raise her?'
'She's always been the driving force for me to stay busy, stay focused, always been my number one reason for fear of failure. I can't fail. I can't have her grow up and not be able to say, 'My dad succeeded'.
'I talk about her a lot, the truth is she is all I got in this world. If everything ended tomorrow, she's all that I have.'
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