The country star also admitted that the NBC Live From Detroit special “wasn’t my best performance.”

Jelly Roll is a huge Eminem fan, and prior to his duet with the rapper on NBC’s Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central special, he learned that the feeling is mutual.

In an interview on The Howard Stern Show Wednesday (June 12), the country star revealed that Em’s manager personally approached him for the collaboration at one of Jelly’s concerts in Detroit last year. “We’re all hanging out backstage, and I’m just like, ‘Hey, does Marshall even know who I am?’” the “Son of a Sinner” singer recalled. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s why I’m here, man. Marshall loves you. I wanna get y’all together.’”

Months later, when the “Houdini” artist’s team was putting his performance together for the special, they specifically requested that Jelly be the one to belt out the Aerosmith “Dream On” sample in Em’s “Sing for the Moment.” “They called back and was like, ‘Eminem wants to know if you would sing a song with him,’” he told Stern. “I get goosebumps up my body. I was like, ‘Dude, I’m so in.’”

Trending on Billboard
“I was so nervous,” Jelly continued. “It definitely wasn’t my best performance — you could see the nerves on my face. This song did a lot for me in dark moments of my life, too. I’m a lifelong fan. There’s not a white kid in the world who didn’t listen to Eminem rapping.”

“There’s not enough praises for him,” the ACM Award-winner added. “He’s inarguably the greatest rapper that ever lived, ever. You’re literally meeting the greatest at his craft.”

The interview comes about a week after the special was taped in Michigan June 6. Bunnie XO, who is married to Jelly, posted a sweet video of her husband meeting his idol for the first time at a rehearsal for their performance. “When the goat meets the GOAT,” she captioned the clip.

A few days later, Jelly gushed about the experience in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “When I think about coolest moments of my career, right now at the top, there has to be this thing that I got to go sing with Eminem in Detroit,” he told the outlet. “It was unreal.”

Watch Jelly recall how his Eminem duet went down above.