Eminem Enlists Infomercial Pitchman for 'Recovery' Ad

Not entirely sold on Eminem's Recovery despite the early arrival of singles "Not Afraid" and "Won't Back Down"? Slim Shady has recruited Vince from the legendary ShamWow and Slap Chop ads to host an infomercial raving about all the surprise "dozen of uses" of a Recovery CD. For instance, if you cut a Recovery compact disc in two, you could use one half to dice onions and the other to shave cheese. The light-hearted clip is a far cry from the dark, serial-killer-inspired videos Eminem released to preview the dark Relapse.

"You'll be clappin' when you hear Eminem rappin'," Vince promises during the 30-second ad. Eminem alerted fans via Twitter that a two-minute version of the infomercial is on the way, so head to Em's official site to watch the full cut and pre-order his follow-up to Relapse.

The infomercial also reveals that Recovery's release date has been bumped up one day to June 21st following the album's leak last week. "We believe fans want to support their favorite artists by purchasing the real album and not a leaked version," Interscope Geffen A&M vice chairman Steve Berman said in a statement. "At the same time, we realize speed is of the essence when fans are so passionate about wanting to hear new songs from such an enormously popular artist like Eminem."

As Rolling Stone reported, Eminem was in Los Angeles yesterday to showcase a few of his Recovery tracks at Activision's party for the E3 conference. Rihanna hopped onstage to sing her part of "Love the Way You Lie."

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter