EXCLUSIVE: Mom Says Eminem Was Shy Boy

June 26 -- Although her son has called her a horrible mother who drank and took drugs and deserves to burn in hell, rapper Eminem's mother doesn't take it to heart.

"He's got a persona to live up to, an image," his mother, Debbie Nelson, told Primetime's Jay Schadler.

Nelson says that she doesn't take her son's rage-filled lyrics literally. Even when he sings, "You selfish bitch, I hope you f---ing burn in hell for this s--t," she says it doesn't bother her. "That's just artistic expression," she said. "He's very sad on the inside. He is hurting a lot. And I can see it. I can see through my son. I know him like the back of my hand."

Her son's violent, resentful lyrics have also been good for his record sales, Nelson says. "The minute you start becoming destuctive and being different — you know, kill your mother, rape this one and kill that one — I mean, people love it. The more he went in that direction, I mean, he was selling just like crazy. I mean, everybody wanted more."

Nelson, who brought a $10 million defamation lawsuit against her son in 1999 but ended up settling out of court for a few thousand dollars, said she is sure he still loves her. Part of the reason he continues to say horrible things about her in his music, she said, is commercial: "He's got everybody else pulling him in different direction: managers, different people, telling him what to say. And money is power, you know."

Tough Times, But No Drugs or Alcohol, Mom Says

Nelson was just 17 when Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, was born. She admits the family went through some tough times. By the time Marshall was 2, she fled an abusive marriage and started a tough life as a single mother. "We'd get into homes, fix it up and they'd sell it out from under us, so it was kind of tough," she said. "I went from paycheck to paycheck."

But Nelson denies that she was the kind of mother depicted in her son's music. He has accused her in his lyrics of being an alcoholic, smoking marijuana and abusing prescription drugs — all of which she denies. "None of that is true," she said.