Detroit got the kind of hometown moment you can’t script, with Eminem and Jack White finally sharing a stage for the first time during the Detroit Lions’ annual Thanksgiving Day Classic.
The pairing lit up Ford Field mid game on November 27th, turning a routine NFL halftime slot into a celebration of two of the city’s most defining voices, the halftime show, co-executive produced by Eminem and longtime manager Paul Rosenberg, already carried serious Detroit weight.
The shock factor landed halfway through White’s seven minute set though, when the rapper emerged from the tunnel in a hoodie and custom Lions jacket to join White and his band for a mash up of ‘Till I Collapse’ and The White Stripes’ ‘Hello Operator’.
The moment hit between White’s ‘That’s How I’m Feeling’ and the inevitable ‘Seven Nation Army’, transforming the stadium into a 65,000 strong chant.
It was a meet up decades in the making, arriving just weeks after The White Stripes’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and nearly a decade after White opened his Third Man Records location back in Detroit.
Eminem entered the Rock Hall himself in 2022, cementing both artists as pillars of the city’s cultural backbone.
White leaned fully into Lions blue, literally, with a matching guitar, while his rhythm section repped Detroit colours. “I love you Detroit,” he shouted as the set dissolved into feedback, echoing through a sea of 400 season ticket holders who volunteered as part of the production.
The stadium had been primed well before kickoff, ‘Seven Nation Army’ blasted as the Lions hit the field, ‘Taking Me Back’ filled first quarter breaks, and ‘Till I Collapse’ fired up fans before the game even started. The halftime show also marked the first event in a new three year partnership between the Lions, Jesse Collins Entertainment, and Eminem/Rosenberg, a team already familiar from their 2024 Michigan Central grand opening concert.
CeCe Winans delivered the National Anthem, adding another Detroit touch to a game steeped in hometown pride, for the Lions, the Packers rivalry was the headline, but for Detroit music fans, the halftime show was the real win.
Unfortunately for Lions fans, the team fell just short: 24 – 31.
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