Lil Jon Walks Through His Final Call With His Son Nathan and the Words That Changed Everything

Lil Jon is opening up about the hardest chapter of his life. On CNN’s“All There Is with Anderson Cooper,”the rapper and producer spoke about losing his son Nathan, a DJ known as DJ Young Slade, who went missing near his Georgia home in February and was later found in a pond. Lil Jon recalled their final phone call, an apology he needed his son to hear:“I said, I’m sorry. I see you and I hear you.”Nathan told a friend afterward that he was overjoyed, and that gave his father a measure of peace he’s carrying forward.

The interview goes places most celebrity conversations don’t. Lil Jon described serving as a pallbearer for his only son, then diving into a tour with Pitbull to avoid sitting still with the loss. He also shared that at 53 he learned the man who raised him wasn’t his biological father, and that he’s learning to talk through all of it for his young daughter’s sake. His words about grief are the ones that stay:“It’s not hard to live. It’s just hard to live without.”

These days Lil Jon honors Nathan before every single performance. He wears a shirt with his son’s logo, and he has Nathan’s signature tattooed on his body. Every and any way he can keep his kid close. What’s your pre-show ritual, or the way you remember someone you’ve lost? Drop it in the comments below.