Oscar nominee Eddie Murphy is candid about how the major celebrities who came before him and died young have served as guides for his life.

The comedian-actor sat down with The New York Times for episode of its podcast The Interview, where he talked about not wanting to do drugs to his feud with David Spade, which is behind them.

Host David Marchese said there was a time when Murphy was on the same level of fame as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Prince, but they all died young and from drug use in one form or another.

“Those guys are all cautionary tales for me. I don’t drink. I smoked a joint for the first time when I was 30–the extent of drugs is some weed.”

 

I remember I was 19, I went to the Blues Bar. It was me, John Belushi and Robin Williams. They start doing coke, and I was like, ‘No, I’m cool.’ I wasn’t taking some moral stance. I just wasn’t interested in it. To not have the desire or the curiosity, I’d say that’s providence. God was looking over me in that moment.”

He explained that getting famous really young, especially as a Black artist, can be like living in a minefield because, at any point, something could happen that undoes everything.

“Now, at this age, I can look back and be like, ‘Wow, I came through  minefield for 35 years.’ How do you make it through a minefield for 35, 40 years?

Business not set up for Black artist

Something has to be looking over you,” he added, “This business, it’s not set up for a Black artist. It was new thing: I’m doing this stuff that no one’s ever done, and it’s in a business that’s not set up for me. It’s set up for some white dude. So you don’t have people watching your back, and you don’t have support groups.”

Murphy opened up about “cheap shots” he’s received from people, specifically when Spade made a joke about him on SNL as part of  “Hollywood Minute” segment. The actor poked fun at two of Murphy’s recent films that hadn’t done well at the box office.

“It was like: ‘Wait, hold on. This is SNL. I’m the biggest thing that ever came off that show. The show would have been off the air if I didn’t go back on the show, and now you got somebody from the cast making a crack about my career?’” he said. “I know that he can’t just say that. A joke has to go through these channels. So the producers thought it was OK to say that.”

“And all the people that have been on that show, you’ve never heard nobody make no joke about anybody’s career. Most people that get off that show, they don’t go on and have these amazing careers. It was personal. It was like, ‘Yo, how could you do that?’ My career? Really? A joke about my career? So I thought that was a cheap shot. And it was kind of, I thought — I felt it was racist.”

After the segment aired, he stayed away from the show for 30 years, refusing to return for anniversaries, until the 40th. Looking back now, The Nutty Professor star noted that they’re all good, and he no longer has any issue with Lorne Michaels, Spade or SNL.

Murphy also addressed the notion that he laid down the path for comedians like Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and Chris Tucker. That wasn’t entirely true because they took their own paths, different than his.

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