On Surviving R. Kelly, the R&B singer’s former tour manager, Demetrius Smith, shared shocking details about life on the road.
Now, in an interview with The Domenick Nati Show, he has gone even further, speaking about Kelly’s fondness for much younger women and he even commented on the singer’s relationship with Aaliyah.
Some of the claims that Smith made about his former boss are shocking, including one about R. Kelly allegedly trying to have sex with him.
Much like on the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries, Demetrius Smith recalled his wild ride as R. Kelly’s tour manager and the way that the singer treated those around him.
He met Kelly around 1985 and says that he introduced the singer to his family, including his brother-in-law Craig Hodges, who played for the Chicago Bulls. Smith claims that Hodges fronted R. Kelly $35,000 to get his career started and that the money was never paid back.
While some claimed in the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries that the singer was openly sexual with Aaliyah when she was underage, Demetrius contradicted that with claims that he never saw Kelly have sex with the late pop star. Instead, he claimed that R. Kelly was very private about that relationship.
However, he did say that Kelly would have “young women” tucked away in hotel rooms where they would wait for him to return. Likewise, Smith claimed that the singer made men working for him wait in their cars, sometimes all day, until R. Kelly needed them too.
He also said that the women would do what the singer wanted voluntarily because they didn’t want to be sent away.
“The younger girls were the ones that he could control,” Demetrius said. “The older women…couldn’t control. And those that he could control, he would control. He can manipulate…Now he can manipu…He’s learned to do that. He’s learned to be a manipulator.”
Smith denied ever seeing anything that would suggest R.Kelly ran a sex cult. Asked if any of the girls the singer had in rooms waiting for him were under 18, Smith said: “Well, the only one that I heard about…Sparkle’s niece. I did know her.”
Then, Demetrius Smith dropped the shocking allegation that R. Kelly once offered him sex.
Smith claimed, “He’s got some freaky ways, I believe. He showed his ass to me, and I turned it down but I thought he was playing…but as you look up and see s**t now, he wasn’t playing.”
You can listen to the entire Domenick Nati interview with Demetrius Smith above to hear all that R. Kelly’s former tour manager had to say amid the Surviving R. Kelly controversy.
Part 2 of Surviving R. Kelly airs on Friday, January 4 at 9/8c on Lifetime.