Nelly Describes His Breakdown After Sister’s Death on ‘BTM’

Nelly gets up close and personal in an upcoming episode of VH1's 'Behind the Music.' In a preview clip from the show, the St. Louis native opens up about the 2005 death of his sister Jackie, who died of leukemia at the age of 31.

"Nobody wanted to tell me how severe and how close things had gotten," Nelly says in an emotional clip from the show. "She wasn't telling me the truth, and everyone around her that knew wasn't telling me that, 'Yo, she's not gonna make it.'"

The 'Just a Dream' singer recalls his last conversation with Jackie 25 minutes before she passed, which prompted him to fly into a rage. "She gets off the phone and she lays down and she's gone," he says. "They said the only thing that kept her alive was that she wanted to talk to me before she left, and I was enraged." Nelly took his anger and sadness out on a door in his room. "I split the door straight down the middle, just punched it. [...] I just broke down. In one of the rare moments, I did cry."

Before Jackie died, Nelly started the non-profit organization 4Sho4Kids Foundation, attempting to educate African-Americans about the need for bone marrow transplants with his Jes Us 4 Jackie campaign.

Nelly's 'Behind the Music' airs on March 7 at 10PM EST. Nelly's latest album, '5.0,' was released last November. It debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rap Albums chart, despite backlash from Nelly, who blamed his label for poor album promotion.