ST. LOUIS - Rhonda Mack, Nelly's mother, recalls the day her son's success really struck her.

It was shortly after Mack moved into the home the rapper bought her last year. She stood in the unfurnished house, turned on the radio, and heard the song "Luven Me" from Nelly's Country Grammar CD; Nelly talks directly to his mother in the first verse.

"My favorite line was, 'You don't have to work no more,'" Mack says with a laugh during a recent interview in that home. When Mack heard the song that day, "There wasn't a stitch in the house, and I boo-hooed in the empty house."

Mack knows the verse by heart and proved it by singing the lyrics from top to bottom. In the song, Nelly explains that he has put down the drugs, picked up the microphone and wants to make her proud.

Looking around the place, it's clear he's accomplished it all: The living room is decorated with a number of his music awards as well as three portraits of Nelly drawn by a relative, Erron Keely.

Being mom to a superstar isn't always so easy. Last summer, a crew from the tabloid newspaper The Star showed up on her doorstep. After letting them in, she realized they lied about setting up an interview through proper channels, and she tossed them out.

"They got smart with me and told me they were going to do an article on Nelly whether they had an interview or not," she says. "They had my picture in The Star, and they made up a bunch of stuff. They disrespected me in my house. Scrubs."

Mack takes it all in stride - the sudden appearance of long-lost relatives and friends, the calls she gets for tickets every time there's a Nelly event in town. She says she doesn't get tickets and recommends folks call Metrotix or Ticketmaster.

She's uncomfortable with the public attention her family now gets, though she did let Nelly escort her down the red carpet for the St. Louis premiere of his movie Snipes.

"I don't have to be in the spotlight to be who I am. I know who I am," she says.

Still, she prefers her new, more prosperous life to her old one. Mack was able to retire from restaurant management two years ago. She has her home in the suburbs on a quiet street where she's receiving long-awaited "peace of mind."

Though times were tough before Nelly hit the big-time, Mack fondly recalls the days when she was a single parent, raising her son, Cornell Haynes Jr., now 27.

"I had to do what I had to do to support him. During Man's whole life, I worked two jobs to support him, sometimes three," Mack says.

She has always called her son "Man" because he was the man of the house.

"I can't remember the last time I called him Cornell," Mack says. "Sometimes I have to think what his real name is. And I can't get with Nelly."

She says the young Nelly was "bad, but all kids are bad. He was OK. He was a handful, but what child isn't?"

She remembers when he first showed his musical talents, imitating Michael Jackson - complete with the glove and the moonwalk. He also sang in the choir at Trinity Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church.

"He did OK as long as he was awake. Kids get bored," she says.

Mack knew her son was serious about rapping when he quit his job with UPS. She found out when she noticed he was going to the recording studio more than work. She supported his efforts.

"If you know you're doing your best, you can't do any more, and all you can do is hold your head up and say I tried. Plus, he always had his baseball talents to fall back on," says Mack, referring to a skill she says she taught him.

She still envisions Nelly playing sports, but she knew baseball was officially on the back burner when she heard the St. Lunatics' early regional hit "Gimme What Ya Got" on the radio.

"A big smile came over my face," Mack says. "I said, 'You're all are gonna be OK.'

"I knew he had it in him. He worked hard to get there and he had to make sacrifices to get there. There were a lot of changes he had to make. But that's how it is. It's like winning a lottery. He had the right number, and he cashed in on it."

Now that Nelly's career is in full swing, Mack says she plans to go back to work. She wants a real job, with weekends and holidays off, a regular paycheck with taxes taken out - something more than working with Nelly's 4Sho4Kids foundation, which helps disadvantaged children.

"I appreciate everything Nelly has done for me," Mack says. "I've been really blessed. But I'm at the point where I feel I'm losing my independence. I love fast food. And I can stock shelves."

Is she worried how her son would react if she returned to her old career at McDonalds?

"I had Nelly," she says. "Nelly didn't have me."