The singer also acknowledged that the pills made him happier and more content. He also had no recollection of how he eventually fell prey to addiction. All he has is fuzzy memories of the years when he continued to abuse drugs, remembering that he was taking more than 20 pills per day at one point. Eventually, the singer started mixing pills, including Xanax, Ambien, and Valium. This song is arguably the most telling song on Eminem’s entire “Relapse” album.
- Eminem shared in an interview that “He’s back” and that rap was his drug.
- The Marshall Mathers rapper openly struggled with prescription pills combined with alcohol for many years in his career before achieving sobriety.
- His lyrics serve as a powerful tool for sparking important conversations and breaking down stigma surrounding addiction and mental health.
- “We as Americans” was going to start the album, then “Bully.” “Evil Deeds” was in there.
Spending Addiction
That was one of the inspirations for writing “Stan.” It was like, These people are actually looking up to me? So, it inspired songs like “Stan” because to have fans is a dream come true, but it’s also so bizarre and so surreal. Even as I sit here now, I still trip out in my head about how it got to this level. To was eminem a drug addict make enough money to survive, so that I wouldn’t have to work a regular job.
See Photos of Eminem From XXL’s 25th Anniversary Issue Cover Story
Eminem, Marshall Mathers, has been described as the biggest rapper in history. He has sold over 30 million albums and won an Oscar and numerous Grammys. But like many others in the music industry, the stress of traveling and performing, and the night life led him to drugs.
- “I had absolutely no value for myself and this self-destructive path, it very quickly brought me to a real crisis point and it wasn’t clear at the time the reason. Maybe it was divine intervention.”
- A friend had given him the drug, which is used to wean heroin addicts off of the drug, and he would not have taken it had he known it was methadone.
- “And when I say we had the motherlode. Our pants were frickin’ stuffed with pills. I don’t know how many we had.”
- He has previously admitted his addictions to Vicodin, Valium, Ambien and methadone started while he was filming the semi-autobiographical 2002 film 8 Mile.
Eminem Bounces Back from 20-Pill-a-Day Addiction
He isn’t sure exactly when it became a problem, but that he just kept liking it more and more. People tried to tell him that he had a problem, but he did not want to believe it. No matter how many excuses he made for himself, it was becoming much worse.
Eminem Dedicates a Song to Addiction Recovery
Grammy-winning rapper Eminem has been open about his battle with substance abuse over the years, which culminated in a near-fatal overdose in 2007. After his brush with death, it took a while for Eminem to get back on his feet, and there was a point where some weren’t sure if he’d ever be able to recover fully. Overcoming addiction is possible, and maintaining sobriety is highly achievable in the long run. The successful addiction recovery journey from Eminem’s life proves this point.
What we heard in “Recovery” was a series of storytelling, realism, and raw emotion. He then asked Rosenberg about how he was drug addiction involved in Eminem’s return to music at the time. “Didn’t you ask the doctors when I first started rapping again and sent it to you, didn’t you say, ‘I just wanna make sure he doesn’t have brain damage’?
- His routine involved running eight and a half miles every morning and another set when he got home from the studio.
- Up until then, he’d drink the occasional 40 ounce while freestyling with his friends, but it ramped up to a whole other level once he started making money.
- “Drinking caused weight gain,” he told Today in September 2022, “but it also weighed down my mental state.”
- He had to sit down then-fiancée Meg Ryan and explain what was going on.
- Eminem addiction first began when he started using drugs that many used to consider harmless since they were legally available.