Another milestone down! Eminem celebrated 12 years of sobriety on Monday, April 20.
“Clean dozen, in the books! I’m not afraid,” the rapper, 47, captioned a photo of his new Alcoholics Anonymous coin via Instagram, referencing the title of his single “Not Afraid.”
Eminem cowrote and recorded the song in 2010 to share the story of his road to recovery. The inspirational lyrics included, “I just can’t keep livin’ this way / So startin’ today / I’m breakin’ out of this cage / I’m standin’ up, I’mma face my demons / I’m mannin’ up, I’mma hold my ground / I’ve had enough, now I’m so fed up / Time to put my life back together right now.”
Later in the track, the 15-time Grammy winner revealed that it was his “decision to get clean,” although he “probably did it subliminally for” his daughters, Alaina, 26, Hailie, 24, and Whitney, 18.
Eminem battled an addiction to prescription drugs for several years, starting when he filmed the 2002 movie 8 Mile and took Ambien after working long days on set.
“I was taking so many pills that I wasn’t even taking them to get high anymore,” he recalled to Rolling Stone in 2011. “I was taking them to feel normal. Not that I didn’t get high. I just had to take a ridiculous amount. I want to say in a day I could consume anywhere from 40 to 60 Valium. And Vicodin … maybe 20, 30? I don’t know. I was taking a lot of s–t.”
The Detroit native was hospitalized in December 2007 after overdosing on methadone in his bathroom. Soon after, he started attending church meetings to get clean and enlisted Elton John as his AA sponsor.
“[Elton] had a substance abuse problem in the past. So when I first wanted to get sober, I called him, because he’s somebody in the business who can relate to the lifestyle and how hectic things can be,” Eminem told the Detroit Metro Times in 2009. “He understands, like, the pressure and any other reasons that you wanna come up with for doing drugs. I reached out to him and told him, ‘Look, I’m going through a problem and I need your advice.’”
John, who has been sober since 1990, has also spoken candidly about his friendship with Slim Shady. In his 2019 memoir, Me, the “Rocket Man” singer, 73, wrote, “Whenever I ring to check in on him, he always greets me the same way: ‘Hello, you old c–t,’ which I guess is very Eminem.”
