Eminem is still clean and sober after 16 years.
The “Lose Yourself” rapper, 51, celebrated 16 years of sobriety on Saturday, April 20, sharing a photo via Instagram of his hand holding an Alcoholics Anonymous chip to commemorate the milestone. While Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) did not include a caption alongside the photo, his comments were full of supporters congratulating him for the achievement.
“Greatest Influence and Mentor 🔥🔥❤,” Nathan Kane Mathers, Eminem’s brother, wrote in the comments.
“Sweet 16. So proud of you,” Em’s longtime manager, Paul Rosenberg, commented.
Eminem has previously spoken about his struggles with addiction after surviving a near-fatal overdose in 2007. His main addictions were sleeping pills as well as Vicodin and, according to the rapper, he was at one point taking upwards of 20 pills a day.
Beyond that, Eminem has remained relatively quiet on social media regarding his recovery. However, he shared a photo of himself via Instagram in April 2019 holding an Alcoholics Anonymous coin on the 11th anniversary of his sobriety. “11 years — still not afraid,” he captioned the pic at the time.
Eminem has been sober since April 20, 2008. One year later, he released his album Relapse, a concept album that explored drug rehabilitation and relapse. It was his first release since 2004’s Encore.
“I remember when I first got sober and all the s–t was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f–king new to me again,” Eminem said of Relapse in a September 2022 episode of Rosenberg’s “Paul Pod” podcast. “It was the first album and the first time that I had fun recording in a long time.”
He continued, “It was like the first time I started having fun with music again, and re-learning how to rap, you remember that whole process. It took a long time for my brain to start working again.”
In February 2024, Eminem announced that he would be co-producing a documentary under the working title Stans, described as a “revealing, edgy and disarmingly personal journey into the world of super fandom, told through the lens of one of the world’s most iconic and enduring artists, Eminem, and the fans that worship him.”
Eminem posted via X (formerly Twitter) on April 10 seeking diehard Slim Shady fans who would want to participate in the doc. “Looking for Stans for a documentary produced by Eminem & Shady Films,” he wrote. The term “stan” comes from the song of the same name from Em’s 2000 album, The Marshall Mathers LP.
