Eminem has gone 14 years without drugs and spoke about near-fatal overdose

Eminem has struggled with an addiction to painkillers in the past

Today, October 17, is Eminem's 50th birthday, and fans from across the world have been paying tribute to the self-proclaimed 'rap god.' But this year has seen the rapper mark an even more significant milestone in his life - as of April 2022, he had gone 14 years sober. Eminem has previously suffered from addiction to pain and anxiety medication, which first began during the filming of his 2002 hit movie, 8 Mile. His decision to go sober came soon after he suffered a near-fatal overdose from methadone. Earlier this year, the Grammy-winning rapper opened up on an episode of Paul Rosenberg’s podcast about his near-fatal overdose on methadone 15 years ago. “It took a long time for my brain to start working again,” Eminem said to his longtime manager. Rosenberg recalled asking the doctors about any potential brain damage when things were looking grim in the hospital. “Didn’t you ask the doctors when I first started rapping again, didn’t you say, ‘I just wanna make sure he doesn’t have brain damage’?” Eminem asked. “Yeah. I thought you might have some permanent problems,” Rosenberg responded. “Yeah. I was concerned, for sure.” Eminem also spoke about having to relearn his craft in the period after his recovery, and how that changed his next album, Relapse. [caption id="attachment_363679" align="alignnone" width="958"] Eminem took to social media in 2018 to mark his 10 years sober (@eminem/Instagram)[/caption] “I remember when I first got sober and all the shit was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was fucking new to me again,” he said. “It was the first album and the first one that I had fun recording in a long time.” He added: “It was like the first time I started having fun with music again and relearning how to rap. You remember that whole process, [it] took a long time for my brain to start working." In the song 'Deja Vu' from the album, Eminem rapped in detail about the incident and how he tried to hide his addiction from his loved ones. Meanwhile in the final two tracks on his album Revival, he explains his brush with death and the impact it had on his family. On 'Castle' he raps:  "If things should worsen, don't take this letter I wrote / As a goodbye note / 'Cause your dad's at the end of his rope / I'm sliding down a slippery slope / Anyways sweetie / I better go, I'm getting sleepy / Love, Dad... shit, I don't know."