Eminem; Kyle Sandilands
A NEW BIOGRAPHY REVEALS THE DARK DAYS OF THE GRAMMY-WINNING ARTIST
ACCORDING TO ANTHONY BOZZA’S new biography Not Afraid: The Evolution of Eminem, the 15-time Grammy-winning rapper Eminem, born Marshall Mathers, developed an addiction to prescription drugs that first sent him to rehab in 2005. “My routine was Ambien at first, but then Valium or anything else to get me to sleep, and then basically Vicodin to get me through my day,” he told Bozza in 2009.
In the book, a sequel to Bozza’s 2003 bestseller Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem, the rapper says he became hooked on opiates and benzodiazepines after the murder of his friend DeShaun (Proof ) Holton in 2006. The biography reportedly outlines that he took up to 30 Vicodin a day and some 40 to 60 Valium per day before switching to methadone and eventually overdosing in 2007.
He woke up in an ICU and was told he had taken the equivalent of four bags of heroin. “My organs were shutting down, my liver, kidneys, they were going to have to put me on dialysis, they didn’t think I was going to make it,” he said.
He relapsed twice more before finding support in former addict Elton John who eventually helped the now 47-year-old get clean, becoming his sponsor years after they performed ‘Stan’ at the 2001 Grammys. “As a fellow musical superstar with nearly 30 years of sobriety under his belt, Elton John was the perfect mentor to help guide Marshall,” writes Bozza in the biography. “The two started on a program of weekly check-ins and grew very close.”