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Eminem om hans drogproblem (Utdrag från VIBE)
Five years. An eon in rap time.
That’s how long it’s been since Marshall Mathers III, 36, released a proper album. During his absence, rumors have swirled around Detroit’s favorite son: One of the best-selling and most beloved MCs of all-time was supposedly finished. An addict. Lost his gift. Not hot anymore.
And in those five years much has changed: Eminem’s best friend DeShaun “Proof” Holton was murdered in April 2006. Em married his high school sweetheart, Kim Scott, for the second time in 2006, but divorced her again three months later. In 2008, his mother, Debbie Nelson, released a tell-all, My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem: Setting the Record Straight On My Life As Eminem’s Mother (Phoenix).He released his autobiography, The Way I Am (Dutton, 2008), but, even then, wasn’t prepared to face his demons. Today he lives just outside of Detroit with his daughter, Hailie Jade, his niece Alaina, and other members of his extended family. On the eve of his return to the game and the release of his fifth album, Relapse (Aftermath/Interscope), Slim Shady is back—and finally ready to address the rumors once and for all.
I’ve come clean with some things to my family and to my friends, and I think it’s probably time for me to come clean with my fans, too. First of all, I’m gay…. Nah, just kidding.
It’s no secret I had a drug problem. I just don’t think my fans knew how bad it was. When I went to rehab in 2005 I went in for a sleep problem, or I guess a sleep problem is what I thought it was. But it was a drug problem and I wasn’t ready to admit it. I was taking Valium, Ambien, and Vicodin. And I was taking a lot. If I was to give you a number of Vicodin I would actually take in a day? Anywhere between 10 to 20. Valium, Ambien, the numbers got so high I don’t even know what I was taking. I barely made it through that Anger Management 3 tour (Summer 2005). I got by on the skin of my teeth. I had a rehab doctor that was seeing me through to where I could just take enough to not get sick and be able to sleep at night. The whole idea was, Get me through the tour, through these last couple of weeks, and then I’ll check myself in.
When I went into rehab everyone else was ready for me to go, but I wasn’t. Rehab was a really bad experience for me. Just being a celebrity and shit, I felt like a fish out of water. It was like, I don’t have a problem. Everybody else has a problem. I’m a grown man, I should be able to do what I wanna do. That’s the things that addicts go through in their mind. I stayed in rehab for probably two weeks—then I checked myself out.
Needless to say, I relapsed. I started taking Vicodin the week after I got home, so I was probably clean for three weeks. Then I started back with the NyQuil. I had a problem with NyQuil even though it’s an over-the-counter thing, it’s a serious trigger for me. I’d try to knock myself out but sometimes if you drink too much it would have the reverse effect and keep you up. So I’m right back on the phone with the dopeman trying to get Valium or whatever I could to sleep.
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