In 2007, Eminem almost died from an overdose. His daughter Hailie was deeply affected.

In 2007, American rapper Eminem, (real name Marshall Mathers) experienced a near-death moment. It was enough for him to realise that if he didn't get sober, his daughters would be left without a father.

In the early 2000s, Eminem's music career was skyrocketing thanks to a bunch of successful hits and also his role in the semi-autobiographical movie 8 Mile. But it was this 2002 film that sparked the beginning of a drug struggle for the rapper.

 "We were doing 16 hours on the set on 8 Mile and you had a certain window where you had to sleep. One day somebody gave me an Ambien, and it knocked me the f**k out. I was like, 'I need this all the time'," he recounted to Rolling Stone. 

By 2005, Eminem was "f**ked up every night" on tour.

At the same time, there were family issues going on in the Mathers household. In 2006, Eminem and his ex-wife Kimberly Anne Scott permanently separated after briefly reconciling their relationship. Together they have daughter Hailie, who was born in 1995. 

In the mid-2000s period as well, Eminem decided to legally adopt his ex-wife's twin sister's daughter. The twin sister was struggling with drug abuse, and Eminem took on becoming a parent to the daughter - Alaina Marie, who was born in 1993.

As for Eminem's third and final child, Stevie (formerly Whitney) was born in 2002 to Eminem's ex-wife and her ex-boyfriend. Eminem later received full custody of Stevie due to the biological father's drug and legal issues.

With things full-on at home and at work, Eminem said he began depending on prescription drugs to function. At one point he was taking 75 to 80 Valium a night.

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"The pills I was taking, they had my mood really f**ked up," Eminem said to GQ. "It was making me depressed and, you know, it just became a vicious cycle of depression." 

Then in 2007, things came to a head. He experienced an accidental overdose on methadone.

"I didn't know it was methadone. I used to get pills wherever I could," he told the New York Times in 2011. "I was just taking anything that anybody was giving to me." 

This week on the Paul Pod podcast, Eminem and his longtime manager Paul Rosenberg spoke about the overdose and the journey afterward.

After getting sober in 2008, Eminem began working on his 2009 album Relapse, which he recalled in the interview was the first time he'd actually enjoyed the process of making music in a long time. 

"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 f**king new to me again," he said. "It was the first album and the first time that I had fun recording in a long time. 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."

Of course, getting sober wasn't easy. When he went to rehab, he said that he felt as though everyone was watching him and knew him. 

"People are going to turn and look. People at rehab were stealing my hats and pens and notebooks and asking for autographs. I couldn't concentrate on my problem."

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During the podcast conversation, Eminem said he only later discovered that his manager Rosenberg had been worried about Eminem's state of mind following all the drugs he had taken previously. 

"Didn't you ask the doctors - when I first started rapping again and sent it to you - didn't you say like, 'I just wanna make sure he doesn't have brain damage'," Eminem recounted said.

Rosenberg replied: "I thought you might have some permanent problems. Yeah, I was concerned, for sure."

Although there wasn't major damage seen, it was clear that the drugs had severely affected Eminem. As he explained to MTV: "I had to learn to write and rap again, and I had to do it sober and 100 percent clean. That didn't feel good at first… I mean it in the literal sense. I actually had to learn how to say my lyrics again; how to phrase them, make them flow, how to use force so they sounded like I meant them."

Eminem continued: "Rapping wasn't like riding a bike. It was [as much] physical as mental. I was relearning basic motor skills. I couldn't control my handshakes."

Eminem certainly isn't the only celebrity to share of their experience with drug and or alcohol addiction.

Elton John also said that given his own struggles in the limelight, he has always tried to help fellow celebrities in their darkest moments.

"It's hard when you're young. I was broken when I got sober. I was in a terrible place. I've been through that broken feeling and it's horrible. And luckily enough, I've been sober for 32 years and it's the happiest I've ever been. Now I've got the experience to be able to advise people and help them because I don't want to see any artists in a dark place," he said to The Guardian last month.

"I'm Uncle Elton. They can phone me."

Funny enough, Eminem and Elton are quite close friends. And Eminem does call him 'Uncle Elton'. 

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One of Eminem's daughters, Hailie Jade Mathers, opened up about her childhood growing up as a famous rapper's daughter on her new podcast, Just A Little Shady.

She described her childhood and all that came with it as "surreal".

Hailie said she grew up with an intense fear of being around drugs and alcohol. She explained that in high school she didn't drink or go to parties. 

"I feel like everyone was doing that but I just didn't," she said. During the podcast, Hailie said she decided to stay away from high school football games after the "first and last" one she went to. 

"One of my friends came up to me and talked right at my face and I was like, 'Oh my God, you're drinking,'" she recalled, describing herself as "so appalled" during the conversation.

"It hit me right in that moment, I was like, 'I've gotta go. I thought that even being associated with anyone there that was drinking I was gonna get in trouble." 

Hailie went on to say that she "never got in trouble" growing up because she "never did anything" that would warrant punishment. 

"I thought if I did anything wrong, I was a terrible human."

In 2019, Eminem celebrated over a decade of sobriety. "11 years," he wrote on Twitter while sharing a photo of his 11-year coin from a 12-step drug rehab program. "Still not afraid."

If this post brought up any issues for you, you can contact Drug Aware, Australia's 24hr alcohol and drug support line. You can reach them on (08) 9442 5000 or 1800 198 024.

Feature Image: Getty/Instagram @eminem.

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