He was two hours from dying. His organs were shutting down. He woke up on a hospital floor after taking methadone he thought was Vicodin, and the doctors told him he almost didn’t make it. That was the end of 2007. His chip says April 20, 2008. As of 2026, that is 18 years, and he posted the XVIII chip on Instagram this April with Questlove in the comments writing “Keep Goin.”
He belongs near the top of our sober celebrities roundup, and here is the story behind the chip.
| Sober since | April 20, 2008 |
| Years sober | 18 as of 2026 |
| Substances | Prescription pills, including Ambien, Valium and extra-strength Vicodin (Rolling Stone, 2010) |
| Turning point | An accidental methadone overdose at the end of 2007 |
| What he credits | A rehab counselor, running and a phone call to Elton John |
| Best quote | “My bottom was gonna be death.” (“How to Make Money Selling Drugs,” 2013) |
Every Day a Pocketful of Pills
For much of 2002 to 2008, Marshall Mathers was hooked on a prescription cocktail, Rolling Stone reported. The Ambien started around “8 Mile.” The Vicodin came with a feeling he liked a little too much.
“It just kind of numbed things,” he said in 2013. “People tried to tell me I had a problem.”
You could hear it in the records. “Every day I had a pocketful of pills, and I would just go into the studio and goof off,” he told Rolling Stone. “Around the tail end of ‘Encore,’ the songs started getting really goofy.”
The most precise rapper alive was making novelty records. That is what addiction does: it takes the thing you are best at first.
In August 2005 he canceled the European leg of his tour and entered rehab for what he called a “dependency on sleep medication.” It did not hold.
The next year his best friend was shot and killed, and Rolling Stone says he fell into “an even deeper tailspin.” Grief and a medicine cabinet are a bad combination for anyone. For an addict with unlimited prescriptions, they are nearly fatal.
At the end of 2007, Eminem took methadone that looked like the Vicodin he was used to, and collapsed. “All I remember was hitting the bathroom floor and waking up in the hospital,” he told Rolling Stone.
Doctors told him he was about two hours from dying. “My organs were shutting down,” he said. “My liver, kidneys, everything. They were gonna have to put me on dialysis. They didn’t think I was gonna make it.”
His chip says April 20, 2008. A few months after that hospital bed, he started counting and never stopped.
He Found Running. Running Found Him Back.
After the overdose he hired a rehab counselor, and then he found the habit that replaced the pills. “Unless I was blitzed out of my mind, I had trouble sleeping,” he told Men’s Journal in 2015. “So I started running.”
Not jogging. Running. Eight and a half miles in the morning before the studio, then another eight and a half when he got home. He had climbed to about 230 pounds and got down to about 149.
Recovery people will recognize that energy instantly. You do not get rid of the restlessness. You just give it somewhere better to go.
The Elton John Phone Call
In 2001, protesters stood outside the Grammys over Eminem’s lyrics while Elton John sat at the piano and sang the hook on “Stan” with him. Seven years later, Elton was the call he made.
“When I first wanted to get sober, I called him and spoke to him about it,” Eminem told the Detroit Metro Times in 2009. “He understands the pressure.”
That is the whole story of recovery in one phone call: the person with more time picks up.
I got sober May 1, 2006, about two years before Eminem, and twenty years in, that phone call is the part of his story I would frame. Fame changes the guest list, not the method.
The Records He Made After
He named the comeback records honestly: “Relapse” in May 2009, then “Recovery” on June 18, 2010, the best-selling album in the world that year (RIAA certified; Billboard year-end chart, 2010). “When I got clean, I started doing things I wouldn’t otherwise have done,” he told Rolling Stone. “That’s when I started to get away from the funny s— and do songs that had some emotion and aggression to them again.”
We marked that album with his Recovery merch drop, and the fans who grew up with him got their own close-up in the Stans documentary.
Sober Eminem has since put out a No. 1 album, “The Death of Slim Shady,” in 2024 and played the Detroit Lions’ Thanksgiving halftime show in 2025. If you want more musicians who kept making great records clean, start with our list of sober musicians.
AB’s Take
I grew up with Eminem. Not with him, obviously. But his records were the soundtrack to some of my worst years, which means they were also the soundtrack to years I barely survived. We were in it at the same time, on completely different sides of fame, and we got out at almost the same time too. He got his chip April 20, 2008. I got mine May 1, 2006.
I consider him a sober GOAT. Not just because of the longevity, though 18 years is nothing to gloss over. Because of what he did with the platform after. He did not go quiet. He did not rebrand into wellness. He kept making records, kept showing up for Detroit, kept being exactly who he was, just alive. That is the version of sobriety I believe in. The one where you do not shrink. You just get clearer.
Want more stars who traded the chaos for a chip? Meet the rest of them in our sober celebrities roundup.
Two Sober Goats Walk Into the Grammy’s…
Sources and Further Reading
- iHeartRadio: Eminem receives praise from celebrities after celebrating 18 years of sobriety (April 21, 2026)
- Rolling Stone: Eminem, on the road back from hell (2010 profile)
- CBS Detroit: Eminem opens up about prescription drug addiction (July 1, 2013)
- Global News: Eminem celebrates 12 years of sobriety (April 2020)
- Fox News via ET: Eminem replaced pill addiction with exercise (Aug. 4, 2015)
- PinkNews: Eminem helped by Elton John in drug addiction battle (May 26, 2009)
SOBRIETY IN THE CITY: Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti: A Detroit Delight
PLAY IT AGAIN is The Sober Curator’s curated playlist of sobriety anthems—songs that capture the essence of recovery journeys and lift the spirit. From timeless classics to modern hits, these tracks inspire, heal, and motivate, no matter what genre of choice. Each song is handpicked for its power to transport you to another state of mind and remind you why living alcohol-free rocks.
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How long has Eminem been sober?
Since April 20, 2008. As of 2026, that is 18 years, and he posted his 18-year chip on that date this year.
What was Eminem addicted to?
Prescription drugs, including Ambien, Valium and extra-strength Vicodin, according to Rolling Stone. A methadone overdose at the end of 2007 nearly killed him.
Did Eminem go to rehab?
Yes. He entered rehab in 2005 for a dependency on sleep medication, and after his 2007 overdose he worked with a rehab counselor.
Has Eminem relapsed since 2008?
There are no public reports of a relapse since April 20, 2008. His relapse came earlier, after the 2005 rehab stay.
Who helped Eminem get sober?
He has said Elton John was the person he called when he first wanted to get sober.
