The “Lose Yourself” rapper, 51, celebrated 16 years of sobriety on Saturday, April 20, sharing a photo via Instagram of his hand holding an Alcoholics Anonymous chip to commemorate the milestone. While Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) did not include a caption alongside the photo, his comments were full of supporters congratulating him for the achievement.
Eminem has previously spoken about his struggles with addiction after surviving a near-fatal overdose in 2007. His main addictions were sleeping pills as well as Vicodin and, according to the rapper, he was at one point taking upwards of 20 pills a day.
Beyond that, Eminem has remained relatively quiet on social media regarding his recovery. However, he shared a photo of himself via Instagram in April 2019 holding an Alcoholics Anonymous coin on the 11th anniversary of his sobriety. “11 years — still not afraid,” he captioned the pic at the time.
Eminem has been sober since April 20, 2008. One year later, he released his album Relapse, a concept album that explored drug rehabilitation and relapse. It was his first release since 2004’s Encore.
remember when I first got sober and all the s–t was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f–king new to me again,” Eminem said of Relapse in a September 2022 episode of Rosenberg’s “Paul Pod” podcast. “It was the first album and the first time that I had fun recording in a long time.”