Eminem Says Elton Helped Him After Rehab

Eminem says Elton helped him after rehab

NEW YORK, May 14 (UPI) --
U.S. rapper Eminem says in an essay he wrote for VIBE Magazine's June/July issue he turned to Elton John for support during his battle with drug addiction.

"When I came home from the hospital the second time and I realized that I was giving up drugs forever I reached out to Elton 'cause I knew he had a problem before," the rapper said in the magazine's cover story.

"We had kept in contact ever since the Grammys," he said. "We'd call each other up every now and then, and I went to a concert of his when he came to town -- me and Kid Rock went. I knew he was in recovery and I just wanted to reach out to somebody who was on the same level as far as fame and (expletive) like that go. And just asked him how in the hell he did it. He was really supportive, and still is to this day."

"Relapse," Emimem's first album in more than four years, is set for release next week.

Eminem: Drugs almost killed me, Elton John helped me get clean and sober
May 15, 2:40 PM



Elton John and Eminem go way back. This shot was taken at the 2001 Grammy Awards.
With his first album in five years, "Relapse," set to release Monday, rapper Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) is coming clean about his own drug addiction, how it almost killed him and how Elton John helped him get clean and sober. In a long confession for Vibe magazine, he writes:

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. ... It’s no secret I had a drug problem. I just don’t think my fans knew how bad it was."

He tells of quitting rehab, relapsing on Valium and Vicodin and almost dying on a Methadone overdose.

My doctor told me the amount of methadone I’d taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin. Even when they told me I almost died, it didn’t click. I was pretty much in a coma for two days.

He told the Detroit's Metro Times he still looks to his friend Elton John for support and advice:

I talk to Elton a lot. We became friends and I talk to him about things, career wise. And he had a substance abuse problem in the past. So when I first wanted to get sober, I called him and spoke to him about it because, you know, he's somebody who's in the business and can identify and relate to the lifestyle and how hectic things can be. He understands like the pressure and any other reasons that you wanna come up with for doing drugs, you know. Me and him have had similar lives and stuff. So I reached out to him and told him, "Look, I'm going through a problem and I need your advice."

Eminem, who lives just outside of Detroit with his daughters, flew 200 hometown auto workers to Los Angeles for his taping today on "Jimmy Kimmel Live.