Elton John got Eminem off drugs after rapper nearly died from consuming equivalent of 'four bags of heroin' a day
Elton John saved Eminem's life by showing him a path out of drug addiction. The rapper was reportedly taking up to "30 Vicodins a day" and almost died from an overdose.
The 15-time Grammy-winning artist was rushed to the hospital in a dire state in 2007 after consuming the equivalent of "four bags of heroin." After he woke up in the ICU, he was told that he was two hours from death when he was brought in, according to the rapper's new biography 'Not Afraid: The Evolution of Eminem' by Anthony Bozza, a copy of which was obtained by Daily Mail.
"My organs were shutting down, my liver, kidneys... They were going to have to put me on dialysis. They didn't think I was going to make it. My bottom was going to be death," he said.
Eminem's early life was complicated. As a cook and dishwasher from Detroit, he found that he was one of the handful white men in the rap industry which was predominantly African-American.
When he did find unexpected success early in his career, he says he was gutted. "Fame hit me like a f***ing ton of bricks," the rapper, known offstage as Marshall Mathers, says.
As a result, he began partying harder, consuming lots of drugs and alcohol, even carrying a concealed weapon and getting into frequent fights.
It was only after Eminem fell off the wagon multiple times and even suffered a life-threatening overdose that Elton entered his life as his sober sponsor. The 'Rocket Man' singer reportedly helped move the rapper's life away from addiction to drugs and towards addiction to writing.
Before writing his 2009 album 'Relapse', Eminem dedicated his life to studying as much as he could about serial killers.
"As a fellow musical superstar with nearly 30 years of sobriety under his belt, Elton John was the perfect mentor to help guide Marshall," Bozza writes in the biography. "The two started on a program of weekly check-ins and grew very close."
Although Eminem often used homophobic lyrics in his rap songs, the 47-year-old singer forged an uncanny friendship with Elton and the two of them even teamed up for performing a duet together at the 2001 Grammys.
Three years later, the 'Venom' singer revealed that did not know that Elton was "gay" and that he really did not care.
The 72-year-old singer, on the other hand, professed his love for Eminem saying that he never viewed him as homophobic and simply saw him as "just writing about the way things are."