Eminem Reveals He Decide To Get Sober After A Near-Fatal Overdose In 2007

Eminem is opening up about the moment that nearly ended his life and how it changed everything. Back in 2007, the rapper was trapped in what he calls a “vicious cycle” of depression and pills. Then, one day, he woke up in a hospital bed, unable to move, with tubes everywhere. “I didn’t know what the f— happened,” he recalls in his new documentary STANS. “It seemed like I fell asleep, and I woke up with tubes in me and s—. I wanted to get up. I couldn’t move.”

That near-fatal overdose became his turning point. He went into recovery and started working on what would become his 2009 album Relapse. The process felt like a fresh start. “I remember when I first got sober and all the s— was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f—ing new to me again,” he shared in a 2022 episode of Paul Rosenberg’s Paul Pod podcast. “It was the first album and the first time that I had fun recording in a long time.”

The album’s reception wasn’t as warm as he hoped, but it pushed him further toward embracing sobriety. Fast forward 17 years, and Eminem is still clean. In April 2024, he marked 16 years of sobriety on Instagram with a photo of his hand holding his latest recovery chip, a small token with a massive meaning.

Now, fans get to see this chapter of his life and much more in STANS, named after his 2000 hit song. The documentary dives deep into the complicated relationship between one of the world’s most private artists and his huge public persona. It blends rare archival footage, stylized recreations, and intimate interviews, including a new one with Eminem himself.

But it’s not just about him, as the film also features real-life “stans” whose personal stories are tied to his music. It ran in AMC Theatres from August 7 to August 10, and will be streaming internationally on Paramount+ later this year.