Eminem feared dying amid addiction troubles Rap star Eminem has opened up about his struggles with addiction. 7 August 2025 Eminem feared he might die amid his struggles with addiction. Eminem battled with addiction for years The 52-year-old rapper became addicted to prescription pills amid his sudden rise to stardom in the early 2000s, and Eminem has confessed to fearing for his life at one point in time. He said in his new Stans documentary: "I got into this vicious cycle of, 'I'm depressed so I need more pills,' and then your tolerance gets so high that you end up overdosing. "I woke up in the hospital and I didn't know what happened. I woke up in the hospital with tubes in me and s*** and I couldn't get up, I wanted to move. After the overdose, I came home like I needed something ... like, I'm gonna die if I don't do anything." Eminem - whose real name is Marshall Mathers - actually missed the birth of his daughter due to his addiction struggles, and that proved to be a turning point in his life. The rap star - who is one of the best-selling artists of all time - shared: "I cried because it was like, 'Oh my god, I missed that.' I kept saying to myself, 'Do you want to f****** miss this again? Do you want to miss everything? If you can't do it for yourself, you f****** p****, at least do it for them.' I realised I'm never doing this again." Eminem's new documentary is directed by Steven Leckart, who jumped at the chance to work on the project. Speaking about the documentary, Steven told Us Weekly: "I grew up on hip hop in the '80s and '90s, and became a fan of Eminem's music in '99 and watched his rise on MTV. So when the opportunity came to me to have the conversation with him and his team to try to come up with a documentary based on one of the most iconic songs ever written, I was like, 'Yeah, of course, that sounds wonderful.' So then it was just a question of coming up with the right approach." Tagged in Eminem