Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Keith Richards take the cover of GQ‘s November 2011 issue.
Here’s what the 39-year-old rapper, who’s chronicled in a portfolio of survivors in rock, had to share:
On getting over an addiction to prescription meds: “I’m very much a creature of habit. If I’m used to waking up in the morning and having [a Red Bull], I could do it every morning for the next ten years straight until I find something else to move on to. So if I’m used to taking a Vicodin when I wake up in the morning because I’m hungover from -drinking or taking pills…The bigger the crowd, the bigger my habit got.”
On going to rehab in 2005: “Every addict in rehab feels like everyone’s staring at them. With me? Everyone was staring at me. I could never be comfortable. There were people there that treated me normal. Then there were a bunch of f—ing idiots who aren’t even concentrating on their own sobriety because they’re so worried about mine. They’re stealing my hats, my books – it was chaos. Everything was drama in there. And at the time, I didn’t really want to get clean. Everybody else wanted me to. And anyone will tell you: If you’re not ready, nothing is going to change you. Love, nothing.”
On getting back to who he is on Recovery: “On an emotional level, I want my music to connect with the same kid who I was. So it was like, ‘Okay, let me get serious. Because I feel like I’m being wrote off right now, and I’m kind of on my last leg.’ I felt like the underdog again.”
FYI: Keith is wearing a white Rogue button front shirt.
For more from Em, visit GQ.com!
