Eminem’s 2007 methadone overdose nearly cost him his life—and left his team fearing the worst. After the near-fatal incident, the rapper had to relearn how to rap from scratch, sparking serious concerns from his manager, Paul Rosenberg, about potential brain damage.
Struggling to Get His Brain to Work Again
During a 2022 episode of the Paul Pod: Curtain Call 2 podcast, Eminem opened up about his long road to recovery.
🔹 “It took a long time for my brain to start working again.”
Rosenberg confirmed just how serious things were, recalling how doctors had to stabilize Eminem with medications after his overdose.
🔹 “Some of them took you a minute to adjust to… You were learning to rap again, almost literally, right?”
Eminem agreed, revealing that Rosenberg even asked doctors if he had suffered permanent brain damage when he first started rapping again.
Relearning the Basics—Even Driving
By the time Eminem released Relapse (2009), he was slowly regaining his creative spark—but the process was far from easy. Speaking to MTV in 2010, he admitted that rapping sober for the first time in years felt unnatural.
🔹 “I actually had to learn how to say my lyrics again—how to phrase them, how to make them flow.”
But it wasn’t just rapping—Eminem had to relearn basic motor skills, including how to drive a car.
🔹 “I couldn’t control my hand shakes. I’d get in the booth, and none of it was clever, none was witty, and I wasn’t saying it right.”
Bouncing Back in Just Months
Despite the struggles, Rosenberg said Eminem only needed five or six months to get back to his creative self. But even during the early Relapse sessions, Em was still in withdrawal—taking up to 80 Valium pills a night.
Eventually, music became his escape again.
🔹 “I remember when I first got sober, everything was new to me again.”
🔹 “It was the first time in a long time that I had fun recording music.”
From Rock Bottom to Rap God
Eminem’s 2007 overdose could have ended everything—but instead, it became the turning point in his career.
His relapse, recovery, and reinvention not only brought him back to music but set the stage for his legendary comeback.
From fearing brain damage to spitting 10+ syllables per second on Rap God, Eminem’s journey proves that even at rock bottom, a comeback is always possible.
