And, ICYMI, the interview with Eminem, at GQ ‘s, ” Survivors Music Portfolio “: The current Mathers narrative revolves around his triumph over a nasty addiction to prescription meds. It’s not a touchy subject: Within minutes, he introduces the topic, explaining how he used to drink and pop pills to get through his concerts. “I’m very much a creature of habit,” he says, picking up his Red Bull. “If I’m used to waking up in the morning and having one of these, 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…” He trails off. “The bigger the crowd, the bigger my habit got.” Mathers says you can trace the arc of his addiction by listening to his albums: He was more or less sober writing the white-trash party that was The Slim Shady LP (1999); he credits experimentation with drugs for taking his music to unexpected places on The Marshall Mathers LP (2000); with The Eminem Show (2002), he struck the perfect balance—a potent mix of punch-line raps and intensely biographical material. Then the balance tipped: His fourth album, Encore, was his weakest, and it took him two years to complete because of his addiction to pills. “Five or six songs leaked from the original version of Encore,” he says. “So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them. In my head I was pissed off: ‘Oh well. Songs leaked. Fuck it. I’m just going to take a bunch of fucking pills and go in there and have a party with myself.’ I’m sure the more pills I took, the goofier I got.” He’s a little hazy about that time, when he was taking, by his own account, somewhere between sixty and ninety pills a day, including Valium, Vicodin, Ambien, and Seroquel (used to treat schizophrenia). “Ambien,” he says, “ate a hole through my brain.” He thinks he went to rehab in 2005, but don’t hold him to that. Like I said, it’s a little hazy. Rehab was not a safe space for Eminem. “Look,” he says, “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 fucking 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.” He left rehab pissed off and heavily burdened with what he calls “woe is me”—and started popping pills again. It nearly killed him. “I came to in the hospital and I didn’t know what the fuck happened,” he says. “Tubes in me and shit, fuckin’ needles in my arms. I didn’t realize I had [overdosed]. I wanted my drugs—get me the fuck outta there! I think I was clean for two weeks. I was trying so hard—I was trying to do it for my kids—but I just wasn’t ready.” What finally got him clean after a second relapse wasn’t his kids or his coma or even hip-hop. This time he really thought he was going to die. “I had a feeling in my arm that was weird, man,” he says. “Like, it really freaked me out. So I went to some people I trust and said, ‘Look, I know I need help. I’m ready now.’ I got a room in the same hospital where I overdosed, and I detoxed.” More here: ” The Survivors: Eminem .” More here: ‘Love The Way You Lie’
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I am glad Quin Hillyer drew our attention to Mark Corallo’s column on Christina Aguilera and The Star Spangled Banner. However, unlike Quin I did not find Corallo’s words to be Ruthian in their proportion . While Babe Ruth may have hit 714 homeruns he also struck out 1,330 times in his career . In this instance, I think Corallo swung and missed: So, with all the kindness I can muster, I give this one piece of advice to the next pop star who is asked to sing the national anthem at a sporting event: save the vocal gymnastics and the physical gyrations for your concerts. Just sing this song the way you were taught to sing it in kindergarten – straight up, no styling. Sing it with the constant awareness that there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines watching you from bases and outposts all over the world. Don’t make them cringe with your self-centered ego gratification. Sing it as if you are standing before a row of 86-year-old WWII vets wearing their Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and flag pins on their cardigans and you want them to be proud of you for honoring them and the country they love – not because you want them to think you are a superstar musician. They could see that from the costumes, the makeup and the entourages. But such an argument assumes that all Americans are taught the “Star Spangled Banner” in exactly the same way. As I pointed out here yesterday, Aguilera has been singing our national anthem at sporting events for two decades . Given that Aguilera essentially sings our anthem the same way at 30 as she did at 10 there is every reason to believe this is exactly how she was taught to sing it in kindergarten . Until Aguilera made her unfortunate gaffe at Super Bowl XLV I doubt any WWII veteran
I love watching Glenn Beck on TV. Day winding down, he makes so many good points. As someone who has spent a lifetime studying history, been there in government and politics, I find it great to watch Beck’s particular insistence on educating Americans about real history that has gone missing. Having long ago learned first hand the progressive-race connection, for example, by having lived for a couple years in Woodrow Wilson’s hometown, I am stunned to see someone have the wit and the chops to detail this particularly disturbing history of America’s “progressive” president on popular television. Bravo. So I watched the rally on C-SPAN.
