Eminem 37 in 2010

“My kids are everything to me. Hailie is growing up so fast, and I just want to be the best father I can for her. Alaina and Stevie—who I love just the same—keep me grounded, too. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that I never want my kids to go through what I did growing up. That’s why I got clean, why I’m trying to be better every day. My music is important, but my kids? They’re my reason for everything.”

“Me and my mom… we got a lot of history, and not the good kind. Anybody who’s listened to my music knows that. I spent years being angry at her for the way she raised me, for the things she did, or didn’t do. I put all that pain into my songs, and yeah, some of it was ugly. But at the end of the day, she’s still my mother. I don’t know if we’ll ever really fix things, but I’m not as angry as I used to be. I guess that’s something.”

“A few years ago, I didn’t think I’d even be here. The drugs, the overdoses… I was on a path to self-destruction. Getting clean was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was also the best. I had to relearn how to live, how to write, how to be a father. ‘Relapse’ was me working through the struggle, but ‘Recovery’—that’s me coming out on the other side. I’m finally at a place where I feel like I have control again. Music saved my life, but more than that, my kids saved my life. Now, I just want to move forward and make them proud.”

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