Eminem compares his drug addiction to MJ’s

LONDON - Rap star Eminem has compared his prescription drug problem to Michael Jackson’s, confessing that he popped between 60-90 pills a day during the height of his addiction.

He claimed he built up such a tolerance to tranquilisers and prescription drugs he was taking them every few minutes just to stay “normal”.

The 38-year-old - real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III - said he was “f***** up every day” on his 2005 Anger Management tour.

“I was taking so many pills that I wasn’t even taking them to get high any more. I was taking them to get normal. In a day I could consume anywhere from 40 to 60 Valium. And Vicodin? Maybe 20, 30,” the Sun quoted Eminem as saying.

“My everyday regimen would be wake up and take an extra strength Vicodin - and it’d be Vicodin throughout the day.

“As the evening crept up I’d start with Valium. Every hour on the hour, I’d pop four or five more. The Ambien would put me over the top to go to sleep,” he said.

Jacko died aged 50 in June 2009 after an overdose of Propofol - meant to help him sleep.

“Towards the end I don’t think the s*** would put me to sleep more than two hours. It’s very similar to what I’ve read about Michael. I read he kept getting up in the night asking for more. That’s what I did,” Eminem told US magazine Rolling Stone.

He also claimed doctors said he was two hours from dying after a methadone overdose in December 2007 - admitting: “I’d done the equivalent of four bags of heroin.

“I knew I had to change my life. I was a terrible person.

He took help from pop pal Elton John to help him kick the habit.

He admitted Elton was his “sober coach”, adding: “He usually calls me once a week to check on me.”

The rapper “honestly” believes he will never use drugs again.

“This is the time in your life where you stop doing that stuff. Time to grow up,” he said. (ANI)