Eminem has revealed that he lost "five years" of his life to the prescription drug Ambien. 

The 'Not Afraid' rapper told Rolling Stone magazine that taking the heavy sedative caused him extensive memory loss and the pills were "wiping out brain cells":

"A lot of my memory is gone. I don't know if you've ever taken Ambien, but it's kind of a memory-eraser. That shit wiped out five years of my life. People will tell me stories, and it's like, "I did that?" I saw myself doing this thing on [television network] BET recently, and I was like, "When was that?""

He also admitted that he suffered writer's block during the dark time and kept some of the writing he had managed to do, but was shocked by its appearance and added:

“It fucking creeps me out. Letters all down the page – it was like my hand weighed 400 pounds. I have all that shit in a box in my closet. As a reminder that I don't ever want to go back.” 

Watch his latest music video for 'Lighters', which also features Bruno Mars and Royce Da 5'9, here: