Eminem and Lil Wayne join Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards on the cover of the November issue of GQ magazine.

This special issue dubbed ‘The Survivors‘ pays tribute to “The greatest living music masters. Through career lulls, prison terms, ugly addictions, and industry earthquakes.“

Eminem talks to the magazine about his drug addiction and recovery.

“Five or six songs leaked from the original version of Encore,” Em told GQ. “So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them. In my head, I was pissed off: ‘Oh well. Songs leaked. F*ck it. I’m just going to take a bunch of f*cking pills and go in there and have a party with myself.’ I’m sure the more pills I took, the goofier I got.“

After a five year hiatus, the Detroit rapper, now clean and sober, bounced back strong with the releases of 2009′s Relapse and 2010′s Recovery.

“I’ve realized that the way I am helps with the music. Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know, I’ve written a whole song in an hour,” Em said in the magazine. “But sometimes it sucks, and I wish I was wired like a regular person and could go have a f*ckin’ drink. But that’s the biggest thing about addiction: When you realize that you cannot — for f*ck’s sake, you can not — f*ck around with nothing ever again.“

This special issue of GQ which is available October 25.