DarkSideOfEm wrote:publicity is the word
Yeah, he took a bit of a break when he had problems, but his publicity people are always playing up the drama around him. The articles/interviews that say he was away for 5 years are just off press releases and what Em's people have said so they can make his "comeback" seem even more exciting.
I thought about the book in 2008, too. There was obviously some major ghostwriting going on there for it to come out when it did--right around the time of his mom's book (it had to be in production when he was still getting clean). Besides the need for publicity, he obvs has a strong staff who keeps generating stuff or spacing his work out even when he's not in public.