In a new interview with The New York Times Magazine, [artist id="502642"]Eminem[/artist] declares that his "overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be," a statement that apparently extends to his views on gay marriage.

At one point during the piece -- which will appear in the Sunday, June 20, issue of the mag -- Em is asked by the Times' Deborah Solomon if he'd support a gay marriage bill in his home state of Michigan. Somewhat surprisingly, he said yes ... in his own, uniquely acerbic way, of course.

"I think if two people love each other, then what the hell?" Em answered. "I think that everyone should have the chance to be equally miserable, if they want."

Throughout his career, Eminem has drawn the ire of gay rights groups, who called lyrics on his Marshall Mathers LP [article id="1435944"]"homophobic and hateful"[/article] and protested his performance -- and nominations -- at the [article id="1438949"]Grammy Awards in 2001[/article]. And late last year, he made headlines when [article id="1627914"]"Elevator," from his Relapse: Refill album[/article], found him calling Clay Aiken and Adam Lambert "f----ts."

Elsewhere in the Times interview, Eminem says that his newfound maturity had a lot to do with getting sober and, for the first time in his career, putting his maniacal Slim Shady persona on the shelf for his upcoming [article id="1641549"]Recovery[/article] album.

"Shady still exists. But I don't think the subjects on this record call for, you know, bringing the chainsaws and axes out and murder[ing] everyone," he says. "There was so much stuff like that off the last record that I felt like I was starting to run it into the ground. I think consciously I went in a different direction with this record."