(Photo: Rollingstone Magazine)

Rick Ross and Janet Jackson now have something in common: Both have appeared topless on the cover of Rolling Stone. (Though it's important to note that only one of them covered up their cleavage.) With his new album, God Forgives, I Don't, debuting atop the Billboard charts with his best first week ever (218,000 copies sold), it's a fitting achievement for one of rap's biggest icons. Behind the rock-star cover, Rozay opened up to talk about his health scares, the second amendment and, for the first time, his infamous stint as a corrections officer.
When news broke that Rick Ross used to be a C.O., it nearly derailed his career. Even after conceding that the rumors were indeed true after weeks of furious denials, Ross has barely spoken of it since. But in Rolling Stone, he reveals that the job was an opportunity to clean his life up and "wash my hands" after a close friend was sentenced to 10 years for drug trafficking. "This was my best friend, who I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with, and pork and beans with, my buddy, my partner, my number-one dude," he says. "Suddenly I'm talking to him over federal phone calls. Hearing the way it was building, I knew I couldn't take nothing for granted. My homey's father was a huge influence on my life, too.... He was the one who was like, 'Yo, go get a job somewhere, man. Go be a fireman. Or go be a f--king corrections officer. Just go sit down somewhere."

Ross also speaks about the near-fatal seizures he suffered last year, suggesting that his love for marijuana may have been to blame. "I'm most definitely an avid user, a pothead, however you want to look at it," he says. "I call it green caviar. It's like a short vacation — it helps me chill out. And people really love it when I chill out, because I can really be a d--khead."
It may be a good thing to keep Ross "chill" in light of his proclaimed love for firearms. Though he was horrified by the recent theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado ("Such a cowardly act"), he is against gun control. "I think we all have a right to bear arms, whichever amendment that is," he says. Yes, that includes assault rifles. "I got 'em," he says.
Rick Ross' Rolling Stone issue hits newsstands this Friday, August 17.
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