Willie Nelson celebrated his 86th birthday this week, and believes he wouldn’t be here today without the help of cannabis.
The outlaw country legend opened up in a feature story for Rolling Stone’s April 2019 Weed Issue, where he discussed why cannabis has become so important throughout his life.
Nelson explained how using marijuana served as an alternative to alcohol and other addictive drugs.
“I wouldn’t be alive. It saved my life, really. I wouldn’t have lived 85 years if I’d have kept drinking and smoking like I was when I was 30, 40 years old,” Nelson told Rolling Stone. I think that weed kept me from wanting to kill people. And probably kept a lot of people from wanting to kill me, too — out there drunk, running around.”
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The interview also debunked an old rock ‘n roll myth as the truth — Nelson did, in fact, smoke a joint on the roof of the White House during the Carter administration:
“Chip Carter took me down into the bottom of the White House, where the bowling alley is,” Nelson says. Then they went up to the roof and smoked a joint.
Nelson remembers Carter explaining the surrounding view — the Washington Monument, the string of lights on Pennsylvania Avenue. “It’s really pretty nice up there,” Nelson says.
The pot-fueled interview further reveals that Willie is unshockingly high “pretty much all the time,” and highly enjoys his role as “chief tasting officer” for his cannabis brand, Willie’s Reserve.
“If I find something that’s really good, I say, ‘This is really good,’” he explains.
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Oscar Pascual is the editor of Smell the Truth, syndicated on GreenState and SFGATE. Smell The Truth is one of the internet’s most popular destinations for cannabis-related news and culture. This blog is not written or edited by Hearst. The authors are solely responsible for the content.