When established country musician Willie Nelson achieved commercial success in the ’70s, he was already in his late thirties. Willie had been making music for over 30 years without releasing any hits, and by the 1970s his career was on the wane. After a string of bad events left him bankrupt, he considered retiring from the music business. But at the beginning of that decade he came back with everything, releasing a series of albums that changed the history of country forever. Its success was marked by the development of “Outlaw Country”, a new style of country music that emerged as a response to the restrictions of the “Nashville Sound”, the conservative style that reigned at the time.
Celebrities Share Their High Times With Willie Nelson:
Jimmy Carter
Nelson’s most notorious antics included smoking weed on the White House roof from 1977 and 1981, during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
“When Willie Nelson wrote his autobiography, he confessed that he smoked pot in the White House one night when he was spending the night with me,” Carter told People. “And he says that his companion that shared the pot with him was one of the servants in the White House. That is not exactly true — it actually was one of my sons, which he didn’t want to categorize as a pot-smoker like him.”
Jack Johnson
Before playing at Farm Aid 2015, Johnson chose to recount the event with a new song:
‘Willie got me stoned and stole all of my money,’ says the narrator. While the tune poked fun of Nelson’s unrivaled THC powers, this was also a love tribute to a gentle person who would still knock you underneath the table if you didn’t keep your wits behind you. Johnson has continued to play the song, establishing it as a Farm Aid staple.
Toby Keith
Toby Keith, an American country singer, is arguably better renowned for his dedications to beer than for engaging in “higher” hobbies, but, like Johnson, Keith had an out-of-body encounter while smoking with Nelson that he had to convert it into a music. Keith sang a couple tunes with Nelson during one of his gigs just before Charles Barkley’s birthday celebration in Las Vegas, and Nelson handed Keith some hefty herb.
“I couldn’t even function. It was like the most hardcore weed that I ever smoked,” Keith recalled. “I hit it like three or four times, and unlike Bill Clinton, I did inhale. I stood up and said, ‘It’s time for me to go’… and he was sitting there grinning at me. He knew he got me.” Keith ended up missing Barkley’s wedding, crashed at 11:30 p.m., and promised not to ever smoke a joint with Nelson again, which inspired his composition ‘Weed With Willie.’
Chelsea Handler
The best moments are often told by celebrities whose business it is to tell amusing anecdotes. Comedian Chelsea Handler isn’t any used to making jokes about being drunk, but Willie Nelson, like anyone who meets him, proven to be an altogether separate force of energy.
“I was high for two days. I literally couldn’t open one of my eyes,” Handler recalled of her smoke session with Nelson. Handler was supposed to be interviewing Nelson for her Netlflix series Chelsea Does, but as the weed kicked in, her mind went blank. “I didn’t take into account that I was going to be completely disabled,” Handler joked.
Owen Wilson and Johnny Knoxville
Anybody who crosses Nelson’s area is ensnared in his gravitational influence, which frequently results in amusing and bleak outcomes. During an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, comedians Owen Wilson and Johnny Knoxville discussed their individual story immersing themselves in Nelson’s universe.
“Usually when you’re with Willie you won’t remember too much,” Knoxville prefaced. “When he offers it to you, there’s no way to say no.” Wilson agreed, stating that Nelson enjoys busting out the gunk amid sessions of poker and, strangely, dominoes.
Woody Harrelson
Willie Nelson attracts some celebs owing to their comparable lives. Woody Harrelson was renowned as a marijuana smoker for the majority of his career, but in recent years the actor has stated that he has been smoke-free for about two years. That is, until he met Willie Nelson.
“He was never comfortable with me quitting,” Harrelson joked on Ellen. “It just bothered him.” When Harrelson came face to face with some “Willie’s Reserve” weed, Nelson once again feigned ignorance and disbelief that Harrelson had quit, and finally Harrelson decided to break the streak. “I take a big draw off of it and he says, ‘Welcome home, son,’” Harrelson says with a happy face.
Timothy Olyphant
Nelson’s weed reputation is so widespread that he doesn’t really have to be present to make folks high. That’s what actor Timothy Olyphant discovered when he went to the Austin City Limits fest and was given a whiff on Nelson’s cannabis. Olyphant took two hits and went into a different sense of awareness.
“I was with my brother, and I looked across the lawn. There was a golf cart not ten yards, and I said, ‘You know, I’m just gonna go and sit on that golf cart.’ I took like four strides and said, ‘…or I’ll just sit right here.” Nelson’s pot was swiftly wiping all of Olyphant’s recollection, so he instructed his brother to jot down his hotel room in a major episode of stoner panic.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg, the legendary rapper who is as 4/20 friendly as any current star, is the only individual who can genuinely threaten Nelson’s position as World’s favorite pothead. Nelson took the best of Snoop, who boasted to be consuming 80 blunts a day earlier in 2013.
“Willie Nelson is the only person that has ever out-smoked Snoop Dogg,” the rapper humbly claimed. “I had to hit the time out button.”
This occurred during the production of Snoop’s ‘My Medicine,’ prior to Nelson taking Snoop on an April 20th tour of Amsterdam. Nelson was the last guy remaining as a consequence of the haze, cementing his position as mainstream culture’s pot king.