Country music icon, Willie Nelson, recently revealed that he has quit smoking marijuana this year for the sake of his health since he started having trouble breathing.
When you think about smoking marijuana, there are two celebrities that might spring to mind.
Snoop Dogg — no doubt, and of course, OG country music star, Willie Nelson.
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But it turns out that Willie has officially retired from smoking weed.
While it’s probably brought him great joy throughout his life, his lungs have certainly taken a beating over the years.
Earlier this year, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Willie confessed just how long he has been smoking marijuana for.
Spoiler alert: It’s a rather shocking number of years.
He admiited to smoking weed for “65 years” straight, to be precise.
And it wasn’t just the occasional marijuana cigarette either. He described his pot-smoking habit as basically constant .
“Pretty much all the time,” he described. He also consistently advocated for the benefits of THC and CBD.
“I’m kind of the canary in the mine, if people are wondering what happens if you smoke that [expletive] a long time,” he said.
“You know, if I start jerking or shaking or something, don’t give me no more weed,” he added.
“But as long as I’m all right …”
He actually credited weed for keeping him out of trouble.
“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. 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.”
In a more recent interview, however, with KSAT TV’s Paul Venema, he announced that his smoking days are over.
It is truly the end of an era.
“I don’t smoke anymore – take better care of myself,” he explained. “I have abused my lungs quite a bit in the past”.
Willie is 86 years old, and for 65 of those years he was supposedly smoking — It’s amazing that his lungs have made it this far!
He revealed that he now proceeds with a lot more caution, as breathing has become increasingly difficult.
“So breathing is a little more difficult these days and I have to be careful.”
He also admitted that marijuana wasn’t the only thing he was smoking.
“I started smoking cedar bark, went from that to cigarettes to whatever, and that almost killed me,” he said .
“I’ve mistreated myself since I was this big,” he went on. “I take better care of myself today than I did then.”
Even singing has become taxing on his lungs.
“Singing out there for an hour is a good workout,” he said.
“Your lungs are the biggest muscle you’ve got. So when you’re out there working, you are working out.”
In early August, he actually had to cancel some of his tour dates due to breathing problems.
“I’m sorry to cancel my tour, but I have a breathing problem that I need to have my doctor check out,” he tweeted at the time. “I’ll be back.”
He returned to his tour in September, but fans were still worried about Willie’s decline in health.
“I don’t give a [expletive] Excuse me. I’m here, I’m glad to be here, I’m lucky to be here,” he said .
