“Singing out there for an hour is a good workout,” Nelson told KSAT. “Your lungs are the biggest muscle you’ve got. So when you’re out there working, you are working out.”
Nelson told the Texas station that he isn’t taking his health for granted.
I’m here, I’m glad to be here,” Nelson said. “I’m lucky to be here.”
Nelson has been outspoken about the positive impact of marijuana on his life. In 2019, he told Rolling Stone that weed saved his life.
“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 said. “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 2015, Nelson launched Willie’s Reserve, his own brand of marijuana, which is based in Colorado. Last year, he expanded Willie’s Reserve with Willie’s Remedy, a line of coffee beans infused with CBD oil.
The Red Headed Stranger’s weed has been a part of country music lore for decades. In 2003, Toby Keith even released a song about the country music icon’s notoriously strong stash: “Weed With Willie,” featuring the lyric “I’ll never smoke weed with Willie again/ My party’s all over before it begins.”
The singer-songwriter’s love of smoking marijuana even became a national matter of interest when he reportedly smoked on the roof of the White House during Jimmy Carter‘s presidency.
“We were there, and there it was, and why not, you know?” Nelson said. “And they have a great view from the roof.”
Nelson released his most recent album, First Rose of Spring, earlier this year.