Willie Nelson, the ninety-one-year-old singer-songwriter, who has brought comfort and heartbreak and joy to his fans with a hundred and fifty-three albums, thirteen books, and more than a couple of arrests for marijuana possession, will soon publish his first-ever cookbook. The concoctions in “Willie and Annie Nelson’s Cannabis Cookbook: Mouthwatering Recipes and the High-Flying Stories Behind Them” include Shirred Eggs with Asparagus & Fennel (17.6 milligrams of THC per serving), Vegan Cannabis Butter (212 milligrams of THC per tablespoon), and Buttermilk Fried Chicken (no THC). The stories veer from recollections of a Christmas he spent in the Alps with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson to an account of a harsh winter, in Tennessee, when he bought seventeen weaner pigs at a quarter a pound, then sold them at a loss.
“I learned one thing—I’m not a hog raiser,” Nelson recalled the other day at Luck, his dusty ranch in the Texas Hill Country. He was at his “world headquarters,” a building used mostly for playing poker, watching MSNBC, drinking, and getting high. The inside was decorated with cardboard cutouts of Gene Autry and John Wayne (“My heroes!”), a “Willie for President” license plate, and some signed Snoop Dogg memorabilia. Nelson glanced over at a Doggy Dogg poster and said, “I smoked him under the table one night!” (Snoop confirmed: “Willie Nelson is the only person who has ever outsmoked Snoop Dogg!”)
On the front porch, Nelson sat with his wife, Annie D’Angelo. She and the chef Andrea Drummer had written the cookbook’s recipes, which, these days, the singer doesn’t much fancy. “He only eats certain foods,” D’Angelo said.
Nelson, who wore old cowboy boots, black jeans, and a black puffer coat in the eighty-degree heat, said, “I used to eat chicken-fried steaks and enchiladas and all that good stuff. Now I have to watch it.” His current diet features toast, protein shakes, gluten-free waffles with syrup, chicken soup, and bacon-and-tomato sandwiches.
But he does still get high. “I had to lay off smoking for a while. I’m giving my lungs a rest,” he said. “I started out smoking cedar bark, and then cornstalks, and then switched up to cigarettes—Chesterfields and Camels.” He went on, “One day, I emptied out my Chesterfields box and rolled up twenty fat joints and stuck ’em in the box, and anytime I wanted a cigarette I’d smoke a joint. And I quit smoking that way.” He laughed. “Now I do edibles.”
“I’m the one who makes them,” D’Angelo said. Nelson’s daily dose of THC is about sixty milligrams—enough to turn a regular person into stardust.
“I think it saved my life,” Nelson said, of cannabis. “And probably other people’s lives.” He paused. “I drank a lot—”
H/T: www.newyorker.com
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