Country Singers Who Smoke Cannabis

Country music and cannabis goes together like peanut butter and jelly. Now, A recent study confirms that there are more cannabis references in country music than in rap or rock. Can you believe someone actually studied that?

In a study published on Addictions.com, data researchers reported that country stars sing more about marijuana than any other drug, but coke and meth are second and third runners-up. 

Speaking to Rolling Stone, data scientist Logan Freedman said they found that "country music does have the most drug mentions and a lot of the country songs do speak about marijuana quite a bit."

Freedman and his collaborators had to do some sleuthing to figure all this out, reports Rolling Stone—they analyzed lyrics for euphemisms as well as overt references, searching for words and phrases "like addy, blow, molly, roxy and sizzurp." 

Some country stars simply sing about smoking weed, while others boldly admit they've tried it, liked it and don't ever plan to give it up. At least one country legend says she toked only once and hated it!

You know Willie Nelson and Toby Keith have smoked — that story has been well told — and friends of Willie, like Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard may come as no surprise, either. We promise at least one artist on this list will shock you, however. There's a famous country female who not only admits to smoking pot, but trying a few edibles!

Eric Church gets the award for most creative, while Aaron Lewis says he's given up smoking marijuana. Surely you've heard rumors about others — Brandy Clark sings about smoking marijuana, and so do Blake Shelton, Hank Williams Jr. and Jamey Johnson. Have they puffed and passed? It's not 100 percent clear. But these 17 country stars (and counting) have admitted to smoking weed.

Willie Nelson

Country music’s most well-known toker even has his own line of marijuana. Getting a chance to puff with Nelson is a rite of passage bestowed upon only the most worthy in country music, and it’s a memorable experience (or so we hear). Actually, it may not be memorable if you can't remember it.

Toby Keith

Toby Keith wrote a song about smoking with Willie Nelson called “I’ll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again” and later told how it came to be. In Las Vegas he boarded Nelson’s bus, intending to make it to Charles Barkley’s birthday party later that night. “It just knocked me out,” Keith says of the experience. He never made it to the basketball legend’s party that night.

Reba McEntire

Really? Reba likes a toke? She admits she’s puffed and passed before — she even tried edibles — but she didn't care for it too much, as she didn’t know when the high would kick in. During a Bravo show called Watch What Happens Live McEntire admitted it. She insists she’s not a stoner, however, and indicates that it’s been quite awhile.

Brantley Gilbert

During a 2013 interview with Taste of Country, Gilbert coyly said he has a Willie Nelson story, but can’t share it “because I would never smoke weed because it is against the law.” Three years later, he was more willing. While he’s kicked alcohol and opiates, Gilbert says, “I’m a Willie Nelson fan and that’s kind of looked down upon from time to time.”

Loretta Lynn

She didn’t like it, but she tried it. Loretta Lynn smoked for the first time at age 84 because doctors gave her a marijuana cigarette to treat glaucoma. “I took one smoke off of it and it hit me right here in the chest,” she says of the experience. “I like to have died!” Later Willie Nelson would encourage her to give it another try.

Ashley Monroe

During an album release event for Monroe’s Like a Rose album, Vince Gill and the blonde country chanteuse were talking about “Weed Instead of Roses,” a very pot-friendly love song on the album. Gill joked that it was funny he produced the song, because he’d never smoked. Monroe eagerly admitted that she had.

Jake Owen

“I have done my share of weed,” Owen told Rolling Stone in 2014. So there you go.

Eric Church

Eric Church gets the creativity award. During an interview with Men’s Journal to promote his Mr. Misunderstood album, he said he doesn’t smoke marijuana any longer because it’s too hard on his vocals, but he enjoys the edibles. In 2016 he told a radio station in Florida that he once smoked weed out of a bar of Dial soap.

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Florida Georgia Line

In the fall of 2014, FGL admitted they were “professional partiers” when asked directly by Billboard if they smoke pot. The topic has made the music, as well. “All I wanna do today is wear my favorite shades and get stoned,” they sing during “Sun Daze.”

Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard talked about smoking marijuana many times over the course of his life, including a late-life conversation with GQ in which he recalls Nelson telling him that if the two hadn’t smoked weed, they’d probably be dead from drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes.

Justin Timberlake

During a 2011 interview with Playboy Timberlake admitted he “absolutely” smokes marijuana. “Sometimes I have a brain that needs to be turned off,” he says. “Some people are just better high.”

Aaron Lewis

During a show in 2015, Lewis said he'd quit smoking marijuana, joking that he'd started to lose his memory after he gave up the drug.

Kris Kristofferson

The legendary singer, songwriter and actor is defiant about his marijuana use, saying that even if it is causing him to lose his memory, he doesn't care. He talked about it at length during an interview with Rolling Stone Country in 2016.

Dierks Bentley

Bentley admits to Rolling Stone Country that while he and his band were in the studio in Telluride recording The Mountain, they "honored 4/20 every single day we were in there. We were in Colorado, after all." The guy who owned the studio liked to make pot brownies.

Sasha McVeigh

McVeigh performed at Country Jam Colorado in 2018, and in a game of Never Have I Ever beforehand, she held up "I Have" when asked if she had ever "enjoyed the Colorado greenery." (That's slang for "smoked pot," if you didn't know. )

Kacey Musgraves and Ruston Kelly

Kacey Musgraves has done a lot more than just sing about smoking pot. She shared a picture from her wedding to Ruston Kelly where they were both holding joints and exhaling on social media. Musgraves has posted other shots of herself smoking, too, and hasn't tried to make any secret of her fondness for weed. For that matter, she wrote a song on her most recent album that she admits was inspired by an acid trip.