Cher Has Flashbacks to Willie Nelson’s Weed-Filled Tour Bus: ‘Just Drugs Everywhere’

From the stories that have been shared over the years from artists who have spent any amount of time on Willie Nelson’s tour bus, the vehicle has earned quite the reputation for its nights of weed-fueled antics. In new clips from Cher’s visit to the Kelly Clarkson Show, the pair traded stories about entering the country musician’s hazy bus, which, to Clarkson’s surprise, was not the inspiring scent behind the Seventies edition of Cher’s decades-themed perfume.

“I was shocked the ‘70s didn’t smell like marijuana,” Clarkson told Cher. “I was like, oh, this one will obviously smell like Willie Nelson’s bus.”

The mention of Nelson’s bus must have sparked flashbacks for Cher, who almost hopped off the couch while remembering: “Oh my God, I’ve been on Willie Nelson’s bus, it smells exactly like marijuana.” The singer laughed while describing it as “a terrible old bus,” adding: “But he was great. And just … drugs everywhere.”

When Clarkson visited the storied bus, she joked she left with a contact high. “It was laid out on the table, it was so amazing,” she described. “It was like as if you’d go into a store, like some old-school Airstream in LA and that’s the store where they’re selling. It was everything you kind of wanted it to be when you walked in, but then when you walked out you were definitely hungry.”

For Nelson — who kept a Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox on his tour bus filled with weed that fans gave him or threw on stage — marijuana was an unexpected saving grace. In 2019, the musician told Rolling Stone that he wouldn’t be alive without it. “It saved my life, really,” he said. “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.”