George Lopez to Willie Nelson: Can Someone Be Too High?

George Lopez interviews Willie Nelson on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

It was "Lopez Tonight" all over again as George Lopez, who got lots of stars like Cameron Diaz to "out" their marijuana use as the first Mexican-American talk show host, guest hosted on Jimmy Kimmel's show tonight and interviewed Very Important Pothead Willie Nelson.

"Cannabis is so widely accepted now—marijuana—is it shocking to you, how well it's being received?" Lopez asked. "No, I always knew that people would realize its benefits, and I think now that it's legal medicinally in 30 states and a lot of states recreationally, it's on the way, and I think it's a good thing," was the response.

"There are so many benefits of cannabis, health, appetite, anxiety, uh, forgetting things...but medically it’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Lopez asked. “It's a good thing to forget things, I think,” Nelson laughed.

Asked about the first joint he ever smoked, Nelson replied that he’d smoked whatever he could since he was “just a kid...grape vines, cedar bark…” After realizing he had to quit smoking something for health reasons, he said, "I wasn’t getting high on Chesterfields, so I threw them away, and rolled up 20 big fat joints” and smoked those instead, never going back to cigarettes. 

Still working for a living at the age of 87, Willie performed after the interview with his sons Micah and Lucas, wearing a "Willie's Reserve" T-shirt, his cannabis brand that sources from small farmers. 

"In December I saw you said you were going to quit smoking marijuana, and the whole world went upside down, right?” Lopez asked. Willie replied, "I read that somewhere, and I had a nice laugh about it." Snoop Dogg “has anointed you,” Lopez enthused, referring to Snoop saying Nelson could outsmoke him, which is "like the Pope telling you you’re a good Catholic” to Lopez.

Reminiscing about visiting VIP Merle Haggard's bus, Lopez said, “and when I walked in, there was a wonderful smell of marijuana.” They partied, then Merle “walked onstage with the cowboy hat and the glasses, didn’t miss a beat.”

"Can someone be too high?” Lopez asked. "Sure, you can be too drunk, you can be too high,” Nelson shrugged. He remembered a single time he couldn’t perform (out of a very long career).

Nelson just became the first artist to have Top 10 country album in seven consecutive decades, after his new album (his 70th!) First Rose of Spring debuted at #5 on the Billboard Country Charts on July 18. It closes with the standard, "Yesterday When I Was Young" (which is going straight to my playlist).

It always cheers me to watch Willie, chugging along with a smile and a song, but particularly so today, when I learned (from a Jamie Lee Curtis tweet) that singer/songwriter and Tokin' Woman Annie Ross ("Twisted") has joined the luminaries who've left us this year.