Willie Nelson returns to southern California at this weekend’s Palomino Festival at Brookside at the Rose Bowl.
And although it’s purely wishful thinking on my part, I’m hoping that fellow music legend and cannabis aficionado, Snoop Dogg, is in town for the show. It would just make sense.
Willie and Snoop have long expressed admiration for each other. They are music royalty in their respective genres. And of course, they share the same love, appreciation, and unabashed commitment to recreational marijuana.
And here in California, as Hailey Whitters would say, “our grass is legal.”
So, I’m thinking that Willie will feel right at home when he gets a whiff of that cloud of smoke that billows outside the Rose Bowl when the band starts playing. And I hope Snoop’s smoke is mixed in there somewhere so Willie can bring him out onstage for a duet and make my night.
In honor of Willie’s return to Snoop’s stomping grounds, here are some highlights from music’s most surprising yet understandable bromance.
“My Medicine”
Released in 2008 on Snoop’s “Ego Trippin” album, Snoop’s entry in the “country rap” world features vocals by Willie near the end.
This was their first, official collaboration, but something tells me they were in each other’s smoke ring orbit at some point before then.
“Superman”
The music video for this one shows footage of Willie and Snoop brushing shoulders at various times in their careers. And unlike “My Medicine,” “Superman,” released on Snoop’s 2008 album, “Doggumentary,” is much more of a Willie Nelson song featuring Snoop than the other way around.
“Roll Me Up”
I’ve heard this one so many times, and I never realized that Snoop Dogg was on the original, studio recording. A popular pick at concerts, Willie released this one on his 2012 album, Heroes.
The original also features Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson, an epic collab with a few artists who agree with Willie’s defiant take on mortality.
Piers Morgan Interview (2013)
In the interview (during Snoop’s “Snoop Lion” era), Snoop watches a clip of Morgan’s interview with Willie, where he says, “me and Snoop smoke a lot… in every country we’ve been in, I guess.” The comfort with which the words “me and Snoop” roll off Willie’s tongue make it clear to me these guys are quite fond of each other.
Plus, they each share their versions of the time they were in Amsterdam together, smoked some pot, and hit the drive thru for some KFC.
Jimmy Kimmel Interview with Snoop (2018)
After being asked who he’d carve into pot-smoking’s Mt. Rushmore, Snoop reported that Willie was the only person to have ever out-smoked him (so it’s not just you, Toby Keith and Luke Combs).
Blaze it up, California.