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About four years ago, Lukas Nelson made a life change. He gave up drinking and smoking weed, got in shape, and even earned his pilot’s license. But the singer, songwriter, and guitarist stops short of saying he’s “sober.”
“I wouldn’t call it sober completely, because I’ll still do mushrooms. Once a year, twice a year, I’ll do mushrooms and check in with myself,” Nelson told Rolling Stone during an appearance on its country podcast Nashville Now.
He also opened up about the juxtaposition of being the son of America’s most famous weed proponent —Willie Nelson — and deciding to give up the habit. Nelson says his father understood.
“My dad respects individuality. He respect being yourself. He and I both now don’t smoke weed. I don’t think it mattered to him either way,” he said, before detailing past marijuana usage that is monumental even for a Nelson. “When I was smoking I’d smoke six, seven joints a day. I was so into weed.”
Nelson released his new solo album American Romance earlier this summer. It’s the first record under his own name and without his longtime band Promise of the Real, who for nearly five years backed Neil Young on tour. During his Nashville Now interview, Nelson said he put the group on hiatus to focus on his own music. “I felt that that band had become Neil Young’s band. It started off as my band and then when Neil heard us, we all loved Neil, and we all went and became disciples and students of him,” he said. “I wanted to be able to do my own thing and to put most of my focus on that and building my own crowd.”
Download and subscribe toRolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast,Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, onApple PodcastsorSpotify(or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with everyone from songwriterMargo Priceto comedianDusty Slay.
