A 2020 documentary about President Jimmy Carter confirmed a tall tale about Willie Nelson.

Willie Nelson and weed go together like peanut butter and jelly. So much so that he has his own weed line, Willie’s Reserve, and just released a cannabis cookbook with his wife, Annie. But sometimes, you have to take the stories he tells with a grain of salt because of how much weed he has smoked in his lifetime. That’s why, when he recalled a weed-smoking story in his 1988 autobiography, lots of people didn’t think it was true until someone else confirmed his story.

In his 1988 book, Willie: An Autobiography, the country legend reveals that he smoked weed on the roof of the White House.

Chapter 14 starts out:

“Sitting on the roof of the White House in Washington, DC, late at night with a beer in one hand and a fat Austin Torpedo in the other. My companion on the roof was pointing out to me the sights and layout of how the streets run in Washington… I let the weed cover me with a pleasing cloud… I guess the roof of the White House is the safest place to smoke dope.”

Many years passed by and Nelson seemed not to confirm or deny this “rumor” of him smoking pot on the White House roof, even though he himself wrote about it in a book! Maybe that’s why not many people took the story seriously!

In another interview on his tour bus, Nelson doubled down on his original story when a CNN reporter asked him, “Is it true you rolled a joint on the roof of the White House under Jimmy Carter?”

He responded, “Well, I rolled it before I got up there.”

When asked if he was scared to get caught, he said, “I should have been!”

President Carter Confirms Willie’s story

President Carter not only confirmed Willie Nelson’s story about smoking weed on top of the White House, but he also admitted the true identity of the person Nelson was with!

In a clip from the 2020 documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, President Carter corroborated Nelson’s story.

“When Willie Nelson wrote his autobiography, he confessed that he smoked pot in the White House and he said that his companion was one of the servants at the White House. It was actually one of my sons,” Carter said with a laugh.

Nelson was at the White House getting set to perform a concert on the lawn, including singing a duet with First Lady Rosalyn Carter. That night, before Nelson went to bed, he climbed on the roof of the White House and smoked a joint with Chip Carter, who was 28 years old at the time.

The film Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President was released on September 9, 2020, and focused on how rock music helped propel the former President into the White House, and the significant role that music played in President Carter’s life and work.

Nelson and President Carter remained great friends up until the president’s passing at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024. 

Check out the clip below where President Carter admits to the story about Willie Nelson.