Country star and longtime cannabis user/advocate Willie Nelson has quit smoking cannabis. In a recent interview with San Antonio tv station KSAT Nelson revealed that health reasons surrounding his breathing, he currently doesn't smoke marijuana.

Nelson states, "I have abused my lungs quite a bit in the past, so breathing is a little more difficult these days, and I have to be careful," Nelson said in the interview."

"I don't smoke anymore. I take better care of myself today."

Growing up in Abbott, Texas Nelson said he used to "mistreat" his body "I started smoking cedar bark, went from that to cigarettes to whatever," he says to KSAT, "And that almost killed me." The Country superstar admits he smoked his first joint in 1954.

Nelson says, "Your lungs are the biggest muscle you have got. So when you're out there working, you are working out."

Nelson's publicist Elaine Schock does clarify that this does not mean that Helson has quit cannabis entirely.
"Willie does what he wants when he wants regarding smoking. There are numerous ways of consumption. He has not given up cannabis," in a written statement.

Nelson expressed to Rolling Stone that marijuana "saved my life, really,"

Willie had to stop six shows in August due to breathing issues.