Sober Streams: Alex Lifeson and 10 Musicians Who Reconsidered Their Relationship with Weed

Rush’s Alex Lifeson built a reputation as one of rock’s most inventive guitarists—partly fueled by decades of cannabis use. While he consistently performed concerts sober, Lifeson admitted in a 2015 interview that roughly 80 percent of Rush’s intricate compositions were crafted under the influence. With a high-stakes reunion tour on the horizon, he recently decided to quit weed, as shared in our cover story with Rolling Stone Canada. ‘I was experiencing negative thoughts about my confidence and what lay ahead,’ Lifeson explained. ‘We were already halfway through the process—it was too late to jump off a ship sailing across the sea. I realized cannabis was interfering with the focus and discipline I suddenly needed.’

Lifeson is far from alone in publicly addressing his relationship with cannabis—though success in staying quit has varied widely among artists.

Willie Nelson (sort of)
In November 2019, Willie Nelson told KSAT that he was done with smoking marijuana, marking 65 years since his first joint. ‘I’ve abused my lungs quite a bit in the past,’ he noted. He canceled several tour dates that summer due to breathing issues, but his publicist quickly clarified that he had only given up smoking—not cannabis generally, as he continues to use edibles and vape pens.

Lukas Nelson
Willie’s son, Lukas Nelson, took a more definitive path, swearing off both weed and alcohol around 2023. ‘I wouldn’t call it complete sobriety, since I still experiment with mushrooms,’ he shared on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast in 2025. He noted that his father fully supported the choice: ‘My dad respects individuality. He and I both now refrain from smoking weed. When I was using, I’d consume six or seven joints a day—I was deeply immersed.’

Paul McCartney
In 2012—nearly half a century after Bob Dylan introduced the Beatles to marijuana in a New York hotel room—McCartney announced he was finally done smoking weed. ‘I did a lot, and it was enough,’ he reflected. ‘When raising a youngster, responsibility kicks in eventually, if you’re lucky. Enough’s enough—you just stop thinking it’s necessary.’ Paparazzi photos and accounts from colleagues in the years since suggest the musician behind ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’ may have quietly revisited that stance.

Snoop Dogg (except not)
In November 2023, Snoop announced he was giving up smoking, citing family conversations and a desire to slow down following his grandson’s birth. The internet quickly smelled a setup, however, when a smokeless fire-pit company revealed it had hired him as its ‘smokesman’—a clearly staged publicity stunt.

Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus told Billboard in 2017 that she quit smoking to focus on her album Younger Now. ‘I want to be super clear and sharp,’ she said. A month later, on Jimmy Fallon, she described a dream in which she got too high and died mid-SNL monologue. She resumed use early 2019, citing sessions with her mother. By 2025, however, Cyrus told Zane Lowe she had committed to full sobriety: ‘Sobriety is really like my god.’

Justin Bieber
In his 2020 docuseries Seasons, Justin Bieber traced his cannabis use back to a joint at age 13 and claimed he had quit. ‘I realized I had to stop,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it’s bad—it’s just that for me, it can be a dependency.’ By 2025, images circulated appearing to show him smoking a bong, though a source close to Bieber told People he was simply ‘having fun and vibing out,’ adding that ‘everything he does is being weaponized against him.’

SZA
SZA announced she had quit weed in February 2022, noting on Twitter that her dreams had become notably vivid. A year later, she marked the anniversary, tweeting, ‘Don’t miss it at all. Never thought I’d say that.’

Neil Young
Neil Young quit cannabis on his doctor’s orders in January 2011, framing it as a 40-year experiment: ‘I did it for 40 years. Now I want to see what it’s like to not do it.’ In his memoir Waging Heavy Peace, he wrote that he struggled to write songs without it: ‘The straighter I am, the more alert I am—the less I know myself and the harder it is to recognize myself. I need a little grounding in something, and I’m looking for it everywhere.’ By 2014, he had resumed moderation, telling me simply, ‘I’m still high from the Seventies.’

David Crosby
When Crosby entered recovery from drugs in the 1980s, he abstained from weed as well. ‘I did 14 and a half years absolutely sober,’ he told Cannabis Now. Eventually, he decided cannabis wasn’t his core issue and resumed smoking. On the eve of his 80th birthday, he called himself ‘just another stoner, man.’

Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi, who identified as a ‘lonely stoner’ on his 2008 breakout ‘Day ‘n’ Nite,’ first quit weed in 2011. In November 2024, he entered rehab for multiple substances, telling Billboard he had been smoking 15 blunts a day: ‘It truly ruled my life.’ He abstained completely for two months, then resumed limited use— evenings and weekends only. ‘A joint now lasts me all day, nearly. My relationship with weed has changed majorly. I’m far more interested in being sober and present.’

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