--- description: The 82-year-old singer-songwriter Willie Nelson is taking on a new fight — he is waging war on Big Pot. title: Willie Nelson Is Waging War on Big Pot image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5b7e2160a72fc3/6987ec06e53aba2e3c4db6aa/468097296.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Willie Nelson Wants to Wage War on Big Pot by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 2, 2015 8:49 AM CUT  Willie Nelson performs in concert during the Heartbreaker Banquet on March 19, 2015 in Luck, Texas Willie Nelson performs in concert during the Heartbreaker Banquet on March 19, 2015 in Luck, TexasGary Miller—Getty Images by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 2, 2015 8:49 AM CUT It’s no secret that Willie Nelson is one of the strongest supporters of marijuana legalization, but now that 23 states have approved some form of marijuana use, the 82-year-old is taking on a new fight — [the war on Big Pot](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/willie-nelson-crusade-stop-big-pot.html "undefined"). On the 30th anniversary of Farm Aid, a benefit concert for farmers started by Nelson, _New York_ magazine spoke to the singer-songwriter about the legal marijuana industry, the investors lining up behind pot and his own cannabis brand. It turns out Nelson is worried about monopolies in the business. “These problems could have been fixed on the first day,” Nelson said, “but you have a lot of bureaucracy and bullsh-t, a lot of big corporations. So that’s what we’re up against. They’re trying to monopolize it all … That ain’t right, and we’ll do everything we can to keep that from happening.” [Read more at _New York_ magazine](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/willie-nelson-crusade-stop-big-pot.html "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4096230/willie-nelson-marijuana-industry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4096230/willie-nelson-marijuana-industry/"},"headline":"Willie Nelson Wants to Wage War on Big Pot","datePublished":"2015-11-02T08:49:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:15:44.430Z","description":"It turns out Nelson is worried about monopolies in the business","url":"https://time.com/4096230/willie-nelson-marijuana-industry/","keywords":["Marijuana","Pot","Music","legal","Weed","Industry"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5b7e2160a72fc3/6987ec06e53aba2e3c4db6aa/468097296.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Rivett-Carnac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5b7e2160a72fc3/6987ec06e53aba2e3c4db6aa/468097296.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Heartbreaker Banquet","caption":"Heartbreaker Banquet","creditText":"Gary Miller—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4096230/willie-nelson-marijuana-industry/","name":"Willie Nelson Wants to Wage War on Big Pot"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Inside the World of Medical Marijuana for Kids","description":"The story of a family's illegal cross-country drive to transport marijuana oil for their epileptic 3-year-old daughter. A look inside the quasi-legal, science free world of medical marijuana for children from TIME's Red Border Films","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6Ic4KUCK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-21T21:04:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6Ic4KUCK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4096230/willie-nelson-marijuana-industry/","duration":"PT16M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4096230/willie-nelson-marijuana-industry/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```