Willie Nelson at 92: The $80 million THC beverage empire, the White House roof joint, and why cannabis's most famous face doesn't smoke anymore
Willie's Remedy+ hit an $80M annualized run rate in under a year. 400,000 bottles sold. $15M Series A closed. National distribution to Lowe's and Total Wine. And Willie Nelson — 92, co-chair of NORML's advisory board, face of American cannabis for six decades — quit smoking in 2019. Inside the breakout cannabis beverage story of 2026, and the November 12 federal deadline that could end it.
Willie Nelson turns 93 on April 29. He has not smoked cannabis since 2019. He is also, by the numbers, the most successful cannabis beverage entrepreneur in the United States.
Willie's Remedy+ — the THC-infused beverage brand Nelson launched through Willie's Reserve — has hit an $80 million annualized run rate in under a year. The company has sold more than 400,000 bottles. It has closed a $15 million Series A. And it is rolling out distribution to Lowe's, Total Wine & More, and other national retailers — a footprint that only recently became possible as state hemp beverage regulations caught up with the product category.
It is, by a wide margin, the breakout cannabis beverage story of 2026. And it is led by a 92-year-old country musician who gave up joints six years ago.
The shift
Nelson's transition away from smoking cannabis is, in some ways, the most instructive part of his business.
For most of the American public, Willie Nelson is cannabis. The braid, the bandana, the guitar, the joint — the image was fused across six decades of touring, albums, activism, and the founding of NORML's advisory board, where Nelson served as co-chair for years.
The autobiography tells the famous story: on the White House roof during the Carter administration, Nelson smoked a joint. He would later describe the moment as "not my finest, not my worst." It has been retold in tour interviews, documentaries, and memoirs to the point of cliché.
What has been less widely reported: Nelson quit smoking in 2019, after a diagnosis of emphysema made continued inhalation physically unsustainable. He told People magazine plainly: "I don't smoke anymore." He also added: "I still use the good stuff."
That single pivot — from combustion to infusion — turned out to be commercially significant.
The product
Willie's Remedy+ is a hemp-derived, low-dose THC beverage engineered to operate within the federal hemp legal framework established by the 2018 Farm Bill. The product line:
- Uses hemp-derived delta-9 THC extracted from federally compliant hemp crops
- Ships in single-serve cans and bottles at dose ranges typically between 2.5mg and 10mg of THC
- Operates under state hemp beverage rules, which have proliferated rapidly since 2023
- Pairs THC with non-psychoactive cannabinoids (CBD, CBG) and botanical adaptogens in select SKUs
- Is marketed through both traditional cannabis retail and, increasingly, conventional grocery and liquor channels
The beverage sits in a regulatory lane that traditional marijuana products cannot reach. Hemp-derived delta-9 THC products — as long as they contain less than 0.3% THC by dry weight of the source material — are federally legal under the 2018 Farm Bill's hemp definition. Cannabis beverages from state-licensed dispensaries, by contrast, remain federally illegal and cannot cross state lines.
That distinction is the entire reason Willie's Remedy+ can sit on a shelf at Total Wine next to bourbon.
The window that's about to close
The federal hemp window that makes Willie's Remedy+ nationally distributable is closing — possibly fatally — on November 12, 2026.
Congress's 2025 appropriations legislation changed the federal definition of legal hemp from a reference to "delta-9 THC" to "total THC." Under the new definition, any hemp product with more than 0.3% total THC — including converted cannabinoids and extracted THC regardless of isomer — falls outside federal hemp law.
For most hemp beverages, that threshold is prohibitive. A 10mg delta-9 THC beverage contains far more THC than the post-November federal definition will allow.
Senator Rand Paul's Hemp Safety Enforcement Act — introduced this spring — offers states a legislative escape hatch, but the November deadline is bearing down on the industry. The Willie's Remedy+ Series A, the Lowe's and Total Wine distribution deals, and the $80M run rate all operate within a roughly six-month runway under the current legal definition.
If Congress does not extend the hemp window, Willie's Remedy+ and every comparable hemp beverage brand will need to either reformulate dramatically, transition into state-licensed cannabis channels (giving up national distribution), or exit the market.
This is not a theoretical risk. It is the single largest structural threat to the hemp beverage industry's breakout year.
The business case
What Willie's Remedy+ demonstrates — more clearly than any other brand in the space — is that cannabis beverages are a consumer packaged goods business first and a cannabis business second.
Willie Nelson's brand equity is the asset that makes the product work. Not the formulation. Not the dose curve. Not the distribution network. Seven decades of cultural credibility, folded into a can, shelved alongside beer and wine.
The comparable precedent is alcohol: Jim Beam, Jack Daniel's, and Patrón did not win their categories because of superior liquid. They won because of story, identity, and shelf presence. The cannabis beverage category — which has been promising "better for you" alternatives to alcohol for the better part of a decade — has, until Willie's Remedy+, lacked comparable brand anchors.
Other celebrity cannabis brands exist. Seth Rogen's Houseplant, Mike Tyson's Tyson 2.0, Snoop Dogg's Leafs by Snoop, Jay-Z's Monogram — each has meaningful revenue. None has cracked $80M in a single year in a single product category.
Willie's position is structural. He is a household name across three generations. He has credibility with country music fans in red states, progressive fans in blue states, and the entire cannabis subculture. There is no other celebrity cannabis brand in the United States with that demographic coverage.
The $500 million question
The Willie's Remedy+ Series A valuation has not been publicly disclosed. Industry observers estimate the implied valuation at somewhere between $200M and $500M, depending on revenue multiples and the weight placed on brand equity.
Any valuation in that range places Willie's Remedy+ among the most valuable cannabis-brand transactions since the industry's 2020–2021 peak — and on a growth trajectory that stands in sharp contrast to the broader cannabis industry's recent distress (The Cannabist Co. bankruptcy, PharmaCann's Colorado exit, and the general collapse in MSO valuations).
The split is instructive. State-licensed cannabis operators are struggling under 280E tax treatment, capital markets closure, and wholesale price compression. Hemp-derived beverage brands are closing Series A rounds, entering Lowe's, and growing revenue faster than any other segment of the cannabis economy.
Until November 12, anyway.
The bottom line
Willie Nelson has outlived every major American drug war president, most of his contemporaries, and the cultural assumption that the face of cannabis had to be a stoner.
At 92, he is in a better commercial position than he has ever been in the cannabis industry. His brand sits on national retail shelves alongside categories that were legally unimaginable five years ago. His company has raised institutional capital, scaled distribution, and generated real revenue.
He does not smoke anymore. He does not have to.
The only question left is whether the federal government decides to keep the regulatory lane open past November — or whether the most successful celebrity cannabis venture in American history runs directly into a Congressional expiration date.
Willie Nelson has seen this movie before. The federal government has a reasonable track record of playing its assigned role.