In preparation for tomorrow’s, 4/20, the digital release of Jack Johnson’s latest single “Willie Got Me Stoned.”

“This is a song about one night after we played this festival one time,” Johnson says at the beginning of the song, which was recorded live during the first of two shows at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Englewood, CO, last summer. “We were hanging out with Willie Nelson and it was a real honor, and we got to go back to his house and hang out. And this is a true story about that night.”

On the short acoustic tune, Johnson recounts in a humorous manner himself and his band smoking pot with Nelson and then proceeding to lose all his cash to the country legend in a poker game. “I was $50 up and then my mind went funny,” he muses. “It really didn’t help that I didn’t know the rules of the game/ It probably didn’t help that I couldn’t remember my name/ After Willie got my stoned.”

As Johnson amusingly recounts in the song, he had to walk home because he had no cab fare, and no one looked in good enough condition to drive. The incident “took away our minds” as well as “our pride.” In spite of losing face (and all his cash) to Willie, Johnson concludes it was all a very worthwhile experience.

In September, Johnson released All the Light Above It Too, his first LP in four years. Earlier this month, Nelson unveiled “Something You Get Through,” the new ballad from his upcoming album, Last Man Standing. Willie Nelson has 10 stops scheduled on his Outlaw Music Festival tour this summer.

Images: Jeff Canham