Light Me Up

Cheech & Chong, the iconic stoner comedy team who began their career on the stand-up circuit nearly 40 years ago, eventually recorded nine hit comedy albums and made eight hit films. Their pot-influenced humor even earned them a Grammy for best comedy album and their movies grossed millions. Breaking up in 1985 citing creative differences, they've waged a contentious feud ever since. But Cheech Marin, 62, and Tommy Chong, 70, have reconciled and are about to embark on their first comedy tour in more than 25 years: "Cheech & Chong Light up America." They spoke to NEWSWEEK's Jamie Reno about their smoky legacy, their bitter feud and unlikely reconciliation, and what fans can expect from these upcoming shows:

NEWSWEEK: A lot of people thought this reunion would never happen. Who broke the ice?
Cheech: We both reached out to each other. It got to a point where we just decided to stop fighting and focus on the things we love about each other. There are a lot of things I admire about Tommy. We're getting along fine.

Will this be a sort of Greatest Hits tour?
Chong: Yeah, they'll get to see a lot of the hits that no one's ever seen on stage, like "The Old Man in the Park" and "Ralph and Herbie the Dogs." There'll be some esoteric, weird crap, too.
Cheech: You'll also see us performing a lot of music. We're both musicians and music's always been a big part of us. We'll do the "Born in East L.A." song for the first time, and "Me and My Old Lady," and "Mexican Americans" from "Cheech & Chong's Next Movie." This show will be very theatrical. We're going to take advantage of the venues we'll be playing. People will get their money's worth.

Tommy, did your time in prison [he was convicted of selling glass bongs in 2003 and served nine months] change you in any way?
Chong: It turned me into a writer. My incarceration was actually a positive thing from the beginning. I needed a gimmick to get my act going again, it gave me material. And in a lot of ways it stopped Cheech and I from getting together too soon. We were working on a movie, and I'm sure it would have been a disaster had we done it. We had to go back out on the road and get in a groove again. Being in jail also made me become more of an activist. We used to joke about the lighter side of smoking pot, but after being incarcerated and seeing guys doing 20 years for having a small pot farm, it woke me up to the all the grave injustices of this Republican administration. I'm awake now, I'm more aware of what's going on.

Is it fair to say you guys are still smoking?
Chong: Oh yeah, I was a bodybuilder before I became a pothead. I worked out with Mr. America and Mr. Universe, and these were guys who didn't even drink a soft drink because it had sugar in it and only ate steamed chicken. But they would smoke pot; they knew it had beneficial effects.
Cheech: The most beneficial effect being it gets you high. I'm all for the legalization of pot.

But Tommy, you have to be careful now, right?
Chong: If I get busted again there could be some hard time. Once you're a felon you're a target. But I hope to get my record expunged when I get these criminals out of office. I've been a good boy, I've never really been convicted of serious crime. It's a political crime. Chances are the media will help me, a judge will accept my not guilty plea and I'll get my record expunged.
Cheech: Yeah, 'expunged' with soap and water, and with a happy ending.
Chong: I'd rather do without pot for a week and have a clean conscience. I don't want to get searched in an airport. I'm careful now when I travel.
Cheech: Yeah, he lets his road manager carry it now.

How did you guys meet?
Cheech: It was in 1969. I was living in Canada during the Vietnam War, I was a draft resister who made my way to Vancouver. I was writing articles for rock and roll magazines and an editor at one magazine knew Tommy, who was doing this weird improvisational theater thing in a bar downtown. He introduced us, and Tommy hired me to write for the troupe. Eventually I did all the parts, and when the troupe fell apart Tommy and I stayed together and incorporated the troupe into two guys. From there we came back to L.A. and started doing our thing on the streets. We worked mostly in black clubs in L.A. at first then got our big break at the Troubadour.