Willie Nelson Set to Launch "Willie's Reserve," His Own Franchise Chain Store for Weed

Willie Nelson, 81, the legendary country music singer-songwriter, is set to launch a branded chain of marijuana dispensaries and related products, including signature strains of pot. "Willie's Reserve" is what the brand will be named according to his spokesman Michael Bowman who told The Daily Beast that "this is a culmination of Willie's vision, and his whole life."

Nelson is a life-long advocate and activist for the legalization of marijuana in the United States. He is co-chair of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Following his much publicized arrest for possession of marijuana in 2010, he created the TeaPot party with its catchy motto "Tax it, regulate it and legalize it!"

According to Bowman Willie's Reserve stores will be opening "on the states where legalization has occurred, and as new states open up, those opportunities will present themselves on a state-by-state basis. Or until the feds do something!" The first ones will be launched "in the next calendar year that there will be movement. As you can imagine, it's not a problem in states like Colorado, Washington, Alaska... There's a pretty clear path on where retail can go."

Asked whether Willie's Reserve will sell only Nelson's own signature strains it will also sell other people's strains, the brand spokesman said: "It'll be both. There will be our own, and then there will be opportunities for other growers, who meet quality standards. Let's just call it the anti-Walmart model. Personally, internally, that's what we call it. A certain standard by which growers have to account for carbon and such, in a way that empowers small growers who are doing the right thing. It will be like when you walk into a Whole Foods store. Whole Foods has their 365 brand, or you can buy Stony Brook, or you can buy Horizon... It'll all fall under that umbrella of 'here's our core beliefs, and here's our mission statement,' and they will be a part of that, to be a part of us."