In a hilarious joint interview with Page Six, Tommy Chong explained that he and Cheech Marin “hadn’t seen each other for years” but agreed to meet.In a hilarious joint interview with Page Six, Tommy Chong explained that he and Cheech Marin “hadn’t seen each other for years” but agreed to meet.
Legendary comedy duo Cheech & Chong — known individually as Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong — are inseparable after decades of collaboration and friendship.
But the two famously parted ways in 1985 over creative differences.
In a hilarious joint interview with Page Six, Chong revealed his eldest son, Paris Chong, is to thank for getting the entertainers back together ahead of their landmark reunion tour, Light Up America, in 2008.
“Actually, it was my son Paris that got us back together again. He’s my manager now. He manages me and helps me get around,” Tommy, 87, told us.
“But he’s always loved Cheech & Chong. You know, he grew up with it. He would listen to our records, and he never got the humor until he got old enough, you know?”
Tommy said he and Marin, 79, “hadn’t seen each other for years” but agreed to meet. Despite getting into a “typical argument” during the meeting, the half-Chinese Canada native insisted he was “really happy” to see his old pal, so he “sent him an email” about how “nice” it was to catch up even though they were no longer working together.
According to Tommy, Paris, 51, “intercepted” the email and rewrote it to say something along the lines of, “‘I’m really looking forward to getting back to the act.’”
“And next thing you know, Paris said, ‘You got a rehearsal with Cheech coming up!’” Tommy recalled, adding that they’ve “been together ever since.”
Asked whether he knew about the forged email, Marin — perhaps jokingly — replied, “I’m just finding out about it right now.”
In 2003, during their separation, Tommy found himself in legal trouble for financing and promoting Paris’ hand-blown glass pipe and bong company. The father of six ended up agreeing to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute drug paraphernalia in exchange for non-prosecution of Paris and Tommy’s longtime wife, Shelby Chong.
While 54 of the 55 individuals charged as part of the Operation Pipe Dreams investigation got away with fines and home detention, Tommy was sentenced to nine months in federal prison (followed by a year of probation), a $20,000 fine and forfeiture of more than $100,000 in assets.
During our chat, Tommy and Marin agreed that the latter visited the former one time while he was behind bars at California’s Taft Correctional Institution (in the same cell as “Wolf of Wall Street” fraudster Jordan Belfort), but their recollections of the visit differed quite a bit.
Tommy claimed that the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture founder showed up with screenwriter Larry Charles to discuss a movie about “two thumbs,” but Marin insisted he arrived solo.
Since the ’70s, Marin and Tommy — best known for pioneering “stoner comedy” — have achieved commercial and cultural success with their stand-up routines, studio recordings, feature films and namesake cannabis company.
Most recently, the pair launched a high-potency, hemp-derived THC beverage called the Judge’s Stash, whose bottle transforms into a bong after its empty.
Asked how they came up with the concept, Marin responded, “How did we not come up with this concept?”
As for how Tommy feels about making money off a product that once landed him in the slammer, he explained proudly, “I’ve always maintained that we were right. I’ve been smoking since I was 15, and look at me now! I’m almost 90, and I can still get on my iPad without help. I learned how to turn it on myself.”
The Grammy winners admittedly smoke marijuana every day, and they credit the drug — which is currently legal for recreational use in 24 states and medical use in 40 states — with giving them energy, fueling their creativity and keeping them happy.
For Tommy — who still rolls his own joints — it also helped him quit cigarettes and has increased his appetite, which often decreases with age.
He told us he prioritizes lifting weights at luxury gym Equinox two to three times a week, where “pretty instructors” and “guys that grew up with [him]” flock to him.
Asked about their “dream blunt rotation,” Marin — who is married to Natasha Rubin and has three children from previous marriages — replied with a chuckle, “[President] Donald Trump. We’ll get him on the program.”
Meanwhile, Tommy reminisced on having smoked “in the presence of and with every Beatle except Paul [McCartney],” but he’s determined to “get together” and “do a historical pot-smoking thing” with the 83-year-old musician sometime soon.
Interestingly, McCartney — who “liked to get high,” according to Tommy — was arrested for marijuana possession at Japan’s Narita International Airport in 1980.
“Of all the Beatles, Paul was the main pothead,” Tommy claimed before asking Marin directly, “Did you know that Yoko [Ono] got Paul arrested in Japan? Did you know that, Cheech?”
“No,” a curious Marin responded. “How did she do that?”
Tommy alleged that Tokyo-born Ono — the widow of John Lennon who had a historically tense relationship with McCartney due to her involvement in the band — tipped off her “friends in the government.”
“She alerted immigration [authorities] that Paul was coming to Japan and that he always carries pot,” Tommy alleged. “And so they nailed him at the border and put him in jail.”
He told us a “mutual friend” with “intimate knowledge” of the situation recently shared with him this information, which a rep for Ono, 93, dismissed as “a decades-old tale that remains untrue.”
