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Cannabis Journalists

Story behind the story: That time I interviewed Willie Nelson on his tour bus

RICARDO BACA
April 20, 2017
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By Ricardo Baca, Grasslands

‍In October 2016, my producer and I set off to San Diego, Calif., with one goal in mind: To capture the most complete history on record of Willie Nelson and his famed relationship with cannabis and hemp.The result of that trip: This fun and expansive interview with Willie, including a short video of he and I talking on his tour bus, the Honeysuckle Rose.The prep for that interview was daunting. As some of you know, I was the music critic for The Denver Post for more than a dozen years, but in that time I never secured facetime with the red-headed stranger. So as I began to cull questions for my time with Willie -- some of which were crowd-sourced via friends on social media -- I had to make a decision.Was I staying true to my mission and only asking him about marijuana, even though Willie is one of America's most important songwriting treasures? Or would I cave and throw a couple music questions in there?I'll always remember the look on Willie's face when I started the interview by telling him I wasn't going to ask him about his music. I could tell he thought it was a bold decision, but his alert eyes also seemed to encourage my prying questions about his personal cannabis history.

Read the full story, and watch the video, at The Cannabist.

RICARDO BACA
FOUNDER & CEO

A proud Colorado native and one of Denver Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs, Ricardo Baca is a serial entrepreneur, three-time Marketer of the Year, 24-year veteran journalist, two-time TEDx speaker, and drug policy architect. 

Ricardo launched Clio-winning PR and marketing firm Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® in 2016 to super-charge businesses throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Grasslands was awarded a Clio Award for its public relations program, two Emjays Awards for Public Relations Agency of the Year, and a Small Business Award from the Denver Business Journal. 

In 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Ricardo to the state’s first-ever Natural Medicine Advisory Board to contribute to policy development around the state’s psychedelics framework. In 2025, Ricardo launched Buy Colorado Day in partnership with the State Legislature, creating a new holiday—and powerful economic driver—that celebrates innovative Colorado brands of all kinds via consumers all over the world.

Capping off a wide-spanning career in journalism, Ricardo made international headlines as The Denver Post’s first-ever Cannabis Editor in 2013, as seen in the feature-length documentary film Rolling Papers. Numerous accolades followed, including Ricardo being named one of Fortune magazine’s 7 Most Powerful People in America’s Marijuana Industry, one of Brookings Institution's 12 Key People to Watch in Marijuana Policy, and one of Time magazine’s 140 best Twitter feeds.

In 2022, Ricardo co-founded Colorado fine art biennial Biome with the mission of celebrating fine art via community, inclusivity and biennial exhibition. Before that, Ricardo co-founded Denver music festival The Underground Music Showcase, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025. 

Ricardo is proud to sit on the Board of Directors for Colorado Public Radio, where he serves as Treasurer, and on the Board of Advisors for the reMind Psychedelics Business Forum. 

A regular speaker at SXSW, Ricardo still contributes columns and op-eds to top publications, including Rolling Stone, Nosh, the New Hope Network and MJBizDaily. He has also been interviewed by The New York Times, The View, The New Yorker, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, The Colbert Report and NPR’s All Things Considered.

Ricardo lives in Denver with his wife, two dogs and two cats.

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