Cher and Kelly Clarkson Trade Tales About Willie Nelson’s Bus: ‘I Got a Contact High’

Oscar, Grammy and Emmy winner Cher visited The Kelly Clarkson Show earlier this month, but NBC saved a few clips from Cher’s chat with Kelly Clarkson for a post-holiday treat that they shared online the day after Christmas (Dec. 26).

In one clip, Cher is talking about her fragrance line with Scent Beauty entitled “Decades,” a four-part collection with each scent representing her take on a particular decade.

“I was shocked the ‘70s didn’t smell like marijuana,” Clarkson told Cher of her “Me” Decade-themed scent. “I was like, oh, this one will obviously smell like Willie Nelson’s bus.”

“Oh my God, I’ve been on Willie Nelson’s bus, it smells exactly like marijuana,” Cher responded. Clarkson, no stranger to the world of country music herself, concurred. “I went on Wille Nelson’s bus and I got a contact high,” the American Idol champ and daytime TV juggernaut shared.

“It was a terrible old bus,” Cher recalled. “But he was great. And just… drugs everywhere,” she added, laughing.

“When you walked out you were definitely hungry,” Clarkson quipped.

Clarkson also brought up the first time she met Cher, which was at the 41st annual Kennedy Center Honors, where Cher was feted alongside Philip Glass, Reba McEntire and Wayne Shorter. Clarkson was there to honor McEntire with a performance of the country icon’s hit version of “Fancy,” but admitted she was a bit nervous to meet Cher at the 2018 event. Using that as a jumping off point, Clarkson asked Cher is she’s ever been starstruck by a celebrity.

“Meryl Streep when I first met her,” Cher admitted. Streep was her co-star in 1983’s Silkwood, the Mike Nichols-directed film about real-life nuclear safety whistleblower Karen Silkwood who died under what numerous associates regarded as suspicious circumstances. Unlike the tragic biopic, however, Cher’s future with fellow Oscar winner Streep was far brighter: “We became friends and we’ve been friends ever since.”