![\"cohen\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/cohen.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCanadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen last week <\/a>celebrated his 80th birthday by announcing he would commemorate the day by smoking a cigarette.<\/p>\n Cohen, who was famous back in the day for being the last of the chain-smoking lounge singers, actually quit smoking 30 years ago.<\/p>\n According to this CBC article:<\/p>\n Cohen, who vowed to start smoking when he turned 80, told the crowd when asked if he would start next week: \u201cYes, does anybody have a cigarette?<\/p>\n \u201cBut quite seriously, does anyone know where you can buy a Turkish or Greek cigarette?\u201d he said to laughs. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to that first smoke. I\u2019ve been thinking about that for 30 years. It\u2019s one of the few consistent strings of thoughts I\u2019ve been able to locate.\u201d<\/p>\n I found this kind of an interesting story and I discovered a blog dedicated to Leonard Cohen with an entry <\/a>about how he went from the “Marlboro Man” to an “anti-smoking troubadour.” The post focuses on how Cohen’s song “Everybody Knows” was\u00a0used in an Australian anti-smoking campaign. This line in “Everybody Knows” which is apparently about cocaine, could easily apply to cigarettes:<\/p>\n “And everybody knows that you live forever There are a bunch of articles and links on this blog about interviews done with Leonard Cohen in which he is chain-smoking through the interview. Here is my favourite entry on this post:<\/p>\n Cigarettes, once an obligatory accoutrement for Cohen, have apparently been vanquished. In a June 12, 2008 interview<\/a>, Cohen discusses his drinking and smoking patterns on earlier tours and how he stopped smoking:<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>: You\u2019ve been working in a room for years; now you\u2019re on a stage. What are the pros and cons?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: This way, without drinking and smoking, it\u2019s a very, very different situation. Anyone who\u2019s been a heavy drinker and heavy smoker and has the good future to survive that and give it up knows what a very different kind of daily existence one has. I was smoking a couple of packs of cigarettes a day. And I was drinking heavily on these tours.<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>: How did you stop drinking? Did you go into a program?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: I lost my taste for it. Just like cigarettes. I lost my taste.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nAh when you’ve done a line or two”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n