Tommy Chong: The 'Cheech & Chong' legend himself talks new 'Call of Duty' partnership, gaming goals making life better and how the pyramids were really made (Exclusive)
Mind blown, much? Say less. It’s an interview to remember when the iconic Tommy Chong from Cheech & Chong takes the time to link up with Attack The Culture dishing on everything from why in the world it made sense for everyone’s favorite smoking buds to link with Call of Duty on a new tracer pack drop to how much playing games can make your life even better.
Needless to say? Mind-blowing types of moments - and you know I’m blown away when the legend I’m talking to has me keeping quiet and embracing all the knowledge. As always, peep some of the highlights and keep scrolling to check out the full Q&A with Tommy.
There are only 3,000 questions to ask you so I will start with 1 and we’ll be done by next week, OK? Long after Smoke Day. No - honestly, thank-you for making the time for myself and Attack The Culture - with Call of Duty, prior to getting the partnership going - what did you know about Call of Duty and now that you’ve done about 3,000 interviews, what do you wish you didn’t know about Call of Duty now? [laughs]
Tommy Chong: Well, there’s been a fascination with guns with the human race ever since there were guns. Ever since the beginning and before that it was a rock and a stick. You always had a weapon in your hand because that’s civilization. You had to either go get something or protect something from somebody getting your stuff.
Growing up as a kid, I grew up with a six-shooter. The cowboys and Indians and believe it or not, whenever we played I was usually an Indian. Then I found out I have 8 percent Native in me. So my whole life, it’s always been a ‘Go get ‘em, shoot ‘em down.’ It was always make believe.
Back in the days when we were playing shoot ‘em ups with the kids, the way that they got around the violence was they always shot the guns at the hands of the bad guys. So you never killed anybody. You just shot them [in the hand] or you winged them. I grew up like that.
So when the gaming industry started - and actually before that when I was 13, I joined army cadets because my brother joined and he was 3 years older than me and so in army cadets in Canada, you got to play with the real weapons and you got to wear the real uniform and got to do the real war games.
At 13 years old, I’m riding around in a tank and by the way, it wasn’t that comfortable. I made the mistake of getting halfway up the manhole and we hit a bump and I got banged from one side to the other. I got some scars from that experience. But playing war, it was part of my childhood and every kid’s childhood across the globe because it’s something we’ve always had and always will have apparently.
By making it a game - it’s the future. We’re here in the future. No one has to get hurt. Except you might wear out your finger or you might get accused of being addicted to the process. You can get addicted to breathing, so, I think my experience with that whole approach is normal.
A lot of pacifists like to pretend that these things don’t really happen but it’s part of our life and it’s part of our DNA and it’s part of our karma to go through it and I think it’s healthy in a lot of ways.
If that brings out the killer instinct in some of us, that’s part of life. You can get hit by a landslide or tsunami or toilet waste falling out of the sky, you know? There’s so many things because we live in a physical world. So what can I say?
Tommy, one thing that I really want to bring up and really get your take on is how much entertainment we get out of video games and Call of Duty. I’m not a smoker - I’m also not a gun-totting New Yorker but some of my favorite movies, Up In Smoke, How High with Method Man and Redman. I’m not a gunman, I’ve never been to a firing range but I’m addicted to Call of Duty and it’s so easy for the critics to say there’s guns and it represents violence - hone in on the entertainment aspect of what Cheech & Chong bring to Call of Duty.
Tommy Chong: It does all of what you just said. It improves your reflexes when you’re playing. The hand and body and eye coordination. You’re constantly doing that. I’ve got people in my family, my little granddaughter, she’s more adapt at the iPad than I am and she’s 3 years old and she’ll take my iPad, flip it up and get her favorite shows and everything else.
It’s done so much to help everyone, especially children, get that eye and hand coordination going. Being able to use their hands and minds for the reflexes, I’ve got friends that are proud they are computer illiterate. They’re actually proud. I’m not proud of it. I actually am computer illiterate because of my eyes and ears and my age, a great part, but I understand and I appreciate what’s going on in the world.
I study my grandkids because I have the time. I’m a grandpa. I don’t have to change the diapers or anything. I can sit there and study them and I watch them and I watch my little granddaughter have her tantrums and go through all those things but to see how the iPad and the games for the children, how that calms them down.
What you’ve done, with these video games, you’ve excited the senses. You’ve got the hand and eye coordination going and you are promoting self-awareness to the littlest ones.
My little 4 year old, she’s going to be a powerhouse in this world. She’ll always have knowledge because she knows where to go to get knowledge. This new generation is going to be - look what they got, man. In their hands with the cellphones, there’s a religious song, ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands.’ They’re talking about God - well, literally, we’ve got the whole universe in our hands.
We can sit there. We can see a star, go into our phone and point it at it and it’ll tell you which star you’re looking at. I mean, come on.
Need more Chong? Say less. The legend himself doesn’t hold back and drops ample knowledge for nearly 30 minutes.