Apparently, President Obama is willing to revisit old bad habits if it means hanging out with a celebrity.
According to one of The Hill‘s sources, Obama invited Billy Joel to have a cigarette with him when the musician made a recent trip to the White House.
Particularly, the source spoke to Joel at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C., last week after the singer was honored with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song earlier that day.
Joel recounted his visit to the office of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) the same day during which the congressman offered him a cigarette.
“I said, ‘No thanks, I quit,” Joel recalled, according to the source.
Apparently, politicians have an inclination to smoke with celebrities, because Joel admitted that Obama had done “the same thing” on one of his visits to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
“I was at the White House recently, and President Obama did the same thing,” explained Joel. “He said, ‘I’m going out on the North Portico to have a smoke. Do you want to come with me?'”
Though he initially told the president, “Well, I haven’t smoked in a long time,” the singer eventually caved to the offer.
The problem, though, is that President Obama has often spoke about his success in kicking his smoking habit.
“I haven’t had a cigarette in six years … that’s because I’m scared of my wife,” Obama was overheard telling a United Nations official in September of last year.
And, the first lady is certainly under the impression that Obama has squashed his addiction for good.
“I know that his ability to ultimately kick the habit was because of the girls, because they’re at the age now where you can’t hide,” Michelle said in a 2012 interview. “I think that he didn’t want to look his girls in the eye and tell them that they shouldn’t do something that he was still doing.”
However, the president did admit back in 2009 that he has “fallen off the wagon sometimes” when it comes to smoking.
It looks like Obama fell right off the wagon in the Piano Man’s presence.
