Elon Musk smokes cannabis during interview with Joe Rogan, before imagining what it's like to be a horse

'Why am I dragging this dead horse around, and I’m a horse?' Tesla founder ponders after taking puff of joint

Elon Musk has smoked cannabis during a live two-and-a-half hour interview in California with comedian Joe Rogan.

Towards the end of the conversation, which covered everything from Musk’s infamous flamethrowers to plans for an electric plane, the Tesla founder appeared surprised when Rogan took a joint out of a glass vial.

“Is that a joint, or is it a cigar?” Musk asks after Rogan begins smoking.

When the podcast host tells him its “marijuana inside tobacco”, Musk says he “thinks he has tried it once” before.

“You probably can’t because of stockholders right?” Rogan asks, before Musk asks if it is legal. After being assured it is “totally legal” - California legalised cannabis at the turn of the year - Musk sniffs the end of the joint before taking a drag.

The pair swiftly move onto pondering what it was like for horses before the advent of cars in New York City.

“It’s a lot of dead horses and you need a horse to move the dead horse,” Musk says.

“And they probably get pretty freaked out if they have to move a dead horse.”

“Do you think they know what’s going on?” Rogan asks.

“It’s pretty weird – ‘why am I dragging this dead horse around, and I’m a horse?’” Musk responds, pondering what it would be like to be a horse.

It was Musk’s first public appearance since he last month abandoned his bid to take Tesla private in a record £55bn deal, after the idea angered investors and led to accusations of investment fraud.

He had initially announced the plan in a tweet in which he said: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured."

The 420 figure prompted some to suggest it was a deliberate reference to a number often used as a cannabis reference, which Musk denied.

In a statement shared on Tesla’s website, the business magnate conceded the company was "better off" remaining a publicly traded company.

It also came just a day after it emerged a British caver who helped rescue 12 boys in Thailand is preparing to sue the billionaire inventor.

Musk has repeatedly and groundlessly accused Vern Unsworth of being a paedophile after the diver criticised a “kid-sized” capsule submarine which Musk insisted could be used to carry the team to safety along a 1.5-mile network of flooded tunnels.