My Favorite Cigar
Shavo Odadjian • Rock Star • Liga Privada T52
Shavo Odadjian is visibly excited, showing a visitor around his new home in California via a virtual tour. He’s building a walk-in humidor, adding space to expand his considerable cigar collection.
“Once I get into something, I go all in,” he says. The 51-year-old rocker had his a-ha cigar moment one night in New York City at the Grand Havana Room for a charity cigar event featuring Carlos Fuente Jr. of Arturo Fuente cigars. “They sat me at his table. I got to meet him.” He bought some cigars, they hung out and he fell in love. “OpusX,” Odadjian explains, “opened my eyes to good cigars.” Now, he smokes them daily, sometimes more than once. On Monday poker nights “I’ll go through four or five.” He smokes all kinds of Fuentes, plus Padróns, Cuban Hoyos and Trinidads. Liga Privada T52s, made in Nicaragua by Drew Estate, are his favorite.
The musician began playing guitar at age 11, later picking up the bass. He’s a founding member of the alternative metal group System of a Down, which has sold some 40 million albums worldwide. Odadjian comes alive on stage. “That’s my favorite thing to do—being on stage, the adrenaline, the energy. Nothing tops that feeling.”
