Although I'm sure the cigars didn't help, Limbaugh was also, by his own admission, a chain smoker of cigarettes from his teens through his 30's when he finally gave up smoking cigarettes and switched to cigars. He told a story about it once, he said all the guys trying to get into radio were chain smokers back in the day. He said the reason was that they believed smoking gave you a deeper more gravely voice which was better for radio.
Spouse was three pack a day till his 40’s Now he is 93 and healthy. You never know.
Rush and I are the same age (I’m a couple of months older), we grew up in a world of smoking. Most of our parents smoked, damn near all of our TY stars smoked and the television had cigarette ads one after another. When I was in the ARMY the US Government supplied me with smokes in every box of C-RATs. Our high schools had designated smoking area’s, we smoked on planes and in Doctor offices. Anybody who had the money could buy a pack of smokes, no age restrictions. How anybody got through that age without smoking is a miracle.
Nat King Cole felt the same way about smoking. Felt that it gave him his distinctive singing voice.
Cancer got him too....