Matthew McConaughey shares the advice his mother gave him after he was arrested for playing bongos naked while high in 1999.
Matthew McConaughey recalled how his mother, Kay McConaughey, supported him after he was arrested for playing bongo drums naked and high in 1999.
The 55-year-old actor described the horrific incident in his 2020 bestseller, “Greenlights.” At last weekend’s Texas Book Festival, which featured McConaughey and Malcolm Gladwell as leading authors, the Oscar winner joined director Richard Linklater in a discussion about “Greenlights.”
While speaking with Linklater, McConaughey recalled the advice Kay shared with him after his arrest.
“‘You go out in front of that media, and hold your head up,'” the Texas native recalled Kay telling her, according to People magazine. “‘I know what you were doing last night playing the bongos, smoking those funny things in your birthday suit, and you’ve done it many times before. And I know you’ll do it again.’
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Matthew McConaughey recalled the advice his mother Kay gave him after he was arrested for playing bongos naked while high in 1999. (Getty)
McConaughey told Linklater, who directed the actor in his blockbuster film, “Dazed and Confused,” that Kay had shared similar words of wisdom with him before.
“‘Don’t enter a place you want to buy, walk into it like you own it.’ He tells me that before we go to prom he tells me that the morning before I go to do an audition for ‘A Time to Kill,” she said.
In “Greenlights,” McConaughey wrote that the arrest occurred after attending a football game where his alma mater team, the Texas Longhorns, played against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Kay told her son to “hold his head up” and face the media. (Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
After the Longhorns beat the Huskers, McConaughey, then 29, recalled that Austin was “on fire” and “it was time to celebrate.”
“I went all night until Sunday, and Sunday night without sleep,” he wrote. “At 2:30 that Monday morning, I finally decided to get some fresh air. It was time to dim the lights, undress, open the window and let the scent of jasmine from my garden waft in.
“It was time to smoke a bowl and listen to the beautiful African songs of Henri Dikongué playing on my home speakers. It was time to stand on my drum set and follow the rhythm of the blues before they came to Memphis in my favorite Afro. -Cuban drumming is born of celebration and expression in tongues, congas.”
“You go out in front of that media, and you hold your head up.”
However, McConaughey wrote that his nude jam session was abruptly interrupted.
“What I didn’t know was that while I was happily banging, two Austin police officers also thought it was time to come into my house unexpectedly, hold me down with nightsticks, handcuff me and put me on the ground,” he recalled.
McConaughey recalled that another officer told him he was charged with “disturbing the peace, possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.”
“F— you, mother—–! You broke into my house! F–, yes, I refused!” the “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” star remembers yelling at the police
McConaughey detailed his arrest in his 2020 book, “Greenlights.” (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images)
McConaughey wrote that he refused when another police officer tried to cover the naked actor with a blanket.
“No!” I barked. “I’m not putting s— on! My bare ass is proof that I was minding my own business!”‘ he recalled telling the policeman.
When the actor was escorted to the police car, he saw that his arrest had attracted a large crowd.
McConaughey noted that “the police camera must have gone viral because there were six police cars on the street with lights on and about 40 of my neighbors.”
After arriving at the Austin Police Department, McConaughey recalled that another inmate convinced him to wear “man’s orange agency pants.”
McConaughey had initially told the inmate that his naked state was “proof of my innocence.”
“‘We’re all innocent, man. Trust me, you want to put these on,'” the actor recalls the inmate saying.
McConaughey and attorney Joe Turner outside of prison in 1999. (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images)
“Maybe it was his honest eyes or the fact that he was a fellow criminal, or maybe it was the sudden realization that, when a six-foot, six-inch prison bird built like a brick house tells you, ‘You. you want to put on some pants before you go into a nice place,’ maybe it’s better to listen,” McConaughey wrote.
After spending the night in jail, McConaughey was visited by Judge Penny Wilkov and defense attorney Joe Turner.
Wilkov decided to drop the charges of disturbing the peace and possession and allowed McConaughey to be released on bond for resisting arrest.
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McConaughey wrote that Turner advised him to leave the jail through the back door because reporters were gathered in front of the building.
The actor wrote that he feels “guilty” and is not sure how he will deal with his release from prison. At that time he called Kay.
The actor’s charges of disturbing the peace and property were dismissed, and he was released on bond for refusing to be arrested. (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images)
“Seeking comfort without fear, I decided to call my mother before I decided which way to leave prison,” McConaughey wrote. “Perhaps it was true that even though I was sure that he would not have mercy on my condition, at that moment, I knew that he would pour a drink and toast the way I got into it.
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“Would he be the one to answer or would it be a fan of the new team? I didn’t know. It turned out to be both of them.
“‘What are they saying, Mathew?! You broke into your house!? That son of a dog, you’ve got your head up,'” Kay recalled. “‘There’s nothing wrong with smoking’ fun little things and playing your drums naked at night in your house; who do they think they don’t have in your house like that?!’
“That’s what I needed,” McConaughey wrote. “I hung up the phone and decided to join the media crowd at the front instead of sneaking behind.
“Two days later, BONGO NAKED t-shirts were all over Austin.”
Matthew McConaughey speaks during the 2024 Texas Book Festival in Austin. (Gary Miller/Getty Images)
When McConaughey appeared at the Texas Book Fair, Linklater revealed that McConaughey was not the only writer in the family.
“You’re not the first McConaughey to write a memoir,” the director told him.
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“Your mother drove it for you,” added Linklater, referring to Kay’s 2008 self-published autobiography.
“Do you want to know what my mother’s memory is called? ‘I surprise you.’ He had a big sticker — which he still does today — ‘I’m amazing,'” McConaughey said.
“He’s 92, and you can’t argue with that,” he added.
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