Matthew McConaughey shares the advice his mother gave him after he was arrested for playing bongos naked while drunk in 1999

Matthew McConaughey He recalled how his mother, Kay McConaughey, supported him after he was arrested in 1999 for playing the bongo drum while naked and drunk.

The 55-year-old actor detailed the infamous incident in his 2020 best-selling memoir, “Greenlights.” Last weekend, we had a conversation about “Green Lights” with Oscar-winning director Richard Linklater at the Texas Book Festival, where McConaughey and Malcolm Gladwell were head writers.

While speaking with Linklater, McConaughey recalled the advice Kay shared with him after the infamous arrest.

“‘Go out in front of the media and hold your head up,'” the Texas native recalled Kay telling him, according to People magazine. “‘I know what you did last night, playing the bongos, drinking that funny thing in your birthday dress, and you’ve done it many times before. And I know you’ll do it again.'”

GLEN POWELL SAYS MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY INSPIRED HIM TO GO FROM HOLLYWOOD TO TEXAS LIKE MATRIX: ‘FAKE WORLD’

Matthew McConaughey recalled the advice his mother Kay gave him after he was arrested for playing the bongos naked while drunk in 1999. (Getty)

McConaughey said to Linklater, who directed the actor in his own film: groundbreaking movie“Astonished and Confused” said Kay had shared similar words of wisdom with him before.

“‘Don’t enter a place as if you want to buy it, enter as if you own it.’ “He told me this before he went to prom, and he told me this the morning before he left that he did a screen test for ‘A Time to Kill,'” she said.

In “Greenlights,” McConaughey wrote that the arrest occurred after he attended a football game in which his alma mater’s team, the Texas Longhorns, faced the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Kay told his son to “keep his head up” and face the media. (Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)

After the Longhorns defeated the Huskers, McConaughey, then 29, recalled that Austin was “on fire” and “it was time to celebrate.”

“I partied all night long into Sunday and through Sunday night without even blinking,” he wrote. “At 2.30am on Monday morning, I finally decided to rest. It was time to turn off the lights, undress, open the window and let in the jasmine scent from my garden.

“It was time to drink a bowl and listen to the beautiful African melodic rhythms of Henri Dikongué playing through my home speakers. It was time to stand at my drum set and follow the rhythm of the blues before arriving in Memphis with my favorite Afro-Cuban drum from ceremonies and conversations in different languages , was born from congas.”

“You go out in front of the media and hold your head up.”

—Kay McConaughey

However, McConaughey wrote that the naked jam session was unexpectedly interrupted.

“What I didn’t know was that while I was going crazy with happiness, two Austin police officers “I also thought it was time to burst into my house unannounced, force me to the ground with nightsticks, handcuff me and force me to the ground,” he recalled.

McConaughey recalled an officer telling him he was charged with “disturbing the peace, possession of marijuana, and resisting arrest.”

“F—you, bitch—–! You broke into my house! F–, yes, I resisted!” “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” star recalled yelling at police officer

McConaughey detailed the arrest in his 2020 memoir “Green Lights.” (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images)

McConaughey wrote that he refused when the other officer tried to wrap a blanket around him. actor’s naked body.

“Ahhhh no!” I shouted. She told the officers, “I’m not kidding! My bare ass is proof that I’m minding my own business!” he remembered saying.

The actor saw his arrest attract the attention of the crowd as he was escorted to the police car.

“Word must have gotten out to the police scanner about who was arrested because there were six burning cop cars on the street and about 40 of my neighbors,” McConaughey said.

After arriving at the Austin Police Department, McConaughey recalled that a fellow inmate convinced him to wear “men’s orange corporate pants.”

McConaughey initially told the prisoner that his naked state was “proof of my innocence.”

“‘We’re all innocent, man. Trust me, you want to wear these,'” the actor recalled the inmate saying.

McConaughey and attorney Joe Turner outside the prison in 1999. (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images)

“Maybe it was his honest eyes, or the fact that he had a criminal friend, or maybe it was the sudden realization that a six-foot, six-inch jailbird built like a brick was calling you ‘You,’ McConaughey said, ‘Do you want to put on some pants before you start ringing,’ probably “It’s best to listen,” he wrote.

After spending the night in jail, McConaughey was visited by Judge Penny Wilkov and criminal defense attorney Joe Turner.

Wilkov decided to dismiss the misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace and possession and allowed McConaughey to be released on bail for resisting arrest.

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McConaughey wrote that Turner advised him to leave the prison through the back entrance because reporters were gathered in front of the building.

The actor wrote that he felt “guilty” and wasn’t sure how he would handle his release from prison. Meanwhile, he called Kay.

The actor’s charges of disturbing the peace and trespassing on property were dismissed and he was released on bail for resisting arrest. (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images)

“Seeking fearless solace, I decided to call my mother before choosing which way to exit my first stint in prison,” McConaughey wrote. “While I was sure that perhaps he would not take pity on my situation, I also knew that he would pour me a drink and make a toast to commemorate how I got into this situation.

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“Would he be the one to answer, or would he be the new fan? I didn’t know. Turns out it was both.”

“‘What did they do, Matthew?! They broke into your house!? Those motherfuckers, keep your head up,” he recalled Kay saying. “‘There’s nothing wrong with having some fun drinks in your own home and drumming naked at night; who do they think would come to your house like that?!’

“It was just what I needed,” McConaughey wrote. “I hung up and decided to move towards the media mob at the front instead of sneaking out the back.

“Two days later, BONGO NAKED t-shirts were all over Austin.”

Matthew McConaughey speaks at the 2024 Texas Book Festival in Austin. (Gary Miller/Getty Images)

When McConaughey attended the Texas Book Fair, Linklater stated that McConaughey was not the original. single author in the family.

“You’re not the first McConaughey to write a memoir,” the director told him.

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“Your mother left you behind on this,” Linklater added, referring to Kay’s self-published memoir in 2008.

“Do you want to know what the title of my mother’s memoir is? ‘I Surprise Myself.’ “I Amaze Myself,” McConaughey said, with a bumper sticker on his bumper sticker — which he still has today.

“He’s 92 years old and you can’t argue with that,” he added.