Matthew McConaughey reveals mom Kay’s advice after his 1999 arrest for playing bongo while high and naked

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Actor Matthew McConaughey recently recalled how his mother, Kay McConaughey, was not surprised and supported him after he was arrested in 1999 for playing bongo drums while high and naked.

Speaking at the Texas Book Festival, the Academy Award-winning actor shared his mother's advice, which was the same advice she gave him prior to his prom and auditions.

McConaughey and Malcolm Gladwell were the featured authors at the Texas Book Festival, where the Oscar winner spoke with director Richard Linklater about his memoir 'Greenlights'.

Matthew McConaughey's mother Kay advised him to 'hold your head high'

While discussing his 2020 memoir 'Greenlights' at the Texas Book Festival, held on November 16 and November 17, Matthew McConaughey, 55, recalled his mother's response to the notorious bongo incident.

Speaking with Linklater, McConaughey recalled the advice Kay gave him following the notorious arrest. "'You go outside in front of that media and you hold your head high,'" the 'Dazed and Confused' actor recalled his mother telling him, per People.

He recalled what she said further: "'I know what you were doing last night playing bongos, smoking that funny stuff in your birthday suit, and you've done it many times before and I know you're going to do it again'."

McConaughey admitted to Linklater, who directed the actor in his breakthrough film, 'Dazed and Confused', that Kay had previously offered him similar advice.

"'Don't walk into a place like you want to buy it, walk in it like you own it.' She tells me that before we go to prom, she tells me that on the morning before I went in to go do a screen test for 'A Time to Kill'," the Oscar-winning actor added.

Linklater added that his mother has another distinction. "You're not the first McConaughey to write a memoir. Your mom beat you to it," he said.

The actor was unable to argue. Kay McConaughey self-published her memoir in 2008, which chronicles her experiences as a mother and in Hollywood.

Matthew McConaughey's 2020 memoir 'Greenlights' chronicles 1999 bongo arrest

According to Matthew McConaughey's account in 'Greenlights', he was arrested in 1999 after attending a football game where the Texas Longhorns, his alma mater, faced off against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Austin.

When the Longhorns defeated the Huskers, McConaughey, then 29 years old, remembered that Austin was "on fire" and "it was time to celebrate".

The actor revealed in 'Greenlights' that he opened his window to smell the jasmine in his garden before choosing to play his bongos in time with the music.

McConaughey chose to "wind down" with some marijuana and the "beautiful melodic beats of Henri Dikongue" in the early hours of Monday, October 25.

In his memoir, McConaughey wrote: "What I didn’t know was that while I was banging away in my bliss, two Austin policemen also thought it was time to barge into my house unannounced, wrestle me to the ground with nightsticks, handcuff me and pin me to the floor."

One officer informed him that he was being charged with "disturbing the peace, possession of marijuana and resisting arrest", McConaughey recalled.

He screamed, "You broke in my house! F**k yeah, I resisted," when an officer informed him that he was also facing charges for resisting arrest.

When the other officer attempted to cover the actor's nude body with a blanket, McConaughey wrote, he refused. "'Ohhhh no!" I barked. 'I’m not putting s**t on! My naked a** is proof I was mindin' my own business!'" per Fox News.

The actor noticed that a crowd had gathered as he was being led to the police vehicle. McConaughey stated that "word must have spread over the police scanner as to just who had been arrested because they were on the street were six lit-up cop cars and about 40 of my neighbors".

According to McConaughey, a fellow prisoner persuaded him to don a "pair of men’s orange institutional pants" after he got to the Austin Police Department. McConaughey initially told the inmate that his nudity was "proof of my innocence".

Judge Penny Wilkov and criminal defense lawyer Joe Turner visited McConaughey after he spent the night in jail. Wilkov permitted McConaughey to be released on bond for resisting arrest after dismissing the misdemeanor charges of possession and disturbing the peace.

According to McConaughey, reporters gathered in front of the jail, so Turner told him to exit through the back entrance. The actor felt "guilty" and didn't know how to handle his release from prison. It was then that McConaughey called Kay.