Matthew McConaughey Reveals What His Mom Said After His 1999 Naked Bongo Arrest

Mar. 15, 2025

Matthew McConaughey at the Texas Book Festival.Photo:Gary Miller/Getty

Gary Miller/Getty

Matthew McConaughey’s mother wasn’t surprised that her son was arrested for playing the bongos while naked and high.McConaughey, 55, recalls his mother’s reaction to the infamous bongo incident at theTexas Book Festival, where he discussed his 2020 memoirGreenlights.AlongsideMalcolm Gladwell, the Texas native was aheadlining authorat the festival, held on Nov. 16 and 17.During a conversation with Richard Linklater, theDazed and Confusedactor remembered the advice his mother gave him at the time."‘You go outside in front of that media and you hold your head high,'" McConaughey recalls his mother saying. “‘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.“This was in line with his mother’s usual advice, the Academy Award winner says."‘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 forA Time to Kill,” McConaughey said.Matthew McConaughey and his mom, Mary Kathleen ‘Kay’ McCabe McConaughey.Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagicAccording toGreenlights,the 1999 bongo incident came after McConaughey, then 29, went to a Texas Longhorns football game and spent the rest of the weekend partying. In the early hours of Monday, Oct. 25, McConaughey decided to “wind down” with some marijuana and the “beautiful melodic beats of Henri Dikongué.“The actor opened his window to smell the jasmine in his garden, and then decided to play along with the music with his bongos, he revealed inGreenlights.“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,” McConaughey wrote in his memoir.When an officer told him he was also being charged with resisting arrest, he yelled, “You broke in my house! F— yeah, I resisted,” he wrote.Linklater also noted that his mom holds another distinction.“You’re not the first McConaughey to write a memoir,” he says. “Your mom beat you to it.“Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.The actor couldn’t disagree.His mom’s memoir, self-published in 2008, follows Kay McConaughey’s experiences with motherhood and Hollywood.“You want to know what my mom’s memoir is called? ‘I Amaze Myself.’ She has a bumper sticker — still does to this day — ‘I Amaze Myself,'” McConaughey says. “She’s 92 and you can’t argue with it.”

Matthew McConaughey’s mother wasn’t surprised that her son was arrested for playing the bongos while naked and high.

McConaughey, 55, recalls his mother’s reaction to the infamous bongo incident at theTexas Book Festival, where he discussed his 2020 memoirGreenlights.AlongsideMalcolm Gladwell, the Texas native was aheadlining authorat the festival, held on Nov. 16 and 17.

During a conversation with Richard Linklater, theDazed and Confusedactor remembered the advice his mother gave him at the time.

“‘You go outside in front of that media and you hold your head high,'” McConaughey recalls his mother saying. “‘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.”

This was in line with his mother’s usual advice, the Academy Award winner says.

“‘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 forA Time to Kill,” McConaughey said.

Matthew McConaughey and his mom, Mary Kathleen ‘Kay’ McCabe McConaughey.Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

According toGreenlights,the 1999 bongo incident came after McConaughey, then 29, went to a Texas Longhorns football game and spent the rest of the weekend partying. In the early hours of Monday, Oct. 25, McConaughey decided to “wind down” with some marijuana and the “beautiful melodic beats of Henri Dikongué.”

The actor opened his window to smell the jasmine in his garden, and then decided to play along with the music with his bongos, he revealed inGreenlights.

“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,” McConaughey wrote in his memoir.

When an officer told him he was also being charged with resisting arrest, he yelled, “You broke in my house! F— yeah, I resisted,” he wrote.

Linklater also noted that his mom holds another distinction.

“You’re not the first McConaughey to write a memoir,” he says. “Your mom beat you to it.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The actor couldn’t disagree.His mom’s memoir, self-published in 2008, follows Kay McConaughey’s experiences with motherhood and Hollywood.

“You want to know what my mom’s memoir is called? ‘I Amaze Myself.’ She has a bumper sticker — still does to this day — ‘I Amaze Myself,'” McConaughey says. “She’s 92 and you can’t argue with it.”

source: people.com